Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/115

Rh has not a mortgage on your profit bag. Railroad and other capital.

"Every man should work. I used to think I worked, as a lawyer, in New York. But I found out that I needed to work with my body as well as my brain. All men are not that way, but I am. And here is my work. All the mesa needs is water. There is Lake of the Woods down there, a natural reservoir ready for tapping, fed by springs, its natural overflow going off underground now, along a conduit that can be plugged. You can lie on the ground and hear it running to waste. Power, light, heat, telephones, irrigation. It is a part of Chico Mesa, it belongs. Our Commonwealth is complete. So long as we don't have to go to capitalists who have never worked, who look down upon the men who show them the projects, work them out, and claim the lion's share because they have money.

"I want to tap Lake of the Woods. Siphon it, use the water for power, light and heat and then for irrigation. It is my plan, I hope to develop it. I want to form a company among the cattlemen of Chico Mesa and pay for the thing out of the profits. I shall take pay for my original idea, if I put it over. Originality should not be ignored. But I'll turn it over to the Commonwealth for ultimate ownership at practically cost price. Chico Mesa will be independent, productive of the best."

"That is Socialism at its best, isn't it?" she asked him as he looked at her, wondering if he had bored her, glad to see her interest alight.

"Socialism as I see it. It fits Chico Mesa. Not