Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-03-02
BOuMty La ndS-Diilerent
Views.

Views.
After the Mexican war, bounties of
land were granted to soldiers who
served therein. NO,actual settlement
was required, and the warrants for
these lands were not used by one sol
der out of a thousand, except as arti-
c,es of merchandise. After the close
of the late war, bounties were given
TO sailors and soldiers who had served
certain period. Each man became
entitled to so much money. How
many millions were thus expended
we do not recollect.
Besides this, liberal pensions were
awarded to disabled soldiers, their
widows and children. We are pay
ing more for pensions everyyear than
the whole expenditures of the gov
eminent used to be, within the
memory Of men still living. No
soldier complains that the govern
ment has not dealt literally With the
Union army which saved the repub-
lie. Many soldiers do complain that
the pension list is too great; that
thousands of men are receiving pay
who ought to be earning an indie
pendent livelihood. We have heard
gallant officer, through whose body
three bullets passed, at the battle OF
Atlanta, July 22nd, 1864, declare in
most emphatic language that he was
perfectly ashamed of many facts con-
nected with the pension list. And
this is the feeling of an immense
majority of those brave men who
conquered the shareholders rebellion.
Nevertheless, bill has passed the
House of Representatives., the effect
of which will be, should it become a
law, to place great proportion OF
the remaining public lands in the
hands Of spectators. The substance
of the bill is this: Any Union sailor
or soldier who served ninety days in
the late civil war, may enter, free,
100 acres of land on the alternate
land grant sections; may have twelve
months to make his selection; and
may assign all his rights TO any third
party thereafter. 1t is an immense
scheme for pensioning every soldier
and sailor, with Il bit Of scrip, worth
from $40 to $50 to each one--from
which lawyers fees must be deduct
ed-and eventually worth, in the
aggregate, immense sums Of money
to land spectators, commonly and
appropriately called ''land sharks"
where they are best known.
There is but one statement necessa-
ry to demonstrate the specializing,
land grabbing nature of this measure.
Every person entitled to its .bene-
fits" can now, under the homestead
law, have large farm in any OF the
public domains without money and
without price, the only condition
being that he shall occupy the land.
This necessity of occupation being
done away with by the measure OF
which we speak makes it scheme,
not for the benefit Of the soldiers and
sailors Of the late war, not for the
development Of the country, but for
the enrichment of spectators of that
very class which has done more to
retard the complete settlement of the
northwest than any other single
obstruction. We protest most earn
estly against this scheme, as the very
worst Of the land-jobbing swindles,
and aver that it is all the more en-
titled to the condemnation of the
country because it would bring SO
great an evil upon it, in the name OF
those who saved it. Chicago Post.
The bill now before Congress giving
toevery soldier and sailor who served
in the army or navy during the late
rebellion, and who was honorably
discharged, 100 acres of land, proyid-
ed he shall actually settle on the
same, does not meet with the APP
prevail of the soldiers in the Eastern
States. At a recent meeting Of the
Association Of War Veterans of the
fourteenth New York Regiment,
resolutions were adopted declaring
that the proviso requiring actual
settlement upon the land will make
the act Of no value to a majority Of
the soldiers and sailors Of the Eastern