on the map as
the Great American Desert, had been left untouched, a dead possession
and a problem to the government, who did not know what use to make of it
until the homesteaders pushed west.

In the past two or three years, 200,000 homesteaders had taken up
claims, filing on more than 40,000,000 acres, making a solid coverage of
70,000 square miles. Those settlers and their families constituted a
million people. Ahead of this tidal wave, in the steady stream of
immigration, thousands of other settlers had moved west. Now there were
several million people who must subsist on the raw lands. They, with
others who had followed the homesteaders, were dependent upon their
success or failure to make the western prairie produce.

It had to produce! The West was the nation's reserve of natural
resources. The soil was to produce cereal gold, huge fields of wheat,
bread for a new people--bread, at last, for a world at war.

So the Public Lands question was of first importance. There must be new
land laws and other measures enacted for these people. It was a gigantic
task set for the men from out the West to perform. But already they had
begun to wield an influence on the affairs of the nation.

One heard of a man from Utah with the name of Smoot, who came from a
class of solid builders. He was bound to be heard more of in the
future, people said; and there appeared in Congress a man whose
indomitable force soon became recognized as something to contend with--a
man from Idaho named William E. Borah. Two other westerners had already
become statesmen of note. They had sprung from the sagebrush country.
Senator Francis E. Warren, and Congressman Frank W. Mondell--both of
Wyoming.

Senator Warren devoted a lifetime to the interests of the West.
Congressman Mondell, as Speaker of the House and chairman of the Public
Lands Committee, was an influence for the homestead country; and from
our own state, progressive, fearless, was Senator Peter Norbeck.

The frontier is big, but news travels over it in devious ways, and the
work of _The Wand_ and of Ida Mary and me began to be known in
Washington. My editorial fight for the settlers attracted the attention
of these officials from the West. From several of them we received
messages, commending our efforts and offering assistance in any feasible
way. I also received communications from Senator Warren and Congressman
Mondell, commenting upon my comprehension of the homestead issue. I w