nce would come the money and energy to create such a miracle,
and how much time the prosecution of the plan would require was not
asked. Would not our returned soldiers, who already are matured men, be
in their graves before their desert and swamp farms gave a living to
their cultivators? Still more strange was the common notion that all
soldiers, even the crippled, were eager to settle on land--that all
wanted land and all were fit to be farmers!

As the product of mere fancy, such sweeping soldiers' settlement
projects were bound to die a natural death. And yet they have not been
without value. They created lively discussion, and called attention to
our land problems, especially to the reclamation and colonization of
unused lands by the people who want land and are fit to be farmers and
to do hard land-pioneering work, be they returned soldiers, native
farmers, or newly arrived immigrants.

THE RECLAMATION ACT

The Federal Reclamation Service was established by an act of June 17,
1902, ch. 1093, 32 Stat., 388.[12] This act provides that the moneys
received from the sale of public lands in the Western states, with the
exception of the 5 per centum reserved by law for educational and other
purposes, shall be set aside in the Treasury as a _reclamation fund_ to
be used for the construction and maintenance of irrigation works for the
purpose of reclaiming arid and semiarid lands in these states.

Authority to conduct the reclamation work is placed in the hands of the
Secretary of the Interior. He is given authority to withdraw from public
entry the lands required for irrigation works and to restore the
withdrawn lands to public entry when their use for such purpose is over.
Under the authority conferred upon him by the act (Section 4, and
Opinion Assistant Attorney General, April 16, 1906, 34 L. D., 567) he
may enter into contracts for the construction of irrigation works or
construct such works by labor employed and operated under the
superintendence and direction of government officials.

The Secretary is authorized to give public notice of the lands irrigable
under such project, and limit of area per entry, which limit shall
represent the acreage which, in the opinion of the Secretary, may be
reasonably required for the support of a family upon the reclaimed
lands; and of the charges which shall be made per acre upon the entries,
and upon lands in private ownership which may be irrigated by the
waters of the irr