shown that great enterprises can best be handled under
centralized control. This control, to be effective, must extend from the
initiation to the completion of the project. There can be no assurance
of this when the management is left to the electorate of a local
district, and without such assurance it is difficult to command the
support, first, of the landowners whose consent is essential to the
formation of the district; next, of the investors who must supply the
money; finally, of the settlers who must purchase and develop the land
in order that the object of the enterprise may be realized. The
Government can give the assurance of precisely that quality of unified,
centralized, permanent, and responsible control that is required to
command the confidence of all the factors in the situation.

There is another advantage of Government cooperation that will inure
greatly to the benefit of the settler. The Government may readily apply
the policy it now uses in connection with privately owned lands within
reclamation projects. It requires the owners to enter into a contract by
which they agree to accept a certain maximum price for their land if
sold within a given period of years. This price is based upon the value
of the land before reclamation. There are many instances, particularly
of swamp and cut-over areas, where land that may be bought for $10 an
acre and reclaimed at a cost of $25 to $50 per acre, has an actual
market value of $100 to $200 per acre the moment it is put into shape
for cultivation. If the Government, by means of a contract with the
local district, undertakes the work of reclamation and settlement and
does this work at actual cost, the settler will generally save enough to
pay for all his improvements and equipment.

The crowning consideration is the fact that, because of all these
advantages, the work of reclamation would actually be accomplished,
while to-day it is not being done except in the far West, and
accomplished without the aid of Government appropriations.

SOLDIER-SETTLEMENT LEGISLATION.

In the foregoing, attention has been called to those things which may be
accomplished by the exercise of the Government's powers of supervision
and direction with the smallest outlay of money. In all this I have been
speaking of reclamation for the sake of reclamation.

The proposed soldier-settlement legislation stands on an entirely
different footing. The primary object is not to reclaim land but