ld be
made more effective--unnecessary repetitions, and the expenses connected
with these, would be avoided. Through interchange of experiences a
uniform system might be established. Such a central office, in
co-operation with the Immigration Bureau, Department of Labor, should
inform immigrants who desire to establish rural homes of the various
farm opportunities.

RECLAMATION A SEPARATE FUNCTION

Up to this time both public and private efforts have been applied to the
reclaiming of unused lands, rendering valuable service to the progress
of the country. There ought, however, to be no question whether
reclamation work should be a public or a private enterprise. If a
number, and even a large number, of the private land-development
companies have hitherto mined in the pockets of their land buyers
instead of in the land itself, this has been largely because of the lack
of any public regulation of private land-improvement companies. However,
a number, perhaps a majority, of the companies have improved their land
and have secured settlers who have made a success in the cultivation of
the improved land. Therefore it would be a grave mistake to abandon or
even to repress private enterprise in land-development work. It should
be encouraged by the extension of public credit through the land
companies and by putting their business under public supervision.

Where considerable areas have to be reclaimed, involving large expenditures
and a long period of waiting for returns, public reclamation is preferable.

Although reclamation and colonization work are closely connected and
dependent upon each other, still there is a marked difference. It is one
thing to plan and irrigate a desert area and quite a different thing
successfully to populate the irrigated land. The first is mainly a
technical enterprise, while the other deals mainly with human beings. The
people who direct and prosecute reclamation works--civil engineers and
other technical experts--might not be good colonizers. The duties of the
latter consist in selecting suitable settlers, directing their
land-cultivation work, and organizing and directing the community life of
the settlers. On the other hand, colonizers, trained agriculturists, and
community workers might not be able successfully to conduct reclamation
works. Therefore these two fields ought to be recognized as distinct and
provided for separately.

Almost all the proposed plans of land settlement fail t