the public domain embracing Alaska. A Government railroad has now been completed into the Matanuska fields near Cook Inlet. In its handling of the coal operations on these areas the Government can set a standard for proper labor conditions in the mining industry and at the same time provide one more field for the returning soldier and war worker. The fourth of the "big four" natural resources is that of flowing water. Here is the basis for irrigation, sanitation, hydroelectric power, and navigation. The flood waves in our streams, now allowed too often to run their destructive way, can be controlled and turned into constructive channels. This requires that each river, with its drainage area, be treated as a complete unit from source to mouth. The mountains or hilly regions of the headwaters should be protected by forest cover, storage reservoirs should be built in the upper valleys, and the necessary levees and river works should be constructed down stream. The control and utilization of our many rivers and streams is perhaps the mightiest physical task of our coming reconstruction. The better conservation and use of our "big four" natural resources offers, as before stated, the basic opportunity for meeting our after-the-war employment problem. But the very utilization here contemplated is going to require construction works of huge proportion. This work might well be done by a construction service organized on national lines, and thus, if based upon proper standards of labor, would make in turn another opportunity for profitable employment. Indeed such a national construction service might well serve as an apprenticeship for the returning soldiers and the war workers toward their gradual absorption into the other industries required to utilize our soils, our forests and our mines. National reconstruction is going to require state reconstruction, as well as the most friendly possible cooperation between the two jurisdictions. And it is a promising sign to see the state of Oregon, and its University, taking a firm hold in the leadership of this movement. It is a privilege much appreciated to have some small part in your undertakings, and to be allowed to present some aspects of the problem now coming before us all. First Steps for Bringing into Use the Idle Lands of Oregon By THORNTON T. MUNGER Great Britain had been engaged in this great war but a few months until her statesmen and citizens began to turn their thoughts toward planning for the reconstruction of their social, economic and industrial life. Now, even while absorbed in the carrying on of the great struggle, she has launched a welldefined program, by which she may become a better and more efficient nation. She plans on radical changes in the land tenure system, on more intensive use of rural lands, on extensive reforestation of wild lands, and on many reformations in her economic organization. It is not amiss, therefore, that we who are at home in Oregon should now look ahead to the after-the-war period and plan what can be done to make this a better and a more efficient Commonwealth-without in so doing detracting from our major occupation of helping to win the war. In the past year and a half we have come to realize as never before some of the vital factors that affect the prosperity and welfare of our country,-the importance of a well-sustained and abundant supply of food, the delicate balance between the labor supply and the production of industry, the value of great reserves of the right kind of forest trees, the necessity for governmental direction and help in carrying on certain functions of our economic life. We realize, too, that soon we hope to have the returning soldier, who must be restored to civil life in the capacity that will in the smallest measure upset the industrial order, that will make him most effective economically in his community, and that will be most satisfactory to him. The colonization of returning soldiers on agricultural land is the time-honored method of restoring to civil life those who have no regular occupations or trades. It has been estimated that on a conservative basis 50,000 out of every 1,000,000 soldiers would wish to locate as farmers on new agricultural areas. Assuming that we have an army of 4,000,000 returning soldiers, the country is to be confronted with the undertaking of locating on farms 200,000 men, many of them with families,—a gigantic "back-to-the-land" project. Already a number of ways of effecting this colonization have been proposed, and bills have been prepared. This is a problem in which Oregon is peculiarly interested. Oregon-the land of opportunity-is to be soon the land of opportunity for the returning soldier. Now its citizens have a new opportunity and responsibility-to pave the way and direct the course of this possible influx of rural population, that each newcomer may be a real asset to the state. Oregon needs colonies of returning soldiers because she is deficient in population, yet she has resources in soil, climate, markets, and transportation which are most attractive to those seeking a rural home. I need not dwell on them in speaking to an audience of Oregonians. In Western Oregon, exclusive of the National Forests, which are almost wholly rough mountain lands permanently unfit for agriculture, there are about 20,000 square miles. In this area there are now about 700,000 persons. This is an average of 35 to the square mile. In Massachusetts there are 418 persons per square mile. I do not mean to imply that Oregon should or would wish to attain the density of population that Massachusetts has, but