ducer to consumer; and for the construction of any
authorized public work.

In addition to these more indirect ways of opening up the country the
bill carried specific provision for promoting and conducting
land-settlement colonies, as well as provision for logging or milling
operations, contingent upon a continuous yield of timber, so that the
forest communities would be permanent. The provisions of the bill were
to be carried out by an interdepartmental National Board of Public
Construction, which would organize a body of workers, known as the
United States Construction Service.

Since the bill carried the reclamation and technical land-improvement
work, the only question might be, is there any need for this to be
carried on by a special Construction Service? Would it not be a
duplication of the work of the already existing Reclamation Service of
the Department of the Interior? Would it not be economical and otherwise
proper to increase the staff and other working forces of the Reclamation
Service to the extent of the proposed reclamation duties of the
Construction Service?

Representative E. T. Taylor of Colorado introduced in the House, February
15, 1919, a bill (H. R. 15993) providing for employment and the securing of
rural homes for returned soldiers and for the promotion of the reclamation
of land for cultivation under the direction of the Secretary of the
Interior. Short-term loans to settlers were provided for. This bill
contains a good land-development plan, except that the Reclamation Service,
Department of the Interior, ought not to be burdened with colonization work
and with loans to settlers. Colonization work ought to be the duty of a
separate body, and the extension of credit to settlers naturally belongs to
the Farm Loan Board, Department of the Treasury.

Representative Mondell of Wyoming introduced in the House, May 19, 1919,
a bill (H. R. 487) providing employment and rural homes for returned
soldiers through the reclamation of lands under the direction of the
Secretary of the Interior, who may, for this purpose, acquire by gift,
purchase, deed in trust, or otherwise, the necessary lands for soldier
settlement projects and, for the same purpose, may withdraw, utilize,
and dispose of by contract and deed suitable public lands. An
appropriation of $500,000 is proposed.

The plan in this bill for the acquisition and reclamation of unused land
is a strong one. Equally commendable is the provision f