Daily Republican., 1883-12-26


We arc not 1t all surprised that Rep.
ressntative Hopkins, Of Pennsylvauia,
should have become alarmed ut the
accumulation of landed estates by for
eigners, and that In his alarm he has
drawn up . bill which hs intends To-
present before Congress, which II cal
culsted to check the svariciousness Of
foreigners in gobbling up all the land
they can get hold Of In this country.
Land grabbing by our own people
cannot be commended with any degree
Of propriety. but when 1t comes to for
eigners purchasing from fifty thousand
to seven hundred thousand acres in one
tract, then land grabbing simply be-
comes alarming.
Let us take n glance 1t some Of these
foreign land ho.ders, and zee II there II
not cause for Representative Hopkins
action. Here IL the Earl Dunraven, .
citizen Of England, who owns sixty
thousand acres in Colorado, and the
Earl of Danmore owDs one hundred
thousand acres In the same State.
The Danish Vice Consul owns fifty
thousand acres In Minnesota Phil. J.
Marshall Il Company, Of London. Eng.
land, own ono hundred and thirty
thousand acres In Mississippi another
English company, seven hundred thous-
and acres iu the Yazoo Delta, and three
million acres in Texas one Benjamin
Nugas, of Liverpool, owns one hundred
thousand acres In Texas. These are
but few of the great foreign land own.
ers.in the United States.
Representative Hopkins bill. We
understand, prohibits foreigner from
holding more than ons thousand
acres of land In this country, unless
the owner shall have declared his In.
entions Of b. coming citizen OF the
United States.
The bill should meet the hearty Ap-
prevail Of Congress and become . law
- soon Is possible, and we are not 10
sure that the law would not be i'm.
proved by including natives a. well as
alieus I'd is prohibition. II there Is
mt s,,ue zestr,v.. ions made soon In this
matter tho people o, IN. country viii
wake wax. w gone CAV =. ind the gre e..
mart of the Western and Southwestern
States and Territories held by aliens.
It ia not difficult to see that when this
happens aliens viii have gained very
strong 7Sof6ola IL this eountry-mneh
stronger than was ever intended BY the
Constitution or was ever contemplated
BY the farewell address Of Washington.
Some idea may b. had OF these vast
possessions by foreigners when we
state that the whole State OF Delaware
| contains only 1885, 800 acres, only
about one-tbird Of the number Of acres
the English company referred to own
in Texas. In other words these pos
sessions III Texas would make thres
States like Delaware, four a. large II
Rhode Island and two as large ~ Con-
necticut,
The question might very properly bt
asked, what does one man want with
even fifty thousand acres of.land but tt
hold and use it for his own selfish
benefit, and TO the exclusion OF al
others who would make a better use o.
,lit. Land monopoly Is the tyrant thai
lis crushing the life cut Of more thar
half the people OF the United Kingdom o
England, Scotland, Wal and lrelant
at the present day, and it viii! become
| lust such crushing monopoly in thi
country, if Congress does not inter
nose and check his Wholesale gObblini
| up Of land by both aliens and nativ
born. Representative Hopkins bill can
not become II law whit too soon.