NEW ERA FQR GREAT WEST President Roosevelt’s National Irrigation Act to Be a Wonder-Worker. MILLIONS OF CHEERFUL. HAPPY HOMES Avenue of Relief to Congested Cities—Health, Prosperity and Patriotism Fostered by Contact with Soil—Republican Party Leads the Way. Even ttie Democrats are beginning to realize something of the possibilities for go.nl which are to come to the whole United States through the national irri gaiion act passed by a Republican Con gress, and signed by President Roosevelt June 7. 19015. The Democrats are now claiming that they ‘‘did it." Still, the facts remain that President Roosevelt, by the force of his own identity, put the measure through Congress and made it the law of the land with his official sig nature as President. It is not a dream, but a fact, that the present population of the United Stntes can lie duplicated on the arid public do main in the West. This can be done without making new competitors for those already engaged in agricultural pursuits in the East and in the South. On the other hand, this wonderful act of planting a new nation in what is now all but an unbroken desert will confer enormous benefits on those sections which are already covered with farms, factories and towns. Big Internal Problems. In our great West, a population of lOo.tHKMXK) might live in prosperous con tentment. There is everything to inspire and reward their industry—the charm of climate and of scenery, the fertility of soil, the unimaginable wealth of water, forest and mine, and, across the Pacific, new worlds to conquer. Our biggest in ternal question to-day is the preparation and colonization of this productive area. This nation must keep oil with its his toric work of civilization. It must cou tinfte that marvelous reciprocal process by which it has so rapidly risen to im measurable heights of economic power— tile making of new communities to feed the old. tlie enlargement of old communi ties to feed the new. The longest step yet taken to tills end Is adoption of the plau of national irrigation—chiefly through the instrumentality of President ltoosevelt. It is a new policy, only at present in its experimental stage, but those who know most about it believe it Is a measure big with national fate. Momentum New Era. We are entering upon a new ami nio m. iitt>tis era that calls for the higliest qualities of constructive statesmanship. The movement must be broadly foundetl and lirmly and intelligently managed. We are planning, not for ourselves but for future generations, for we are tho fore fathers of a mighty future in a mighty land. If we are equal to our duty and our opportunities, we shall make homes for a hundred million of the freest men who ever walked the earth. We are living In an age of mighty achieypmont. Engineering work* which tlie last generation would have thought an impossibility will be the completed tusk of this generation. The New York subway, the great tunnel of tho Peun •ylrania railroad, the Isthmian canal and the Salt Hirer reservoir in Arizona and other mammoth irrigation projects will noon stand as completed monuments to tile constructive genius of our people and this age. The future la potent with still grander undertakings which will, in a few brief years, also stand as accom plished facts. Egypt was for centuries the granary of the world. That land of mystery and romance was the cradle of onr civilization. For countless ages the Sft Nile lias risen annually, to fertilize the land which lias yielded, from year to year, the sustenance of teeming millions. Greatest Question of the Ag«. The question of irrigation which now confronts the people of the United States * is one of the most important of the age. It is of more importance than the lath | mi ni canal or a deep waterway to the •ea. It involves the solution of the for est and flood problem. It embraces the future internal development of the Unit ad States. It will require years of work to perfect the system of national irriga tion, hut it will be the greatest benefit aver conferred on the western people. Men may be cruel and unfair, but na ture is generous and utterly impartial. The earth, the sun and the waters are as kind to the poor as to the rich. The roses do not stop to look up u man’s financial standing before consenting to bloom for him. They grow wherever planted. They cover the poor man's cot tage as gladly as they do the rich mau’s I - villa I Husbandry Makes Patriots. Nations may spriug into being, gener ated by the force of ideas alone, but the vigorous manhood, the mature growth of a State can only be nurtured and built up upon the abundant and mani fold productions of the earth. The very existence and advance of civilization are f| firmly grounded on material resources. Nations become great and independent as they develop a genius for grasping the forces and materials of