Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-07-25
LAND GRANTS.
HOW RAILROADS HAVE BEEN DE-
YELOPED By LAND DONATIONS.
An Ahlo and Exhaustive Review ON the
Subject and the People
Benefited by tho Policy OF Granting
Lands to Railroads.

An Ahlo and Exhaustive Review ON the
Subject Government and the People
Benefited by tho Policy OF Granting
Lands to Railroads.
The Land Grant Commissioners associa-
tion, at late meeting in St. Louis, appoint
ed James b. Power, of the Northern Pacific
railroad, w. l.. Webber. of the Flint g. Pere
Marquette railroad; Peter Daggy, of the
Illinois Central railroad, committee to re-
port upon the advantages of land grants to
the people and to the general government.
At the meeting in Chicago ON the 10Th, this
COMMITTEES submitted an able paper, from
which We make the following extracts:
We claim that land grants have been of
greater value to the people and general govern
ment than the grants themselves have to the
companies accepting them.
Before the opening of the Western States by
land grant roads, the culture of our broad
prairies were efectually estopped bv the one
item of cost of transportation to market by the
then only means, the wagon.
Wheat Tor instance, hauled 800 miles by
wagon, would cost 40 cents bushel, its best
average value on the farm.-by rail the highest
cost for same distance will not exceed Is cents
q bushel, a clear Is cents per bushel in favor of
the farmer. To Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and
Minnesota, this difference means seventy-fve
millions of dollars annually in the pockets of
it's farmers on their wheat crop alone.
Another important and visible value of rail-
ways in enriching farmers and real estate own
ers, is the enhancement of the worth of the
lands on and within convenient reach Of the
lines of roads.
Take for illustration the field traversed by
the Burlington l. Missouri river Road in Ne
braska, the Missouri, Kansas d Texas, the Ce-
dar Rapids l. Missouri River, Iowa Falls l.
Sioux City, st. Paul d Sioux City, St. Paul Il
Pacific, and the Northern Pacific roads, districts
entirely Mt W, sparsely settled, and the land al
most exclusively owned by the United States
government at the time of the grants to these
roads.
The then extreme value of lands was the
government price, $1.25 per acre.
Reports from these roads show their aggre-
gate sales to be some 5000, 600 acres, at an av-
erage of $5.75 per acre.
have an equal value, as a rule, however, rail-
road lands are sold below the general average
value at which those adjoining are held.
If we include the sales of land grant roads
in the older States, such as the Illinois Central,
Grand Rapids & Indiana, Flint l. Pere Mar
quette and Chicago, Burlington l. Quincy in
Iowa, whose aggregate sales of over 5000, 600
acres averaged $lO.25 per acre, the average
would be 1888 per acre, an actual advance of
$6.08 per acre inuring to the immediate benefit
of those holding lands along the lines of these
roads. Assuming that only an equal area Of
contiguous lands is taken, the owners of these
adjoining tracts have been enriched nearly fifty
millions Of dollars. We can. however, illustrate
this point more fully by taking the broad field
of the United States, in which it is estimated
that there 27l, 1923 900 acres of land directly
affected in value by the building Of railways
Including the older States this increase is
estimated at $3.50 per acre, which has added
to the wealth of the farmers of our country
the enormous sum of $500, ,550, ,0O0-yet to
this amazing increase the farmer has scarcely
contributed anything save the accidental own
ership of the soil. Their actual money invest
ment in railroads of the United States is ascer-
tained to be less than two per cent. of the total
capital invested in the roads that have so great
ly enriched them.
On the other hand. however, the capital that
built these roads, and which has so enriched
the people along their lines has not returned a
profit of three per cent. per annum to it's invest
ors.
In addition to the doubled value and quick
sales of it's lands that We have before noticed,
the government derives a large pecuniary ben
eft from the building of these roads. In the
matter of transportation of army and Indian
supplies: far in excess of what is usually sup
posed. From statistics Of 1873, in the war
department, the only ones at present obtaina-
BILE by the committee, we find the average cost
of wagon transportation on the most favorable
contracts in the Western States and territories
was 90 per 100 pounds per 100 miles. The
highest railroad rate will not exceed Is cents
per 100 pounds for the same distance.
One item alone of 3.620.0OO lbs. over the
Atchison, Topeka d Santa Fe railroad that year
made saving to the government of $3.50, 600.
The same year the Union. Central l. Kansas
Pacific roads carried government freight amount
some 700 miles, at cost of $734,300. At the
average rate of wagon haul over the same
ground the cost would have been q clear saving
to the government on this one item of
With time taken to secure full data of the
government business, the showing would be
astonishing.
The United States land Office records show
| the absorption of public lands since the COM
mencement of the construction of land grant
roads in the border States and Territories, that
| before the stimulant to immigration by the
promise Of railways, were, except the settle
ments on the borders of navigable streams,
almost entirely without occupants.
The dates included are the fiscal years end
ing June 80, 1864, and June 80, 1877, and are
| a. follows:
Wyoming, 26,s59 acres; Colorado, 1,164, ,71s
1851, ,488 acres; Minnesota, $3.50, 1853 acres;
Dakota, l,864,6s7 acres; Oregon, l,406, ,sla
1 acres; Washington, ,384,908 acres.
A grand aggregate in thirteen years oil
twenty-six millions, three hundred and five
thousand, three hundred and forty-one acres Of
heretofore unoocupied lands, that to-day are
paying direct tribute to the government in the
shape of yearly taxes, and adding to the wealth
of the country by their products.
For the past nine months, however, the i'm
migration to the lands along the lines of these
roads has been unparalleled in the history of
able to get statistics from Minnesota and east
EN- Dakota. ''
These reports show that in. these districts
alone, for the six months ending April l, the
United States government has disposed OF
1,OS1 $50 acres, and the railroad companies
834, 800 acres.
The foregoing figures relative to sales of gov
ernnent lands represent only entries made un-
der the pre-emption and homestead laws rep.
resenting cash purchases by actual settlers,
procuring lands whose values are to be lastingly
enhanced by the railroads built and building
under the stimulus of land grants. The rail.
road sales are almost wholly to actual settlers.
The foregoing facts are to great extent gen.
eral in their nature, and the committee would
have been glad to have had specific reports from
| the land commissioners as to their respective
| roads which would have certainly added
largely to what seems the convincing argument
already made, but the limited time in which
collate' them rendered this impossible, ana WI
therefore have to be content with such ~ ",
| have in hand.
| Your committee, however, have thought
| advisable to make specific illustration, anc
have taken the State of Illinois as the oldest
I and Minnesota a. the youngest of the terri
tories that have reached their present prosper
GUS position as the direct outgrowth of the lane
grant policy. ~" 7s'' 80 'E'S'. ''tS~'">i'&
i lsT.s,..sG ri y n, =. ILLINOIS,. o.: t.. -. -
As to the benefits to the State of Illinois
+ Peter Daggy,s land commissioner of the IlEnoi
Central. writes to the committee, - follows:
The grant to this road originally embraced
IN area Of 1856, tO0 acres: When made Sep
ltember 40. 1850 the population. Of the Stat
was 851, 40. The census of 1870 gave n
I 2,S9,o ,o9l, and for the past seven years it 'ha
4 tprohshlyl been inore:sed in equal proportion.
The statistics Of lands in cultivation j,
1850 arc not at hand, but the increase in cu1ti
waited acres will far exceed that Of The spoI,ula
tiou, and more particularly so along tho line j
the road. The road when first located passe,
through an almost uninhabited portion Of til
State. With the exception Of an occasiona
old settlement. town or village, the prsiiri
y grsas udihative forest trees were the .onl
Il ats n