We were absent until the middle of August and were glad enough to return. I say we were glad to return, but this does not mean that our trip was unpleasant. We were like people of refinement who gayly abandon the luxurious surroundings of a beautiful Christian home and, returning to the primitive habits of their savage ancestry, descend, for a short season, to the novelty of camp life. However enjoyable such life may seem for a season there comes a time, and that speedily, when the novelty wears off, and life in the civilized world is all the more pleasurable by comparison. So you descend into the regions of commercial competition; the waste regions and desert lands of speculation; the world where old men and women are left to die in poverty after a life of usefulness; where little children, innocent of wrong, are trained daily to sin, or are starved to death in sight of plenty. We were glad to return to Co-opolis and take up our labors in a land where we could not hope to acquire more of the world’s good than we could use, but where we could be sure that we and ours would not be compelled to try subsistence on less than we needed, and where every human being was guaranteed “the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” CHAPTER XVII. THE UNITED STATES CONVEYS PUBLIC LAND TO THE STATES—THE CO-OPOLITAN ASSOCIATION RECLAIMS THE SNAKE RIVER VALLEY—A GREAT AND BENEFICENT ENTERPRISE. The year 1905 witnessed the inauguration of two important enterprises in Idaho, each of which has contributed immeasurably to the development of the Co-operative Commonwealth. Both were proposed, superintended and owned by the Co-opolitan Association. The first was the irrigation, cultivation and settlement of the Snake River Valley. This valley at that time was noted for its wonderful scenery, its broad expanse of uncultivated and unoccupied land, and the majestic river which swept swiftly through it. All public lands belonging to the United States had, the year before, been granted to the various states in which they were situated, each state being required to pay two cents an acre to the Federal government therefor. Some of the states proceeded to pay at once and receive the patent for the lands so granted, and to dispose of the same to settlers.