nature within i\ their reach and converting them into a steady flowing stream of wealth and com fort. pc; To hold a people in industrious, pro ductive, contented habits, habits of vir tue and of patriotism, it is needful to give them an interest in the cultivation of land. This fact is seen along the shores of historic time. Wherever gov ernment has made laws which have giv || ' eu the people of the land its occupancy op Tair terms, then content ami plenty have been on every hand. Wherever it , has l»»en hard for the masses to obtain the use of the land, then discontent and j±;; difficulties have been rampant on every 5 • band, and frequently national ruin lias beep flic result. The noblest use to which any man or people can put history is to take it either as warniug or wise in struction. In the United States we have iu quality, quantity and variety such sup fe ' e ' ' ■ 1 ■ . -» plies and resources as no one govern ment in the world ever had before. Danger in Congested Cities. It is not without serious meaning that so many of our people are massing in cities, that in cities rents are going high er, and hence people are living in fewer rooms or smaller ones, and that the at tendant and consequent evils, moral, phy sical, industrial, intellectual and national, arc seen on every hand. We are to-day passing through a period of prosperity in the United States without parallel in the world's history. Judging from the history of all nations, this may not con tinue indefinitely. Our lenders must know that they have to do, not with supine men who have been trained to submis sive obedience—a people who stand ready to shut their eyes, open their mouths and take whatever is given and be contented therewith. Adversity will bring commo tion in our cities as “cold engenders hull.” Remedy In Irrigated Varma. In contemplating the dangers of the future that may come to this republic, the wise citizen should reach out and seize whatever remedy may be within his reach and apply it so that all the years to eome may lie free from fear and disturbing forces such as are always at work in every nation. That remedy ap pears to be, to put the balance of our population back on the land and keep it there. There seems to be no other rem edy. The man who has his home upon mother earth, the man who draws his living straight from nature’s granary, the man who i* free from all the uncertain ties of a wage earner’s employment, the man who gathers his wife and children around his own heurthstone and gets his living by his own labor from Ids own land, is the anchorage of this country. It behooves our statesmen to rise to the occasion aud imbue the American people with' a1 patriotic determination to turn file balance of our population back to the land and plant it there with homes that no social upheaval can ever disturb. This will safeguard this nation for ail years to eome. AH Cn> Have Homea, The nation has land for every man who will make his home upon it in good faith—who will break the aowu trade, calling or business. Vonr Personal Interest. Farmers, ranchers, miners, lumbermen, merchants, laborers of the West, do not rote against your own interests, that of rout family; and yours and their future. V'ote for Roosevelt and Fairbanks. They have brought you glad tidings in the na tional irrigation act. Its workings have ilready began. Under its operation there will be a tendency to balance interests and thus help in a powerful way to keep the government steady. It will settle the beef question, every acre irrigated would produce more than thirty times as much as is now produc-ed on any of our wild grid lands. It will produce new towns ;>f moderate size, where all the vocations of trade, of learning, literature and re ligion will flourish. It will change the face of the earth. It will change the face of the sky. It will modify the at mosphere. It will change -the climate. It will give life, Health, joy and pros perity to the people. Work for Republican Party, When we come to contemplate the whole field of natural western re sources, available for food, for industry and for commerce, when we attempt to grasp in one act of thought the length and breadth and depth of the riches with which Providence has loaded this sec tion; when we try to realize how every possible want, every material aspiration of man can be bountifully provided for; when we consider how measureless are the values which will spring into being at the touch of modern industry, and how these values, when once created, are solid and real and beeome incorpo rated into the enduring structure of hu man society, we may begin to es timate properly the measure of re sponsibility which rests upon this na tion and Its chosen rulers. This is not merely to preserve unharmed the price less boom of civil liberty which leaves the individual citizen free to do his share in work of development, but to adopt such measures as will prevent the waste of natural resources, clear the way of progress and promote the triumph of civ ilization. The record of the Republican party shows it to be a party of progress. „ A Sign of Prosperity. There is no better criterion of general prosperity than the postal business. When times are good the postal revenue increases, and vice versa. The report of the Postmaster General shows that for the year ending July 1, 1895, the receipts from postal revenue were $76,171,000. For the year ending July 1, 1902. they were $119,958,229, an increase of 57 per cent during seven years of continuous Republican rule. During the year ending July 1. 