The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-06-25

tiTaticn Z II d cultivation s3cDs Ws'sb
viii make them fruitful-make them con.
sributors to the stock of national wealth.
There Is nothing gained by the mere tranR
fer Of them hem the ownership of the Cor
eminent to another owner who will let them
lie equally idle. The only thing brough
about is that when the actual cultiyatk
wants them, be must pay an exhorbitadt
price to those on whom We now lAerallS
throw them away. What, then, Is ouf
obvious policy Clearly it is to part With
them only to actual settlers, and to let NO
man have more than be can cultivate witt
bis own hands, and With the help of his
children. The time is coming when we, OF
our children will need these lands, and we
cannot afford to commit the egregious folly
of giving away in our collective capacity az
nation, or selling for a mere song, the
very lands which we, or our children, win
soon be compelled to buy again at high
price from great landlords of our own erea-
ton. Such folly, is without parallsl.
Let it be remembered that our available
territory is only large enough to give a
fraction over fifteen acres apiece to our
present population, and hardly ten acres
apiece to the 100000 which is to be
added to our present population during the
next thirty years. Then we can Judge
better as to the amounts we can afford to
dispose of to single individuals or to cor.
poratiOns. Unpopular as it may be, | do
not hesitate to declare that we are too lib
eral IN giving away as homesteadS, or sell
ing at the nominal price of tl.25 an acre,
160 acres to a single person. 1t is doing
for some much more than we shall be able
to do for others, who will need the land
quito as much, or even more than they do.
1t is time for us to revise our ideas upon
this question of the disposal of the public
domain and accommodate them to our al
tered circumstances. There will soon be
far less occasion to be anxious shout set
tiers for our land than about land for our
settlers. We must begin to understand
that when settler takes a homestead IN
our public territory, it is be who is our
beneficiary, and not we who are the reci-
ents Of favor at his hands Every day
the competition for these lands is increasing
and rendering the constantly diminishing
remainder more valuable. 1t is because
capital perceives this, that it now stands
before us with jaws wide extended, ready to
swallow up almost the whole desirable Dor
ton Of the public domain at single gulp.
1t is time now for the country to speak out
and defeat the aims Of the monopolists.
Every County and State Convention, Of
either political party, should put the plank,
No More Land Grants" in its platform,
and write it in letters big enough to be
read all the way from Washington 1t is
time VIC should understand that our wild
lands are not nuisance to be abated in
the shortest possible time. The wilder.
ness is the poor mans friend, his refuge from
the exactions Of that capital which would
now persuade him it is worthless, and kind
ly take it from him in tracts embracing
millions Of acres. Let then the poor men
Of the country, the masses of the popu,
lous East, and Of all the older States, the
laborer, the mechanic, and the small farmer
whose sons will yet want homes in the West
these classes, comprising millions of ou
people where others comprise thousands
only, and who possess the power to con
troll Legislation on this subject, if they SC
will-let them resolve to keep these West
ern lands, in which even the poorest among
them is a joint inheritor, until they want
them, guarding them jealousy, and part
ing with them only in small tracts, as they
are needed, by other men like themselves,
who want them TO live upon, and to cult
vate with the labor Of their own hands.