The Hard Sell for Inland Empire Farms
Spokane boosters and Kennewick business leaders draft a regional campaign to recruit farmers for 'untilled' lands, pivoting away from the era's wild land speculation.
The story, cleaned up
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For the purpose of compiling information that will prove of value to the prospective settler and to organize a definite immigration campaign, the Spokane Chamber of Commerce has called a meeting for June 29 and 30 in Spokane. At the regular meeting of the Commercial Club, Kennewick endorsed the plan and the president was instructed to name delegates to attend. The Inland Empire needs many thousands more farmers who will occupy the present untilled dry and irrigated agricultural lands, who will help break up the great tracts that are now farmed for wheat only, or who will clear the rich, loamed lands of the valleys. These farmers cannot be attracted by bonanza stories of land that can be bought for nothing and sold almost overnight at wonderful profits. The days of wild speculation in farm lands have gone by. That does not mean that our staple general farming lands are high in price. Compared with the prevailing prices of today in the Middle West, we have the cheapest lands in the United States.
“The days of wild speculation in farm lands have gone by.”
In 1914, civic leaders were desperate to transition from land speculation to stable agricultural productivity. Today, Kennewick is dealing with the flip side of that development: managing rapid suburban expansion on lands that were once the focus of these early booster campaigns.
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