Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1874-05-23
RETURNING EMIGRANTs.

We find that the New York papers
complain that emigration to the United
States from Europe is decreasing sensl-
bly. and that OF those who land on the
Atlantic seaboard many are disappointed
at the prospects, and return to the Ola
World. On this coast, in California,
the same complaint is made, that no
inconsiderable portion Of the tide OF en-
isratiou returns to whence it started.
We think the causes for both these IN
favorable developments are very appar-
ept. and, unless checked by wholesome
legislation, are likely TO increase daily.
In the great cities in the East the gulf
between the rich and poor is surely and
rapidly widening. The rich cease to
recollect that property has its duties as
well as its rights, and that as well for its
security as its duty, wealth should not
be controlled solely with a view to its in
crease. In the hustle and whirl OF
great business center such considerations
are not often thought Of, and still more
seldom acted upon, The emigrant,
therefore, who has tasted bitter perjury
and its consequent priyations is sur
prised on reaching the land Of promise
that his prospects are but slightly, if at
ALL improved. Of course, if the new
conner is unencumbered, stout and
healthy, and Is gifted with nerve and
determination, he will not stay long in
such a place as New York City. With or
without money he will strike out some
how for localities where competition is
less severe and the labor market less
crowded. Such a man as that will be
sure to fall on his feet, unless oyertaken
by sickness or acquires dissolute habits.
But there is another class, men with
families api some little, though quite
scanty means, who wish to settle down
on land that they hope to make their
own by thrift and perseyering labor.
These form the very best class Of emf.
grants, but unquestionably, day by day,
less encouragement is offered them. Ii
the East they have to travel an immense
| distance from the coast before they car
reach a region where their limited mean:
| permit them to settle, and even there
they find it difficult to secure home, OF
account of the land grabbers, who arr
busily engaged securing all the betteI
class of wild lands. In California thu
case is but little altered. Within the las
fourteen years it would seem as if thu
| policy OF the State had been t
| deliver the best area OF its un
cultivated lands into the hands o
corporations or great capitalists. Between
them the eligible sites are grabbed, am
what is left is difficult of access or re-
mote from q market where products
could be disposed Of. This condition o
things disagreeable as it is to own, an'
as unwelcome as it must be to every wei
wisher of the country, are the legal an
logical consequence Of the system whicI
has permitted the enormous land grant
made by Congress and the acquisition b
capitalists, corporate or individually of in
mense acres of land, which they kee
until their possessions increase in valu
, ! ~ l,1,, ant Af nf hAr ~ II
The vast and magnificent patrimony {
the United States, open to settlemer
and cultivation, has been the source
its wonderful progress and vigeror
strength, and it is melancholy proof {
the unwise and reckless policy of Ia
years, that this splendid inheritance h
been squandered upon almost evel
greedy grabber that had the impuden
u to howl for it in preference TO the on
+ class who should have shared it, and tn
0 is the honest bona fide settler, wi
IS would have settled on it and dotted i
I" surface far and near with prosperous al
D happy, though mayhap humble home
IL Instead of that, acres have been grant
by the million to this railway, or a
= quired by that corporation, and the fir
thing that is done is to drive the settle
, off or make him pay from five to t
times the price he could have purchas
it from the Government. Under Il
q system it is no wonder that emigrants
Ie turn disheartened from both the Allan
/, and Pacific coasts. The remedy for t
~ evil is to be found by return to t
rs system that formerly obtained, VI
H. Land for the actual settler at nomiI
III price, but none at any price for the gri
% Der and monopolists. Better, far bett
k have four prosperous homesteads on
as section than vast field titled by hil
III labor and owned by an absentee capt.
40 lists, that is if he cultivates at all, for Il
class usually allow their acres to remr
H. idle until they increase in value by
re labor of the very class whose intere
20, are thus neglected.