ng water. Above all they raise their certain
crops irrespective of what rains the heavens may send."

Bob admitted that electricity and irrigation are good things.

"These advantages have drawn people. I am not going to bore you with a
lot of statistics, but the population of all White Oaks County, for
instance, is now above fifty thousand people, where before was a scant
ten. But how much agricultural wealth do you suppose these people
_export_ each year? Not how much they _produce_, but their net
exportations?"

"Give it up."

"Fifty million dollars worth! That's a marvellous per capita."

"It is indeed," said Bob.

"Now," said Oldham impressively, "that wealth would be absolutely
non-existent, that development could not have taken place, _did_ not
take place, until men of Mr. Baker's genius and courage came along to
take hold. I have personally the greatest admiration for Mr. Baker as a
type of citizen without whom our resources and possibilities would be in
the same backward condition as obtains in Canada."

"I'm with you there," said Bob.

"Mr. Baker has added a community to the state, cities to the
commonwealth, millions upon millions of dollars to the nation's wealth.
He took long chances, and he won out. Do not you think in return the
national resources should in a measure reward him for the advantages he
has conferred and the immense wealth he has developed? Mind you, Mr.
Baker has merely taken advantage of the strict letter of the law. It is
merely open to another interpretation. He needs this particular body of
timber for the furtherance of one of his greatest quasi-public
enterprises; and who has a better right in the distribution of the
public domain than the man who uses it to develop the country? The
public land has always been intended for the development of resources,
and has always been used as such."

Oldham talked fluently and well. He argued at length along the lines set
forth above.

"You have to use lubricating oil to overcome friction on a machine," he
concluded. "You have to subsidize a railroad by land grants to enter a
new country. By the same immutable law you must offer extraordinary
inducements to extraordinary men. Otherwise they will not take the
risks."

"I've nothing to do with the letter of the law," Bob replied; "only with
its spirit and intention. The main idea of the mineral act is to give
legitimate miners the timber they need for legitimate mining. Baker does
not pr