The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-06-11

has thus far never once failed on the
number Of millions-was framed in the
year 1918, long before railroads were
dreamed Of At 6rst sight it would
seem as if their introduction should have
upset all his calculations, sending the in,
crease Of population far in advance Ol
his figures. Yet, observing that this has
not been the case, and observing bow
very close to the truth be came in the
years 1916, 1850, and 1860. il is hard
to resist the inference that his predictions
were based upon scientific principles, ~
dependent Of, and above railroads. Eu
rope would have suffer d all the same from
overcrowding in any case, and would have
bad the same tendency to relieve herself
BY emigration 90 it is possible our pro.
gress in population might have borne oui
Mr.. Watson's predictions all the same, even
without the aid Of railroads to distribute it,
the only difference being that it must then
have grown comparatively dense, manufac
lures keeping pace with agriculture merely
from the difficulty of transporting the pro-
duets of the latter.
/ come now to those words Of consOla'
ton for the men who sigh because ouI
waste places are mot filed up with sum
Gent rapility. who groan to think that
they may possibly not live to see the
last square mile Of prairie fenced in, and
who would undoubtedly be happy enough
n accept the United States In lieu oI
Paradise, and consent to live here forever,
If we only could boast population as
dense as that Of England or Belgium, but
wno, with q singular inconsistency, never
thisk Of going to England or Belgium to
i've, although there they might find a
" sturdy settler" upon almost every square
rood Of ground. They are like the boy
with his plum cake. 1t is not the cake be
wants. outside or in, but the pleasure Oi
making it change places. So they do not
care for sparsity, or for density of popula-
ton considered in themselves, but they
take an intense interest in the process
whereby the one succeeds the other. The
entire secret of this interest may, perhaps,
be found in the fact that having secured
land at sparsity prices. they would like to
make it worth density prices in the shortest
possible time. A glance at few facts will
show us that they need have no fears Of our
vacant territory remaining permanently
a wilderness. It is estimated that the
census for the present year will show
a population exceeding $4,000, 900 souls
Elkanah Watson's estimate is AZ, 1928, 432.
His estimates for the remainder Of the
century are as follows for 1880 $3.50
24I for 1890, 77,266,989, and 1900,
100, ,235,985. Other authorities estimate
the population for 1900, as high as 1O7,-
OOO, ,OOe. and one even as high as 115, ,OOO,'
900. Let us take the medium figure,
1O7, ,OOO, 900, and then glance back. In
1900 We numbered some FIVE and bali
millions. 1t is some seventy years since
then, and we have increased about thirty
seven millions in that time. Yet, start
ing now, with AZ, 500, 900, the very same
law Of increase which has not failed us
once during the eight decades from 1870
down, will give us 1O7,OOo,OO0 Of people
ia the year 1900, an increase Of about
cr 600 ,Gnn, - ko r --.-t. ...v.v si.su
our entire present population, during the
next thirty years. This, let it be observed,
is nearly double the numerical increase
which has occurred during .the seventy
years that have nearly elapsed since the
present century made its advent.
This fact as applied 10 the public land
question is absolutely startling, and leads
one to ask, are the men mad who can vote
away 50, ,00O,O 900 acres to a single railroad
Let US look at it b: All the
States and Territories carved out Of the
public domain have been so carved during
the present century, and, consequently, this
whole vast region has been settled to the
point at which settlement stands to-day, CO.
with an increase Of only 81, ,O00,-
900 in our population. .Coincidently with
the same increase, we have seen land 20
up from the government price to an aver
age Of $40 or $50 an acre over vast regions
Of territory, which at the beginning Of the
century were solitudes, disturbed only by
the wild animal and the red man. Coin
cidently with the same increase Of 35,OoO,-
900, we have witnessed the disposal Of
438, 100000 acres of the public domain,
or, including railroad grants for land not
yet patented, 598,5O0,00O. And now,
with prospective increase of 65,00o,O0O
during the next thirty years, the govern
ment retains in its possession, exclusive of
Alaska, only 626. 200, 900 acres of availa-
bic land, and even this amount will not
average near so good quality SIS the $685.
O0O, 900 acres already disposed Of Look
well at these figures, and not the fact that
the amount remaining is only 28, 100000
acres in excess Of the amount disposed Of,
hardly enough for q fashionable railroad
grant. And yet our population is to be in
creased $4,000, 900 within the next thirty
years. With such an increase, unhesi-
tatingly predict that there is not a State
or Territory between the Atlantic and the
Pacific, in which, by the year 1890, the
average value of the desirable farming lands
will not be as high as is the value of such
lands in Illinois today.
Moreover, ii must be remembered that
these Western lands are right in the path
of that stream Of immigration which, as il
by blind instinct of direction, sets toward
them in a current 80 strong that it would
seem almost as easy to turn the Gull
stream from its course, as to divert or check
it. This fact is an element of value alto
gether too important to be overlooked.
But We are told that railroads, and the
grants wherewith to build them, are neces.
sary conditions precedent to settlement
The settler, it is said, cannot go hundreds
Of miles into the wilderness to get upon
the public land unless we build railroad
to take him there, and to transport bis pro-
duce to market after be gets there and
we are furnished with ingenious computa
tlons to show that wheat cannot be hauled
IN wagons more than three hundred miles,
and corn not more than one hundred, be.
fore Ito UaIuo 10 IL - II