New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-01


,b.t III. settlers should pay 30 much IN
order that the Treasury should realize 50
life Why should each poor settler be
driven beyond the boundaries of civilization by
the inevitable appreciation in price Of each quarter
section from the hour that saw mill, grst-nill,
schCol-house or store, Is erected within five miles
Of Il. when no dollar Of this enhanced price ever
accrues 10 the Treasury and very little Of il to the
pioneers whose efforts and privatiOns produce the
enhancement by which spectators in land-warrants
and lands uniformly profit We insist that, as
a simple revenue measure, il would be good policy
to eOncede the Public Lands ia quarter sections to
actual settlers, end deny them to all others. The
increased ability Of the pioneers to buy the COM
forts and Injuries on which revenue is raised by
customs, would more than compensate the Treasury
for the withdrawal Of the sum now realized from
Land Sales.
The policy Of free grants of quarter sections to
Actual Settlers comes up for discussion in the Sem
ate next Monday as special order and our inter
est in the subject mpels to present herewith the
several bills relating Ia this subject which have
as vet been submitted in either House. We trust
they will be generally studied compared and re-
Hected on. In our judgment, the best Of them
(Which was also the first submitted) is that of Sen
ator Foot of Vermont, though that of Senator John
son Of Tennessee (submitted FIVE days later agrees
with Mr.. Foots in most of its provisions. We
shall gladly chronicle the passage Of either Of these
bills though we dislike at least one provision COM
mon to both-that, namely, which attempts TO con-
fine the location Of free lands to alternate quarter
sectiOns-that is, TO one-half the Public Lands
when we can imagine no good reason for applying
this policy to half the Public Domain which is not
equally cogent in favor of its application to the
other half II were good thing, undoubtedly, to
cut off one of the legs of the ogre, Land Monopoly;
but il were at least twise as good thing to ampu
tate them both. Still, let us have half-measure
rather than none.
OF course, neither Of these bills comes up to the
mark Of forbiddng the alienation Of Public Lands
TO other than actual settlers, and We regard no
measure of Land Reform as complete which stops
short of this goal If all the water and air on the
globe were the property of caste or class, or were
in market TO be bought for sale at an advance by
such CASTE it would be great thing to restore one
half Of them to the free use of all who now do or
hereafter msy need them; but it were more than
twice as good thing TO enact of them, as Moses
did of the soil of Judea that |" they shall not be
sold for ever" An act utterly forbidding future
acquisitions of Public Lands, except by the pioneer
settlers Of each quarer-sectiOn respectively, would
cover the whole ground; AID even though the
preset minimum price were still exacted it would
be more benefcent than any partial recognition of
the anti-monopoly principle which should still
leave one half the Public Domain open to the mo-
ropOlist and Spectator.
If any bill providing Free Lands for the Landless
can BE- carried through the Senate, shall probably
know it by the end of next week; for, if the sub
jec should receive the gO-by now, it will be hardly
possible to get it up at later and more hurried
stage of the Session. If either of the bills now be-
fore the Senate, substantially like them, shall
pass that body we shall look with confidence for its
success in the House. Let the friends Ofthe princi
pie in that body beware of amendments, even such
rs would improve the measure, but put it through
ss il comes from the Senate, and not take the risk
of its return to that branch. And, should no Land
bill pass the Senate this month, we suggest the
policy of taking up Mr. Grows bill in the House
and passing it as speedily as possible. That bill
simply gives actual settlers fifteen years start
of spectators in selecting from any lands
which may hereafter be surveyed and
brought into market, leaving all lands to be paid
for when entered, as at present. Had this bill
passed twenty years ago, it would have saved at
least One Hundred Millions of Dollars to the set
tiers on our Public Lands without abStractng one
dollar from the Treasury. 1t would have made the
difference between comfort, education and thrift
on the one hand, and privation, ignorance and I'M
thrift on the other to some millions of our country
men. We entreat those Members from Old States
WHO realize how blghting is the curse of land specu
laton, yet who will not vote to make the Public
Lands free, to give hearty support to Mr. Grows
BILL 1t will do the New States immense good
without even seeming TO cost the Old States farth.
ing.