The true northerner., 1880-02-13
LAND GRANTS.


Of the Country.
IRobert p. Porter, in Chicago Inter Ocean
Could photograph the land grants
to railroads, as the scientists photograph
the winds, the reader would be sur
prised at their extent. The two strips
of land which form almost Y in ILL
nois. and which inaugurated the land
grant system, have increased and null
tiplied until, with a center at st. Paul,
they would almost cover the region of
country where Minnesota, Wisconsin
and Iowa meet. Indeed, the bars SO
cross and recross each other at all sorts
of angles that one would utterly fail in
attempting to describe them. In Mich
igan we might imagine monstrous
rustic letter A of nearly 5000, 900 acres,
with two instead of one cross-bar, and
the east side little bent inward. But
at Port Huron land grants end. The
east side of the $500, ,000-acre Y, in IL
inois, is the eastern boundary of rail-
road grants, with the exception of those
in Michigan, until the eye reaches Ala
bama, when it would strike 100000
acre N written diagonally across the
pUaJCs Will ~ db tuc SOubu-
western corner running along the coast
into Florida, and finally forming an
elongated l. in that peninsula. Con-
tinuing from the bottom of the Illinois
Y, and running exactly southwest
through Arkansas to the Red
river, is what might have been
one bar of 5,000,0 ,000-acre X, but, alas,
the other bar, beginning at the Indian
Territory, and running southeast. with
Little Rock, Ark, for center, sudden.
ly spoils the X by taking a northern
turn to Memphis, recrossing the first
bar into Missouri, and terminating at
Pilot Knob. Beside this, Missouri has
q diagonal grant beginning at Alton
and ending at the Indian Territory, and
the Hannibal and st. Joseph grant, run
ming straight west from Quincy. Kan
sas boasts two immense railroad grants
of nearly 100000 acres-one the At
Gibson, Topeka and Santa Fe, ending
at Colorado; the other (kansas Pacifc)
continuing along into Colorado, and
joining the Union Pacific grant at
Cheyenne city. Our rough sketch is
completed by four immense tiers run
ming through to the Pacific ocean-on
beginning at Duluth, one at Omaha,
one at the western boundary of the In
dian Territory, and the most southern
on the plateau of the Sierra Madre-
the last two running along the Pacific
coast north to Sacramento. OF course
there are minor grants which cross and
recross each other in all direc-
on1 y,ooln .t nvfro-,an1ry Il ~,
to evolve either order or shape out of
the millions of acres which have thus
been given away. Neither time nor
space permit an extended examination
of every grant, but sufficient has been
considered to point out the origin and
growth of the system. The first dona-
ton was one-twentieth part of certain
proceeds derived from the sale of lands
then ninety feet of land, followed soon
by oue-half of five sections per milo on
each side; then by six sections; then by
ten, and finally by twenty sections per
mile on each side of the road. IL the
lands granted, or, in other words, en-
braced within the limits ot the grants
/ have briefly described, could be found
available, the companies, not including
those for canals or wagon roads
would receive, provided each built its
road and complied with the laws, more
than 215,000,000 acres. That quantity
if embraced in one compact body, would
form an area of more than 335, 600 square
miles, or tract of land more than sew.
en- times as large as the State of Penn
sylvapia, and only about 5000
miles less than the area of the thirteen
original States. No less than 292, ,00(
square miles, or 1S7,7S5,850 acres Of
land, have been actually received by the
different railroad companies of the
United States. This amount exceeds
the entire area of the German empire
by $4,000 square miles, and the State o.
Texas by $4,000 square miles.
The total contributions from Govern
ment to railroad enterprises alone
amount to $144,213,07S. have shown
the estimated cost of the railroads in The
United States to be 81 ,65S, ,2OS, $3.50. Th,
Government has, therefore, contributed
only about 3 per cent. of the entire cos
of the vast railway system of the United
States the balance of 81 per cent. be
ing the contribution of private enter
prise. A system which is greater thar
that of England, France, Germany
Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Hungar.
and Belgium, all put together, ant
which is only about 5000 miles less thar
the entire railroad system of all Europe