1895, the receipts from the money order business were $812,038; for the year ending July 1, 1902, they were $1, 889,817, an increase of 133 per cent dur ing seven years of Republican prosperity. The Postmaster General in his annual report for 1902 said: “The increase in the postal revenues attests the wonder ful prosperity of the people and the ac tivity of business interests throughout the country.” It would not have beer proper for the Postmaster General in ai official report to attribute this wonder ful prosperity in 1902 to the operation o the Dingley tariff law and other Re pub lican measures, hut such was the fact. WHAT IS TO BE WILL BE Growth of the Astatic Demand foi Products of the United States. The Asiactic nations have lived upoi rice—stating things in a general way end the Teutonic races have for somi generations lived upon flour. It ha: become standard within the last year o: two. that at least one of the Asiaetii nations has come to live upon flour Those desperate little fighters, the Jap anese, have taken to hard tack, as dii our own American fighters during thi Civil War, as a part of their subsistence and the same regard as to whatever i: made from our wheat has already ex tended, in a measure, to the more vasl Asiatic empire of China. That elevei corresponds t. William E. Curtis, speak ing of the extent to which our flour ii already used by Japan, says: While the Imports of flour within th* Inst year or so have been much greatei than ever before on account of the prepa rations for war, nevertheless there is rea son to expect a continued expansion of th* market. Japanese families generally ar< beginning to use wheat flour for various purposes. Nearly every household Is now using It to make the little cakes and sweet meats which they use with their ten sev ernl times a day In large quantities. A still larger amount of u cheaper quality 1: used for paste by the manufacturers ol screens, umbrellas, fans and other article: of that kind. Since the war began linre bread has been Introduced Into the army a: an alternate ration with rice. The soldier: relish the variety: hard tack Is easy t* handle and carry, the nutritive value of : pound of flour is equal to that of a pounc of lice, and It costs less. The Japanesi export their best rice to France, Englani and China, where It brings big prices, belli* of the very highest grude. They lmpori vast quantities of cheaper rice for the < 011 sumption of the coolies and the, latiorliq class from Korea, Burmuli, China, Slnga pore and other parts of the East Indies It Is entirely practicable to substltuti cheap brands of flour for this low-gradi rice, and It will be easy to do so whet the soldiers come home with their appe tites for hard tack and wheat bread. Could there be, uuder any circum stances or conditions, expressed a vaste idea of the enormous trade relations tha must henceforth exist between Americi and the Asiatic countries! Americi produces bread. The Asiatics have learn ed to eat bread with the rest of tin world. Wfe are going to supply then with it. We have to ship it across tin Pacific Ocean over the commercial path way which we have made and beneati which underlies our cable system. Then is ootliing in the world that can sto] the Asiatic demand for the wheat prod ucts of the United States, and the when products of the United States have mad tliis country, to a great extent, the tre niendous power it is. They talk about "Imperialism!” Then is no “Imperialism!” This continent i producing what the rest of the worli needs, and tile inhabitants of this con tinent, under the rule of Republican aii ministration, associated with other iutei ligent governments on either side, pro pose to supply Asia with these prod nets that Asia needs. The fact tha the United States has completed it pathway across the vast ocean and ha its intermediate stations, and its posses sions close to the Asiatic coasts, is bu an incident of events which are par of the industrial history of the world Does anyone imagine that the presen majority of the American people are gc ing to neglect their ostensible duty, no merely to themselves but to another