I am unwilling to stand for a proposition embodied in this bill which my party has always stood against. unwilling to promote a system of land grants. either in the land itself or by the Governments increase of value to it. when I remember my partys opposition to the original grants and its vigorous insistence on the forfeitures of lands by the railroad corporations by reason of their refusal to comply with the terms of the grants. Others may see their way clear to go into this conflict with party doctrine. but I can not. Even if the great railroad interests of these sections do say that the only reasons for this dangerous legislation is to give us the Asiatic trade. for my part I can not see enough of merit in this irrigation proposition from any standpoint to fly me in the face of my partys uniform attitude when it made history on both the subsidizing of railroads by land grants or on expansion. the one the real and the other the claimed reason why the railroad corporations are in favor of the bill. This bill involves the United States Government in the employment of its machinery of government to force values and utility in land by a stupendous outlay to control the elements by conquering natures course. thereby exerting government powers in fields that should be exploited and will be exploited by State and private enterprises as fast and as far and as prudently as the needs of the people and localities may require. It is aimed to deter the slow but steady tide of immigration now setting in from the North to the rich mining fields of Tennessee. Alabama. and the South. to check those who. from my State and others. go South to find your sweet Southern hospitality and reach your blooming fields. and. mingling with you. give a force for the future that no arid region irrigated in the world can compare with the results of this combination. and no States can rank your Southern States in the industrial development thereby produced.
Keywords matched
immigration Asiatic