The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-01-13
Freedom Of the Public Lands.

been regarded as National property-assets-merchap-
dise-an inexhaustible mine not merely of National
wealth but OF Federal revenue-that the bare sugges.
ton Of their allotment in limited tracts to pioneers who
will convert them into fruitful fields and homesteads, is
regarded by many as a proposition to ALLEVIATE and
squander an immense National resource "a barrier
against excessive taxation and possible Government
bankruptcy If the public could be made to see all the
effects OF the, present system of land sales, with its in
evitable concomitants OF boundless speculation, monopo-
~, forestalling, and racing across the continent by thou.
sands after thousands in eager quest of town-sites, water
privileges, timber-tracts and other choice locations. to
be held out of market till they can be sold at large
prices to the future settlers around them, there would
be little dlthculty In arraying a majority on the side of
Land Reform. The money which the present system
puts into the Treasury is a tangible, ~palpable sum that
which it takes out or keeps out in the shape of needless
Indian agencies, Indian negotiations and Indian wars, of
premature; surveys, multitudinous Land Offices with
their heavy annual cost, and in their necessary obstruc.
ton of the settlement and cultivation of the National
Domain, is imperceptible to the careless or ignorant.
We hold that the system of selling instead of a~llotting
the Public Lands has actually impoverished the Treasury
as well as the People that both would have been richer
this day if no acre of Public Land had ever been sold
for cultivation, but every quarter section or eighth made
over 70 the nrst actual settler upon it ON the payment Of
the necessary cost of surveying it and making cut the
necessary papers. We are accustomed to speak of the
Public Lands as afforded to the settlers for ten York
shillings per acre, but such is by no means the fact.
True, the Government receives no more than that and
a settler willing to Danish himself from all society,
neighborhood, intelligence, comfort, civilization, may
procure land at that rate but land of a decent quality
is rarely to be found within twenty miles of a store,
%grist-mil, saw-mil, school-house, &c., which il open to
settlement at Government price. On the contrary. all
that is thus eligibly located is snapped up by spectators
and held for a much higher price, or sold to some needy
settler at 70 to $1O per acre, payable with interest at
some future day. We estimate the average actual cost
of our Public Lands to those who really improve and
render them fruitful at fully $5 per acre, and this sum
is exacted from them at the outset of their struggle for
an independence, when every dollar costs them more
than three dollars would ten or fifteen years later. The
pioneer has to build, and clear, and break up, and fence,
and make roads and bridges, so that half bis labor for
the first ten years produces nothing that be can eat or
wear or sell. He is exposed to the voracitv of all man.
nr Of destroying beasts and vermin, SO that the average
amount of his crop is apt to be small, and his land is Of
ten paid tor by denying his family the actual necessaries
of life. We do firmly believe that if a quarter section
were allotted without charge to each actual settler, and
no land sold or given to any but actual settlers, the net
annual receipts into the Treasury would be more than
they now are-that is to say 81 the pioneers, relieved
from the heavy cost of ~redeeming their farms from the
grasp OF the land-speculators at three to eight times the
price, would be able to buy necessaries and
for their families which they are now COMPEL.
ed to go without, on which the revenue from customs
would more than counterbalance the loss Of the ten shil-
lings per acre now paid to the Government for lands.
But the cost of the lands to the settlers, heavy as it
is not the chef objection to the present system. Its
ts greatest scourge. Now a settlement is instantly sur
rounded by a wide belt Of spectators land, held for {
prices based on its c~ontiguity to such settlement. Be.
cause A., b. and @. have made a hole in the wilderness.
md caused a store, grist-min, saw-mi!l, b~lacksmith's
hop and school-house to appear there, therefore D., E.
he sound Of church-bells or the sight Of school-houses.
y pay treble price to spectators for the tracts thus rem |
Tered eligible tor settlement. Hence, too large a share
the children in the West are growing up in ignorance {
md relative barbarism, because they are out of reach of |
chool,houses and other facilities for instruction. The q
Western people are this day supporting six times as t
many miles Of road as they need, because they are dis /
oersed over an immense area beyond all necessity or c
eason. They have mills, stores, &C., enough-more of r
he latter than they should have, if they were only. SO v
coated that a smaller number could mmo them. s
heir dispersion over as many square miles as there are v
antilles, is every way a subtraction from their efficiency b
s producers, and their advance in education, comfort, b
and thrift as citizens. Abolish the land f
cling system, and allot each quarter section to the first
ioneer who actually makes his home upon it, and it is
lot possible that such a Babel-like dispersion would con.
The pioneers of 1859 would choose homes be- Il
ide those of 1858, did not the land-speculator's inter. p
osition Of a Fictitious and ~exorbitant price compel them "
. struggle further in quest Of land not yet fo~restalled. it
roads, mills, stores, schools, churches, would be "
ound wherever needed, because the settlers, no longer hi
ispersed, q hundred or so to the township, but located
contiguous quarter-sections, would easily establish fo
nd maintain them. And every city, every manufac- ft
lring village, every factory, every shop, would be bene. tt
ted by a change which, releasing the pioneers from the ar
Fipding e~4actions of the land 1monopolist, would enable v
lem, at a much earlier day than at present, to fill their v
with clothing, furniture aud other ministrants to p
'mfort and enjoyment. 81
We could write columns in favor of Land Reform. "
ut let this suffice for to-day. We rejoice that Mr.. ia
ohnson OF Tennessee has 40 early called attention of pi
re present Congress to this bene6cent measure, and we
aerish the hope that not many months will elapse ere
e may congratulate the country on its triumph.-[New !,
ork Tribune. ed
ear VI
st
One Of the old philosophers used to say that life and Sc
were just the same to him. sWhy. then said 90