poi i tion of the human race? They wi hardly do it. This is but talking of the products c tho wheat fields that Asia now demand: It has nothing to do with iron and stei and the thousand and one other pro< ucts of all our fields and all our fact* ries wliieh they will otherwise demani This is but referring to the simple a fair of one single product, but it i enough to afford an illustration. And yat they talk about “Impsria ism!” There is no “Imperialism.” We are blit brothers who are going to as sist in feeding the rest of our brothers of the world; to give them the benefits of it all and to reap ourselves the benefits of it all. To submit to anything else would be silly. It is but a problem of common sense. Export of Manufactures. Figures recently issued by the Depart ment of Commerce and Tabor at Wash ington show that during the month of July last our exports of manufactures 1 amounted to $40,000,000, against $31, ’ 000,000 of agricultural products. During June the exports of manufactures were nearly $42,000,000. against $37,500,000 of agricultural products. This is the first time in the history of the country that the exports of manufactures have ex ceeded those of the farm. This does not mean that the exports of farm products are falling off, but that those of manu factures have greatly increased. This is due to a protective tariff which, while it benefits American manufactures, also in creases the home demand for American farm products. Democracy’s Bad Record. When the veterans of the Civil War were with Gen. Grant before Richmond or with Sherman marching to the sea, a Democratic national convention declared the war a failure and demanded a dis honorable peace. When the business men, the wage-earners and honest men of all classes were battling for sound money and the gold standard the Demo cratic party, as an organization, was clamoring for free silver at 1G to 1. When the Republican party was contend ing for protection to American manufac turers and workmen, its opponents were advocating a policy destructive to both. What good thing has the Democratic party ever done, anyhow? Not the Only Important Question. Admitting that the gold standard is “ir revocably'fixed,” as Judge Parker says, though he did not help fix it, that is only oue of many important financial ques tions that may come up in relation to financial matters. The question of the . preservation and extension of our sys . tem of banking and currency; the refund ing of our national debt as it may, from time to time, become due, and many oth. er questions of like importance may arise. To place the settlement of these 1 questions in unfriendly hands might re | suit in such a disturbance of business as would shock the whole country. * crsuuui auusc n lit n in* The Democratic party has been so ' long in tlie opposition and its every day work has so long been criticism, that it •• forgets that no battle was ever won ! by swearing at the enemy. Abuse of Mr. Roosevelt will make votes for him. He is a very popular man. Personal ■ criticism will not draw away from him | any man who admires him, but It will * stir his admirers to the more earnest sup ‘ port of him. According to the Banker’s Monthly for ‘ August there are 7,305,228 individual ' depositors in the savings banks of the t United States, and it is safe to say that 5 7,305,000 will vote for the Republican 5 ticket, at least all who are legal voters - will. t ---— t “No more Important question can en . gage onr attention, and none ehould t receive more earnest and thoughtful . consideration, than one which eeeke to t guard and preaerve the high standard . of onr population and citizenship.”— I Senator Fairbanks in the Senate, January 11,1898. The passage of the National Irrigation f Act marked a new era for the West. • Its effect upon actual settlement may not 1 unfairly be compared to that of the Homestead law, signed by President Lincoln in 1862. Under the Wilson low tariff exports in s creased $04,000,000; in three years un der the Dingley tariff thev increased I- $155,000,000. PARKERS FAVORITE POEM. (Alton B. Parker Is very fond of the po etry of James Whitcomb Klley.—Current Note.) Uncle David Bennett Hill's at Parker’* house to stay. To help him fix his fences an' to tell him what to say; David says: “Be keerful, now you are * candidate. Or else they’ll git the best of you—that'* jest as sure as fate; Now don't send any telegrams, creatin' further doubt. Or Roosevelt ’ll beat you, ef you . don’t watch out! “Wunst they was a candidate ’at thought he’d have a chance If he’d tell the people what he knew about finance: Went about th’ country with a holler an’ a whoop— When the votes was counted he was un derneath the soup. Stick to what I tell you, or you'll amble up the spout, Fer Roosevelt ’ll beat you, ef you don’t watch out! “Wunst I wore a feather plume: ‘I Am a Democrat.’ Till a cyclone from th’ west jest blew away my hat— When they ast me what I was, I an swered cool an’ ca’m, With another feather plume which read: 'I Guess I Am.’ Bet your life that David knows jest what, he is about— An’ Roosevelt ’ll beat you, ef you don’t watch out! “Best be pitrty keerful how you talk about tli’ trusts— If you want to roast one. better wait until it busts. An’ th’ money question—don't have very much to say As to plutycrats—remember Henry Gas saway! Stick right to a whisper, don’t you never dare to shout, Or Roosevelt ’ll beat you, ef yon don’t watch out! ‘Have your picture taken—out be keerful what you wear— Put on all th’ overalls an’ look lik« ‘county fair:’ Take your little plunge into the Hudson every day, Keep below the water when you’ve any thing to say. « Mind your Uncle David—his suggestion* never flout— For Roosevelt ’ll bent you, EF YOU DON’T WATCH OUT!’’ TRIBULATIONS OF A GREAT GRANDFATHER. (Over Teddy’s Letter.) Likins. W. Va., Sept. 15, 1904. Dear Sonny—I’ve just finished readiii’ Teddy’s letter and haven’t had so much fun since I was toss’d in a blanket the year that grand old rough rider. Andy Jack son, was elected for a second term. It tosses us up so high that it seems as if we’d never come down. I never did see a paper so full of In terrogation points as that letter, and every denied one of them like a Jolt on the solar plexus that Steve is so fond of talkin’ about. “Nunky,” said Steve, as I hobbled into breakfast this mornln’, the first time since I posed as Methuselah pickin’ the shoe strings out of his eyes, “Nunky,” says he, "why does Teddy’s letter remind you of a corduroy road?” “Because it’s so full of bumps,” says I, guesSin’ his conundrum the first crack. There’s nothin’ like a few sharp jolts on the spine to sharpen an old man’s intel lectuals. No wonder you thought It a mile long. A short piece of road like that goes a long way when your wagon hasn’t, any springs or straw on the bottom, an* your old hams lack fat like mine. I tell you, Alton, that’s the matter with us. The Democratic band wagon hasn’t got any springs nor straw for cushions, and I’m gettin’ all fired tired furnishin’ all the axle grease. This letter of Teddy’s doesn’t run on rubber tires, lie may mean well, but what right has he pryin’ into our convictions? What business is it of his if we are like the man stealin’ a ride on the end of a train who never sees anything until it’s passed? If he was as old as I am, he’d bless his stars if he could see anything, behind or before. This havin' foresight is all a Republican gift. We Democrats haven’t got it. We’r® always suckin’ the hind teat. We never saw anything in infant indus tries tili the Republicans adopted the foundlin’ and brought it up on Protection milk. We never saw that the Union had to be preserved, if there were to be enough offices to go round, until the Republicans saved it and filled the offices for nigh onto forty years. We never saw that two things could not occupy the same place at the same time until the Republicans adopted the gold standard and left us holding the bag be tween bimetallism and free and unlimited I tell you, we've no faculty for fore sight—and. ns far as I can see, mighty little for hind-sight, either. No wonder the donkey is our party emblem. Do you know. I've been lokin' in mother’s lookin’ glass lately, and 1 swan. If my chin whis kers ain't grown like a goat's and my ears are gettin’ so long they droop. Steve says It’s only an optical hallucination, superin duced by too much brooding over Repub lican cartoons. But. say. Alton—on the quiet—have you consulted your glass since you made that speech to Charlie Knapp and the other Charlie horses'; Donkeys have this advantage over men; they cun get their ears to the ground with out crawlin’ on their bellies. Waitin’ to see you put Teddy on the grid iron, your old uncle, HENRY GASSOWAY. Party Records. In every national campaign for forty years past the Republican party has stood upon its record of tilings done, of ^ laws enacted, of policies established un- ” der which the country .has progressed and prospered. The record of the Dem ocratic party made in two administra tions was so full of disaster, of commer cial shipwreck, of industrial paralysis and business failures that its chief busi ness in recent years has been to get as far away from its record as possible. Parker Would Be Unsafe. Without questioning the sincerity of Judge Parker’s expressions on the money question he was, by his own state ments, more devoted to his party, in 1890, than lie was to bis sincere con victions of right. That being the case, we have a right to assume that he might, at ail extreme moment, again surrender bis principles for the sake of his party. Such a man cannot be held up as a sale candidate for the highest position in tha govsrnnient.