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K4 n!^^R^ S^^^S i^hxJ^w _-_ ]j| v^HßSi9i^^^R^iii=~^^fl '^^X * . Volume XXIV. No. 24. LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE OF THE WEST By GEORGE H. MAXWELL, Editor of Maxwell's Talisman THE people of the northwest, who have set their shoulders to the task of developing that portion of Uncle Sam's domain, should con sider seriously the question stated above, and decide upon their answer to it, in shaping their own plans for the stupendous work they have under taken. In the first place, they should de cide whether they desire to adopt a plan of development which shall be national in its scope, and will reach out and appeal to every citizen of the nation and in every section of the country for co-operation and aid; or whether the policy shall be one so narrow and short sighted that it shall regard the northwest as a territory by itself to be developed without the co operation of the nation. This is a question of overshadowing importance to the people of the northwest. A great country can be made of it, no doubt, without the co-operation of the nation, and relying solely on the na tive resources of the country and its local capital. The difficulty with this policy is that it stimulates local speculation and greed to such an extent that there is great danger that it may lead to the adoption of policies for development that will skim the cream for the bene fit of this generation and leave to the future problems of reconstruction which may possibly be too great for accomplishment, after the speculators of today have exploited the natural re sources of that great country under the principle of "after us, the deluge." On the other hand, a policy can be adopted now by the people of the northwest themselves, under which they will stand as the inflexible guar dians of a national policy that will pre serve for all time the splendid re sources that now exist, and not only increase and enlarge them for future generations, but plan for their devolop ment along lines that will insure a larger measure of prosperity and wealth and human happiness for this generation than could be obtained by any purely speculative local plans fov development. There can be no doubt whatever of the fact that such a policy is perfectly practicable and within reach, if the people of the northwest will rise high enough to get an overlook of great na tional problems and grasp in their im aginations a conception of the stupend ous forces that could be brought into action to solve the problem of develop ing and peopleing the Northwest. The conviction has taken root broad ly and deeply in the public mind that we are a nation, one and indivisible, one people and one country, and one great social organism just as much inter-related and inter-dependent as the nerve system of the human body. That conviction was the underlying reason for the final success of the na tional irrigation ideal and its triumph over the opposing forces of state ces sion, who advocated the cession of the public lands to the states, leaving them to work out their own salvation. And it is a strange thing even today that in the public mind of the seventy milion people living in the eastern half of the United States, there is a SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 15, 1907. GEORGE H. MAXWELL, LEADER OF THE HOMECROFTERS. 50e per Year, 5c the Copy. better conception of what the great west needs for its future devolopment than is to be found in the minds of the people of the west themselves. It is unfortunately true that those who are now living in the west seem to have their vision in some way nar rowed so that they do not get a broad conception of the whole great prob lem that is before them, so as to block out themselves a clearly defined national policy, on which the whole nation can be united, and which would accomplish for the west results of such stupendous magnitude that the imagination finds it difficult to grasp the possibilities of future devolopment in the west under such a national policy. There is a limit beyond which priv ate capital and enterprise will never go. There is a limit beyond which the resources of the states can never go. But when we undertake to set the limit of western development which is within easy accomplishment when the genius and energy of the almost limitless resources of the nation of eighty million people, the greatest na tion of the earth, are set to the ac complishment of the task, the human mind can hardly fix a limit. There is only one way in whicii this great consummation can be brought to pass, and that is through the adoption by the nation as a whole, and not only by the executive depart ment of the national government, the administration and all its machinery, but by congress as well, of a fixed and settled national policy guiding an*l governing the members of both the senate and house of representatives. Strange and incomprehensible as it may seem, the states of the great. Northwest are not represented, either in the senate or in the house of rep resentatives, by men whose minds ap preciate broadly the far-reaching bene fits to that territory of the fixed and un alterable adoption of a national policy such as that advocated by the national irrigation association, and which has been accepted by nearly every strong national organization, composed large ly of eastern business men. One thing is certain: The limit of development under the national irri gation act has been very nearly reach ed. The fund provided by that act will be a steadily diminishing fund from this time forth, so far as its original sources are concerned. The return payments from lands now being reclaimed will in time re store the original fund without Inter est, but even that amount is ntterty inadequate for the great problem of reclaiming all the arid land that can be reclaimed in the west. England has already spent over three hundred million dollars in India, and her states manlike policy contemplates a nuge enlargement of that in vestment, which has proved one of tfce best ever made by the imperial govern ment. That this nation can build irrigation works has now been proved. Their enormous benefit to the country at large is now almost universally con ceded. The inadequacy of the fund available under the present national