New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-06-01

lees from inability than nattention. When Gov.
johnson Of Tennessee-who has devoted much
time and thought 70 this ssbject-rose in the Sen
ate few days since to elucidste it, the majority
left their seats, so that scarcely dozen Senators
heard what lie had to say upon it. And those who
thus avoided hearing what is to be said in favor OF
Land Reform will be found opposing and voting
against such Reform years hence, under total
misconception Of the measure they yet doggedly
resist
Let US explain, then, for the forteth time, aud
.billngs per by the settler to the Government
for bis quarter section Of The Public Lands is not
regarded by Lsnd Reformers as an intoersbl, hard
ship or evil. If that were the extent of the bur
den imposed on the pioneers by our present Land
System, We might readily comprehend, if not fully
share, the unreasonipg and disdanfu repugnance Of
the Senatorial majority. We do not so much com.
plain that the Government charges price for its
land aud q higher price than was ever realized for
SO large body of wild land BY any other Govern
ment on earth, but that this exaction enables iudi
vidual confederated Spectators to exact of the
settlers many times the amount realized by the
Government and to exact it under crcuus.anc
which tend inevitably to impoverish, dispense and
barbarize our whole pioneer population. Let us
explain:
The minimum and usual price of Public Lands is
fixed at 81 25 per acre, or $500 for a section
"a mile square) $500 for a hafsecton, or $50
acres, 5000 for quarter section, or 160 acres (the
settlers usual purchase), and so on. We do not
hold this high price, though consider it higher
all things considered, than the price at which good
farms are offered this day in Maine. Vermont or
New-Jersey-fsr higher thR the averageprice the
soil Of Virginia. the CarolinSs or Alabama He who
first locates on and improves quarter-section on
the extreme Western verge of settlement by white
men, far away from mills, roads, schoOlhouses,
stores, pOstofices. &C., pays in making roads,
bridges, &c. and in deprivation of the conye-
niences and comforts of civilized life, more than it
would cOAt him, in the average, to pay for as good
a location in the old States. Yet there are quar-
ter. sections in the new States which no plOw has
ever pierced, no Ak but the United States survey
ors ever been lifted upon, that are richly worth ten,
fifteen, twenty dollars per acre-bester worth it
than the best quarter section on the praries of Ne
brasks or Dacotah lie worth ten shilings per acre.
Now it is the fatal, ineradicable vice of our pres
ent Land System-and we beg Honorable Senator's
to face this aspect of the questOn-thst it virtually
eomptls one set Of men to do the work by schieh the
bulk of the Psbhe Lands are enhanced in ralue from
$14 to SIS, $40, end ersa $780, and enables another
set to secure and enjoy the xsalh Ss created. Those
who create this wealth by their labor and privatons
are the POor those who obtain and enjoy it without
cost to themselves are the relatively Rich. We do
not blame the latter-they only do what the Poor
would do likewise if they could've blame only the
vicious laws which foster this injustice, and the
law makers who will not perceive, or perceiving,
will not correct it. For here is its foundation:
The youthful energy and vigorous muscle of the
Old States and of Europe are constantly and prop.
ery pressing Westward in quest of lands from
which to hew out for themselves farms which shall
descend as comfortable freehods to their post ,rity
Nine out of ten pioneers have scanty means-some,
little more than the clothes on their backs aud tho
axes over their shoulders. Others have more; but
it would be liberal to estimate the average wealth
of the men who settle as pioneers on the Public
Lands at three hundred dollars per head, counting
everything outside of their skins. These cannot
give all they have for Land-they must have shelter,
clothes, seed, implements, with COW aud team if
possible or they will freeze and st.rve before they
can produce anything. The popular notion that an
industrious man has only to squat on quarter.
section of prairie and grow generous abundance
of grain and vegetables from the start is readily
dis.pated by experience. If pioneer has money
L.,. L. e Ill
thing; but one who is thus fortunate is rarely
tempted to set up his Ebenezer on an unbroken
prairie, for be can do better. Now the poor man
who uses up most Of bis means in buying aquar-
tersectOD, or lacking the money wherewth TO
buy, preempts it and sets to work thereon, is OBJ
liged, for two or three years at least TO do two or
three days work at putting up habitatioD, max.
jig fences, opening roads, wel-digging, &C., &C.,
for every day that be can give to cultivation Then
breskipg prairie is very expensive, especially to
ole who owns no team; and it is difficult for
poor msn TO get il done when he wants it. The
fret yield from newly broken prairie is hardly half
d crop; and all the pests of creation-pipeons.
erassboppers, breschy cattle, &c, &c.-make a
dead set at it. 1t scarcely possible for an average
pioneer who strikes out upon the wild prairie with
barely the means of keeping starvation at bay. to
do any thing toward paying for land out of the pro-
ducts of his husbandry for the first three or four
years.
Now the young farmer from the Atlantic States
or from Europe, who hears that the Public Lands
are sold at ten York shilliDgs per acre, supposes
that he has only to choose and take the unoccupied