the comparison is striking in indicating that western Oregon has plenty of room for an influx of farmers. The opportunities for a larger industrial population are perhaps great, but are not pertinent to the subject of this paper, though it is conceded that the increase of the two classes of population should and would come simultaneously. Western Oregon with its equitable moist climate, and adaptability for intensive diversified farming, offers the most favorable and extensive opportunities for the colonization of large tracts. I will confine my subsequent remarks to this region-the terri tory west of the Cascade range. Here there are now 2,000,000 acres of unimproved logged-over and slashed lands, and approximately 40,000 acres are being added each year. Of this great area let us assume that 50 per cent is agricultural, taking for granted that there would be some rough land for woodlots with the farms. This 1,000,000 acres would be enough for 12,500 Let us consider a moment these logged-over lands. They are known to us all, as we see them from the car windows and highways, particularly on approaching the localities of active logging operations. To me they are the only blemish on Oregon's landscape-not chiefly because they are SO unsightly with blackened snags, culled logs, tops, stumps, and tangled brush, but because they bespeak waste, an idle resource, a loss of potential growth. Commonly after these lands are logged off they are run over by fire, an excellent practice if done at the proper season under control. In the wake of the fire many young forest tree seedlings and quantities of brush spring up. More than likely succeeding fires are allowed to run over the ground, and after each fire the brush sprouts with persistent vigor. On some of the better lands grass seed is sown after repeated fires, which with the brush affords pasturage for stock that are good rustlers. On some tracts which have been spared from repeated fires a thrifty forest of Douglas fir saplings occupies the ground, which promises a second crop of timber some day, but this is by chance rather than design, for even on the private lands of no possible agricultural value little conscious effort is being made to promote a second crop of timber. But the majority of the cut-over lands are idle non-productive wastes. They are growing neither timber crops nor agricultural crops to anywhere near their capacity. Oregon is allowing half of her potential tillable land in the most productive part of the state to lie barren. A guess as to what this means to the gross income of the state may be of interest. The average total crop value per acre in western Oregon is about $25. Suppose 50 per cent of the idle cut-over area is potential agricultural land. If farmed it would yield $25,000,000 a year. The remaining 50 per cent should grow $2.00 worth of timber per acre at present prices. Thus we see that Oregon's cut-over lands might yield $27,000,000 worth of crops a year. It is, therefore, very vital to the Commonwealth that steps be taken to get this land into a state of production. I have attempted to show that Oregon has plenty of idle land that is available for new settlers, that Oregon needs a large rural population and a larger farm acreage, and that in the next few years, due principally to the movement to colonize some of the returning soldiers on farming lands, Oregon has an exceptional opportunity to populate her logged-over lands. How is she to avail herself of this opportunity? Will the number of farmers be allowed to "just grow," as Topsy did? Will the prospective farmers be allowed to settle only on the almost worthless remaining free government desert land because they cannot buy idle private land on reasonable terms? Will they go only to those lands, regardless of their quality, which are advertised by real estate companies most enticingly? Or will they go under governmental guidance to lands best fitted to their needs, where the land will be cleared of its stumps or irrigated with federal or state help; where model communities, with all that should go with attractive rural life, may be maintained. Has not Oregon reached a point where land settlement should no longer go unregulated and unguided, but rather the state should take an aggressive part not only in an effort to secure more farmers, as it has done through its excellent advertising by the Oregon Immigration Commission, but to locate them where they will be the greatest asset to the community, and to help them financially to get a start. Secretary Lane, in a recent letter to the President urging that immediate action be taken to provide farm homes for returning soldiers, said: "Substantially all this cut-over or logged-off land is in private ownership. The failure of this land to be developed is largely due to inadequate methods of approach. Unless a new policy of development is worked out in cooperation with the Federal Government, the States, and the individual owners, a greater part of it will remain unsettled and uncultivated. Any policy for the development of land for the returning soldiers will come face to face with the fact that a new policy will have to meet the new conditions. The era of free or cheap land in the United States has passed. We must meet the new conditions of developing lands in advance-security must to a degree displace speculation. The vacant public domain at one time offered great opportunities for the homesteader; he could easily find a location where he could develop a good farm and make a comfortable living; but the free government land in this state is now thor |