The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-06-25

here to be compliments.
It lie o positive disgrace to the country that
people, North and South, should have nothing
better to write or talk about than this miserable
affair.
VAST RAILROAD 1ONOPOLIEs-THE ILLINOIS
CENTRAL--We find in the newspapers an adver-
tisement of the Illinois Central Railroad Compa-
ny, notifying the public that they hold valuable
lands for sale at from SIS to $25 per acre. and in
viting settlers to prefer their lands to Iowa and
Kansas or Nebraska. 1t WELL now that the mania
for granting public lands to railways to aid in
their construction has become SO general, that
glance should be cast at the manner in which the
system works The Illinois Central road was the
type of all the subsequent enterprises of this cha
racter.
In September, 1850, the Illinois Central re-
ceived, by act of Congress, 2,595,000 acres Of
land on condition Of building the railway. This
amount of land, in one of the most thriving and
fertile States was taken out of the market and
denied to immigrants at the regular price. The
company mortgaged 100000 acres to raise mo-
ney in England to build the road; 100000 acres
to secure the interest on the same, and 345 900
acres to secure the payment of certain bonds Of
theirs called "Freeland Bonds" Since that time
they have sold or contracted to sell, in round
numbers, 100000 acres, about one-ffth of their
whole land. One-fifth of this amount sold, name
ly l06,59l acres, was sold to pre-emptOrs, at
about 50 40 per acre; the balance, say 425,000
acres has been sold at prices ranging from $ll IS
to $40 80 an acre. The balance unsold, 2,066,1
acres is held as was mentioned, at from SIS to
s25 the acre, the large bulk being at from $l2
to Sl5
The company urges that the State is increasing
in wealth and population, and claims the credit
OF the development Of its resources. No doubt
The railroad has had much to do with opening the
interior country between Chicago and Cairo; but
if as is stated, the population OF Illinois has in
creased from $780, 900 to 100000 in the last five
years, while the price Of good farm lands aver
aged $40 an acre, what would have been the in
crease had the lands been retained by the United
States and sold at the standard price Of 81 rs !?
To us it seems pretty clear that the development
would have been greater without the railroad
than with it; for the land being cheap and fer
tile would have been settled if the company
had never gone into existence, and road would
have been made under any circumstances as
soon as there was produce to carry to market.
The Illinois Central Company, complaining that
people will 60 to Iowa and Nebraska or Kansas,
is merely grumbling at the consequences OF its
own conduct; it has raised the price Of lands and
wonders that people will 60 elsewhere to spots
that have not been developed by the aid of
grasping monopoly.
The effect of the railroad system exemplified
in the Illinois Central is not only to deprive
the United States, needlessly, Of their pro-
perty, and future generations Of what ought
to be theirs: it is to render this country less
desirable home for immigrants, by shutting them
out from cheap lands. Nothing can be more
preiudicial to the best interests Of the country.
If one thing more than another has made the
United States what they are, that thing is the
abundant supply Of raw labor furnished by i'm
migration. And it cannot be denied that
he chief incentive to Europeans to come
hither has been the abundance Of cheap and
fertile land. Concerns like the Illinois Central
are rapidly destroying that incentive, and will
necessarily themselves be the chief victims Of
their own mistaken policy.
1t is, then, with regret that every right-lnnded
person must see the reckless manner in which the
future wealth of the Countrywide public lands
are being bestowed on railway companies and
used as the basis of stock operations. No ad-
ministration has been SO fruitful Of these schemes
as the present one not perhaps, from the personal
tendencies of the President, but because his boon
companions, his advisers and his tutors, have
almost invariably been connected with these
lucrative enterprises. A few years more, at our
present rate, and the United States will have no
more land to sell, and no more immigrants to oc-
cupy it, if they had.
GEORGE LAW IN RETIREMENT" Live Oak
George Law" has retired for season to private