The Labor enquirer., 1883-01-20
Gigantic Land Steal.

realize the magnitude of the land steals
perpetrated by the railroad corporations
during the last twenty years. BY reports
of the interior department for 1881 it APP
pears that different congresses since 1861
have given away to the railroads 1876, ,oo0,-
600 acres. The reader can form an esti-
4 mate of the extent of this land steal when
we state that the total acreage of Great
Britain and Ireland is about 100000
acres.
The railroads, therefore, have stolen
from the American people territory out
of which two Great Britains and Irelands
could be carved, and there wouldbe still
left 100000 acres, out of which re-
mainder you could again carve two
Irelands and have still 100000 acres
left, which is little more than half the
size of Scotland In other words, the
railroad corporations have stolen. lands
that in extent are equal to four Irelands,
two Englands, and two and half Scot
lands.
In the history of land stealing there is
nothing that is at all compared to this.
How insignificant are the stealings of
the land thieves of Europe alongside
this gigantic steal of the railroad corpor-
atoms! We use the word "steal'' in this
connection advisedly, as there is not one
foot of this land but has been stolen from
present and future generations of Amer
leans, and sometime or another every
foot of it must be returned to its lawful
owners, the people.
Just now there is debate going on in
congress on the question of making some
of the railroad corporations give up
what are know as "unearned grants
that is, land which these corporations
have failed to earn by fulfilling the con-
tract they entered into when they got
the grants from congress. To all of them
was attached the condition that the rail-
road corporation receiving them should
complete within certain time the road
it undertook to build. Failing to carry
out this condition, the lands were to
revert to the government.
Of course, in making these grants,
congress assumed it had a right to deed
away the public domain, which, strictly
speaking, belongs to no single generation,
but to all generations of Americans. So
that if the corporations had fulfilled to
the letter all the conditions imposed on
them, they would have no rights to these
lands as against the rights of 50,OO0,O0O
of American citizens from whom this
vast territory has been stolen, and even
if the 100000 to man had endorsed
the transaction by which the natural in
heritance of future generations of Ameri-
cans has been handed over to few Van
derbilts and Goulds, that endorsement
would not deprive unborn millions of
their rights in these lands.
BUTT seems the railroad corporations
were so confident Of their ability to make
their will law at Washington that they
neglected to carry out their contract with
congress: The consequence is that eight
corporations to whom congress gave
lie, 100000 acres have failed to carry out
the conditions attached to the grants
which bestowed this immense territory
Oh them, so that they have now legally
forfeited 95,300,000 of the 116,0O0,000
acres which constituted the original steal.
The money value of these 95,3OO,OOO
acres is 100000, 900, which is about three
times the sum necessary to build and
equip at a cost of $4,000 per mile every
mile of railroad for which the aid was
given.
Remember this is only the price OF
95,5OO,0OO out of the 1I6,000,00O acres
granted to these corporations. After
realizing three times the amount ex.
pended on the construction of these roads
the railroad corporations would still have
2l, 100000 acles, an area larger than Ire
land, which contains only 20,Sl9.S2E
} acres. 1t must not be supposed that al
this land is situated outside the limits O
civilization, as there are 100000 acres
; of it in the states of Mississippi, Louisi
: ana, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Michi
r gan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota
Every one of these 1O,eOO,OOO acres ha,
5 been legally forfeited to the people o
| the United States. !, "
| The railroad corporations, however ar,
determined to hold on to these and tn,
otbar millions of arrps to which tho,