o make such a
distinction. They propose that the same public agency should acquire
land, improve it, and colonize it. The same is true in regard to most of
the private land-improvement and colonization projects. They plan to
improve land and at the same time colonize it, which too often consists
merely in securing land buyers and leaving the latter, after they have
made their initial payment, entirely to their own fate.

Private land-improvement companies doing business in two or more states
should be brought under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reclamation
Service. They should be licensed, their projects approved, and their
general methods of business regulated. Private companies doing business
within state or city limits should be regulated by state irrigation or
drainage district authorities, with whom the Federal Reclamation Service
should co-operate in every possible way.

In order that the Federal Reclamation Service may be extended and
expanded to meet the growing demands, further legislation must be passed
by Congress. Liberal appropriations are needed both for the acquisition
and reclamation of unused lands of different classes, as well as for the
increase of the staff and working forces of the Service. The bills under
consideration were discussed in Chapter VI. The bill introduced by
Representative Mondell of Wyoming effectively provides for this service.

A COLONIZATION BOARD

The word "colonization" suggests the following: populating a given
unused area of land suitable for cultivation, according to a plan
covering the selection of people, the cultivation of the land, providing
credit and markets, instruction in land cultivation, planning,
organizing, and directing of community life in its numerous branches,
such as co-operation for various purposes, education, recreation.
Colonization work in the modern sense is a new, delicate, and complex
field, for it affects all sides of human life.

There is a wide difference of opinion the country over as to whether
colonization should be a public affair or be left to private initiative
and effort. Those who favor private colonization claim that public
colonization is wasteful, uneconomical, that it puts a new burden on
the taxpayers, and savors of Socialism. Those who favor public
colonization maintain that private colonization companies in the very
nature of their endeavors work for their own profit, considering the
settlers' interests and public welfare of