The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-10-08
FROM KANSAS.
CARO-, Sept. Is, 1870.
To the Editor OF the woEKsGMAS's ADVOCATE.
(CoNTINUED.)

CONTINUED
Some Of the more candid and better
informed advocates of the exercise OF
this power will admit 'the Constitution
does not give Congress a right to dis
pose of the lands by sales, or grants,
but as railroads only can develop the
interior of the territory remote from
navigable streams, Congress should en-
courage such enterprise to immigration
to settle up that great American desert
and foster the enterprlZe and progress
Of the age to make the land valuable,
where it would always be a trackless
waste and uninhabitable withoU, rail
roads; that Justice to those enterprls-
ing, public-splrited, patriotic, and phi
Ianthropic capitalists who are willing
to contribute their means to give value
to, and encourage the settlement OF
the great waste lands demands that
Congress should grant a part Of those
worthless lands TO make the other part
valuable, and cause the rapid settle
ment Of the same in keeping with the
spirit of progress" As to the justice
Of grants Of public lands to railroads
or their promoting the general welfare,
IS claimed by those who advocate their
expe l,ency while admitting their un-
constitutiOnality is as far from the truth
as those who claim this as a rightful
power Of Congress. Much may be
said indeed Of the acceleration railroads
give 10 the settlement of our new
countries, the pride Of the West; that
the desert of America, tie trackleSs,
worthless plains of former DAYS i
being dotted all over with cottages,
and where twas thought uninhabitable,
thousands Of productive farms ard
comfortable homes are now being
made. But all this advancement OF
our frontier is not caused by railroads
only. The onward march Of the "Star
of Empire" so much the boast of our
fathers, before railroads were ever
thought Of moving the wheels of civ
iIization westward, IL the insp ring
cause Of this magic transfo. nation OF
desert plains and savage wilds to bios
som like the rose and I'll the horn OF
plenty with the substantials of life al
the heckon Of labor inteIligently az
plled-the only agent known To man
that does or can surround Us with nee
essary comforts, and spread a hallowed
cheer IN the hUIncs " free and happy
families. Ii is not railroads or zrs..lt'
of our lands to them that does all this
Railroads az now projected and con
structed are made at the expense OF
the many for the benefit Of the favored
few. Nothing is further from the truth
than that grants of our lands TO rail
road companies are Just to the Ameri-
can people and productive of healthy
grow tn Of population or advance the
material interests OF the frontlersmen.
No; it does none Of these things
Contrast the condition of the frontier
settlers twenty years ago whore the
prudent husbandman could have a
choice Of lands without hindrance, a. \
his improvements shielded under wise
and Just preemption laws which gave
to each settler the privilege ''to enter
I6O acres in a government land office at
1925" with abundant time to raise the
money from the soil by his: labor, with
out interest to pay, with the present
preference given railroad companies in
selecting lands (the government land
offices ''clOsed by orders from Wash
ington" till railroad company has Sc
lected all the good lands y the present
rates of ''$5, $40, Z 5 and $40 dollars
per acre for railroad lands 20 in the bo-
gus concerns called ''land Offices stuck
up at every considerable railroad town,
with w0uld-be general making one
sided contracts with frightened and
deluded people at these exorbitant
rates, required to give obligations to
pay an annual interest equal in amount
to the former government price thus
saddling debt upon the settler he new
err can pay, for a promise of deed to
his claim which he is afraid to improve,
and has to join "a Home Protection
Corps to prevent being robbed of his
labor, after paying FIVE times the old
price for the land, and their weeping
families turned out of tn If homes by
the mortgage of a railroad king, whose
arrogant assumption Of more than re-
gal rights and possessions, by virtue OF
unconstitutional grants Of land, or that
most transparent pretence. treaty sale
Of our lands; for the power to do which
the Interior Department of the great
American nation is made dependent
upon contemplate tribes of Indians.
Justice, indeed, to require the humble
settlers IN all our new countries to con
tribute the labor of halt lifetime to
paw railroad company for land to
make a home upon at prices that enable
those companies to build the railroads
and stock phem with the proceeds from
the salessOf one half the lands, leaving
immense possessions Of 'landed es.
tates" to those railroad companies to
grind from the future labor Of the com
try incalculable wealth from the pro-
ceels Of the sale OF lands at unlimited
prices This is the way our govern
ment in the control Of the Republican
p,rty, Legislative, executive and Judi
cial, and all its once honorable depart
ment officers attempt to rob you, their
own fellow citlzens,of your most sacred
rights to create a land-aristocracy the
sure fore runner of monarchy, which
they have the affrontery to avow Is
their most cherished object
Fellow Workingmen: In contem-
plating these important matters, clearly
within the comprehension of the hum
best citizen, the mind is overwhelmed |
with astonlshment at the ominous ii not
silence we observe among the
of the legal profession, and |
editors. who profess to, and I
whose duty is to direct the public
mind, and we are forced to exclaim
With q venerable sage and patriot of
'ntiquity, my God, is 1t possible that