New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-19
THE FREE HOME BILL.

The House of Representatives has
passed, by a vote of nearly two to one, the
bill authorizing every American citizen, or
immigrant who has declared his intention
of becoming such, (being the owner of no
land and making oath that he has sold none
TO qualify himself for this privilege,) to To-
cate, improve, and enjoy one hundred and
sixty contiguous acres of any unreserved or
unclaimed Public Lands, which shall be-
come his, free of cost, upon five years
continuous residence thereon. And this
bill, thus backed by the moral force of an
emphatic approval by the Peoples more
immediate delegates, has gone to the Sen
ate, and is now before that Senate's Com
mittee on Public Land, which consists of
Messrs FELcH Of Mich (Chairman,) SHIELDS of ILL.,,
DopGE of Iowa, UNDERWOOD Of KY, and PRATT OF Nd
land fear ali but Shields and Dodge are opposed 10
the bill
That Committee has the power to retain
the bill for weeks, and so preclude action
thereon, unless expresslyrequired to report
it by vote of the Senate; and we fear it
may do so. Mr.. Chairman Feleh is hostile
to its passage, though representing State
which has been more blasted by the 81
rocco of Land Speculation and Monopoly
than almost any other. How the other
members may stand on this question, we do
not fully know; but we apprehend delay
inreporting it unless the Committees atten-
ton shall be logged by a vote ofthe Senate.
All projects tending to facilitate and
impel Land Speculation have been kindly
regarded by the Senate and its Land Com
mittee. The granting of Bounty Warrants
and the bill making them Assignable with
out limit, have encountered little opposi-
ton from either. Railroad bills, ceding the
Public Domain without price by millions
of acres, have gone through each with I'M
impeded velocity, and The cry is STILL
They comet All these grants are plainly
calculated to inAame the spirit of Land
Speculation, to extend its sphere and to
increase its aggregate profits. At length
bill is presented of opposite character and
tendency-a bill calculated to soothe the
rage and diminish the gains Of Speculation,
while it facilitates the acquisition of present
homes and ultimate independence by the
destitute and simple. Will the Senate and
its Committee evince equal alacrity, equal
heartiness in the passage of this measure !
We await the answer with profound So
licitude.
They who tell US that the Free fIo",.
are not wholly mistaken. They cannot
truly mean that II will destroy the value
of city lots, nor of village houses, nor of
productive, thrifty farms; but if they mean
only that this bill will greatly reduce the
present value of wild lands held on specu-
lation, or of Land Warrants, they are
doubtless correct. Land Warrants will
rule lower after the Homestead bill passes,
because the demand for them will be linn
tied, though they will still be sought and
bought by those who wish to add to their
present estates and those who don't choose
to be bothered in their titles with pre-
emptions and contingencies. So some of
the wild lands now held on speculation will
sell to actual settlers who like their loca-
ton, timber, convenience to schools, mills,
markets, &c. but the great immediate rush
of INDECENT migration will pass them by
and settle upon Free Land. In few years,
however, this will create demand for the
reserved land, even at high prices; for
timbered lot which was dear at ten shillings
per acre while there was no demand for
its timber, becomes cheap at ten dollars SO
soon as the location of a village, mill or
factory near it shall have created demand
for its wood, even at a price which will
barely pay for cutting and drawing it. If
belt of territory one hundred miles wide
along the west line of Iowa were taken up
and settled under the Free Homestead bill,
that simple fact would add largely to the
value of all the unoccupied lands lying be-
tween that belt and Lake Erie. He who
fancies that Free Land in the Far West
can destroy the market value of good lands
lying FIVE hundred to thousand miles this
side, must be ignorant Tor we are) Of the
fundamental laws which regulate and de-
termine the varying prices of lands. Other
things being equal, lands appreciate in
value as they approach the centers of pop
ulation and the ultimate markets of their
produce, and no abundance, no excellence.