The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-12-05
Ae-UaIuattOn Of Lands ". MOnODOIy q


to bring to the attention of the Legisla-
ture elect, some results to be aimed at
more remote butnot ssimportantt than
those hitherto pointed out. gs+
It is butR temperate expression of the
fact, to say that West Virginia has been
from its earliest settlement in the old
State down to the present hour of its
existence as separate State, subjected
to the. evils of a land monopoly. This
in part grew out of the Virginia land
system, which yet prevails in the old
State. Under it any one could pur-
chase at the Virginia Land Office an
unlimited amount of land scrip for two
cents an acre, and the payment of tri-
fling Office fees; and this scrip entitled
the Possessor to enter any unnppropria-
ted land in the State. A great deal of
it was issued to officers of thearmy and
navy, who had "done the State some
service" This system resulted, as
might have been expected, in covering
good deal of territory with titles two
or three deep, and led to great confusion
ana contention. Time, however, set
ties land titles, as it does many other
things Hundreds of squatters have
carved out little farms and hold them
by right of possession in spite patents
held by the large landed proprietors in
the Southern half of the State; Lut in
general the land in that section of the
State is held in large bodies,-rang-
ing in area from / 900 to 1000 acres.
In the counties south of tho Parkers-
burg Branch Railroad, hundreds OF
thousands of acres of the finest wild
lands in this or any other State are held
in large bodies by spectators who live
III Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and other Eastern and
Northern cities. Valued as these lands
arc on the assessors books at few
cents per acre, and costing the owners
even less than this valuation, they find
II very promising speculation to hold
them for an advance. These lands
comprise some OF the best, mineral.
timber and agricultural ncres in the
State; but for all benefit derived from
them by the people of the State, they
might AS well be a Sahara. Looking to n
not very far distant period, when they
expect these lands to, command five or
ten times their present value, these
spectators refuse to sell at any chris
tan price, or to sell at all in small
areas. a- a-ff
Even in the older settled and cult
waited portions of the State the monopo-
ly Of the land exists in an only modi-
fled form. Small farms are the excep-
ton. Men hold 1000 acres, and do not
decently cultivate so; while others who
could and would cultivate it, offer these
dog-in-the-mhnger proprietors double
aud triple its value in vain. They. too.
refuse sell their surplus land because,
like the spectators in wild lands, thew
think there is speculation in holding it.
Like the fool in the fable, all these men
XIII the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Until population comes in from other
States, and brings with it capital, in
dustry and enterprise, and developes
the agricultural and mineral resources
of the State, this wonderful enhance
ment in the value of lands Is purely
imaginary, speculative, and fictitious.
II these HuXiliaries TO true greatness and
genuine prosperity are TO be repulsed
by policy as narrow and short-sight-
ed as it is selfish, our land spectators
VIII find they have oyer-reached them
selves, and sacrificed their golden pros
poets to their greed; and the State, sur-
fering in NIL its interests, must continue
to plod on in its poverty stricken tor
pidity, till in some more propitious
future the hand of intelligent liberality
shall wake its slumbering greatness in
10 life. .fH GITGH9I n.
However unfortunate as to public
policy this monopoly of the soil has
been and always will DO found to be,
there is no adequate remedy for it. I'm
der the law every man has the absolute
right to do as he PIeases with what is
legally his own. While this is true. the
policy of the State ought as far as pos
sible discourage this mistaken selfish
ness. We cannot get population from
abroad unless we offer that population
an interest in the soil. We cannot Gre
ate and maintain an efficient system of
free public instruction without great
additions TO our populations; and With
out such n system we cannot have
general intelligence; nor without that
have good government or good order in
society. .
Can anything be done legitimately
and rightfully to break UP this mono
ply of the soilH Something may be
done by the Legislature to mitigate the
evil, though not to remove it.
We have shown in these columns
that West Virginia lands pay less than
half the light taxation levied by the
State on other property. 1t is
because they pay so little that
the owners can afford to hold them
for speculation.
Hundreds of thousands OF acres of
wild lands do not pay one-fourth, and
some not One-tenth whrt they should.
In Wyoming county n million and
half acres are taxed ON AN average val
ue of eleven cents per acre. Thewild
lands, there, owned by citizens of other
States, are probably not rated higher
than six or seven cents. In all the coun-
ties, such as Boone. Raleigh, Mcdowell,
Logan, Wayne, Cabell, Randolph, &C.,
in which wild lands arc owned by nom
residents, those lands are taxed at very
low figures, for the averages are gem
orally much below one dollar; and the
wild lands were the bottom figures in
making mp the averages. Yet in a half
dozen years all the wild lands in the
State would be taken up by actual set
tiers in my or one hundred acre farms,
Mt from hVe to ten times their present
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