The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-06-18

lions or TO spectators, instead OF to aetna
settlers, those Of rs who want cheap Gov
ernment land are to-day compelled to pas
over these unoccupied tracts and 60 hun
dreds Of miles beyond the Mississippi tc
nnd what we want And we are appealed
TO. forsOoth, 10 diminish the inconvenience,
OF going there BY pursuing on q vastly
magnihed scale the very policy which ba'
placed us under the necessity Of going
there at all, the policy but for which We
should still 6nd Government land hundreds
OF miles nearer home, the policy of i'm.
mense railroad land grants, which would
very quickly do with all our Western Ter
rltories what it has done on a compare
lively small scale for the Western States
nearer % Us, viz. /: close up vast areas
against settlement, until having no land
farshel west to 60 to, we should in few
years b compelled 10 buy from the mono
pollsts at their own price. And all this
under the prstsnos Of building railroads to
enable the settler to get at I" cheap land. "
In brief, this pretended policy Of "bring-
ing cheap lands within the reach of the set
tier" is really policy to enable the rail
road companies and such settlers as are SO
lucky as to be early enough on the ground
TO pick out and take up all the choicest
lands in the public domain in the shortest
possible time, and then to enable the
American citizen who may want home
stead to get AT the Rocky Mountains, the
sandy deserts, or the arid plains, which bis
more fortunate predecessors did not fancy.
And to Judge how much of this may be ef-
fected even in a very brief period, it il
only necessary to reflect that under the
operation Of our established law Of in
crease our population is to be augmented
about $4,000 600 in the next ten years,
and 81, 900, 900 in the next twenty wears.
This vaunted policy is one which regards
the present only, and whose inspiring aim,
MS well as its direct effect, is to make q
few men rich-a policy to hurry on with
more than railroad speed the day which is
coming too fast lready-the day when the
nation will have no more cheap lands "a
sell to its citizens. And if, as its advo.
Gates claim, it does make the wild lands ol
the West more valuable, it does so only fol
the benefit Of the railroad corporations and
The few early occupants, in order that the
millions who come after them, and who mus,
one day occupy and cultivate these lards
may be compelled to buy them at exhor
bitant prices, or become renters, or day
laborers, paying tribute out Of the fruits o.
their toll to the great landed aristocracy oi
which VIC are now laying the foundation
1t is customary to say that the old or,
der of things has passed away that the
locomotive, and not the settler, now leads
the van Of settlement and civilization. As
rhetoric, this has rather a fine effect, but
when its true significance is seen, it means
simply this, viz. that capital, whose far
reaching eye the headlight of the locomo-
motive will aptly typify, has discerned three
great facts first, that the available area Of
the public domain is becoming compare
lively circircumscribed second, that popu-
lation il increasing at an unprecedented
rate, and BY the natural law already
spoken Of, is destined to increase still more
rapidly every year ; third, that these two
facts in their relation to each other fore
tell an unexampled rap;dity in the increase
of the value of the wild lands Of the West,
making those lands worthy Of its most de-
voted and assiduous attentions
But" it will be asked, {" should we
not restrict our donations to few Of the
more worthy and important projects p
| do not know that there is very much
difference in the worthiness Of the various
projects asking aid. There may be some
difference, but l know that most of the
arguments used in favor Of the policy would
apply to one just as well as to another.
The most prominent of these schemes, how
ever, is the projected Northern Pacific
Railroad. I hesitate not to say that the
gift of nearly fty million acres to that cor
poration is an enormous crime against the
American people. This land, though not
Immediately saleable-such quantities of
land cannot be sold instantaneously, any
more than Rome could be built in day
this land, say, is worth more than the
building of the road will cost, and will
bring more to the company. And here let
me note fact which / find in Mr.. III. V.
Poor's book on railroads most useful
work, although | regret to see that he has
devoted a portion Of its pages to the ad-
vocacy of subsidies. The fact to which l
refer is that the Illinois Central Railroad
Company, which has sold its lands at an
average Of nearly twelve dollars an acre,
counting what it has received for lands
sold and estimating the value Of the land
it has on hand at the present average price,
has realized from its grant over $50, ,OOO,-
900, sum equal to the aggregate capital
originally invested in the enterprise, and
considerably more than the actual cost of
building the road. And this, let it be re-
membered, has been out of the compare
lively modest little donations of six sections
to the mile, while the Northern Pacific gets
forty sections, and has the sublime impu-
dence to ask still more Now, let US look
at this question Of the Northern Pacific in
the light Of few further facts.
Mr.. Poor, from whom have just quoted,
states the cost Of the Union Pacific Rail
road at 500. 100000, the length being
1858 miles. Suppose the length of the
Northern Pacific to be 1900 miles, and
the cost, at the same rate, should be q
little less than $137, 100000.
Now, mark another fact. The lands
sold by the Union Pacific Railroad last
summer, in the Platte Valley, averaged
over $5 an acre, according to the state.
ment Of Mr.. Ames, its President, in a let
ter addressed, if l rightly recollect, to the
shareholders of the road, and published in
the StockhoLder sometime in September
last Now, in view of the rapid prospec
tive increase in our population, and especi
ally in view Of the fact that the Northern
Pacific Railroad lies right in the line o
that stream of immigration which of late
years has set in SO strongly from the Scan
dinavian peninsula and other portions O.
| Northern Europe is It at all extravaganza