Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-14
PURTHIE CONSIDERATION OF TIE LAND
MONOPOLY QUESTION.

With the passage of community from
pioneer stage of existence into one of per-
manency, one of the principal changes TO
be noted is the lessened amount of avail
able land for the increasing demands Of q
new population. In this fact resides the
germ and essence of all there is in the
question Of land monopoly That com,Bu-
nifty, therefore, which in the outset pro-
ceeds to settlement upon the principle Of
small land holdings, has most room for pop.
ulatiop, and extends the period indefi.
nitely in which the needs OF an increasing
growth will find agricultural response.
But the disproportion between the amount
of land available for population, and the
numerical strength of people, must con-
stsntly grow greater as nation increases
its population where there is territorial
limit. Professor Amos points out that a
superior organization of the modes of liv.
ing, the growth of towns, the introduction
of superior methods of cultivating the soil,
and, most of all, free commercial inter-
course between country and country, es-
pecially in respect Of the .necessaries Of
life, make it possible for this growing in.
snficiencY of the soil to be long over
looked. He is stIortsighted and dull, indeed,
who does not perceive in the present a
strong tendency to absorption of the soil
by few, and he is most unwise who does
not find in that tendency an evil to be
strenuously combatted. There are in this
country none of the restraints to absorp.
ton of the land by the few that operate
in England-for instance, where heredi-
tary transfer largely prevents any new
aggregation of the soil in few holdings.
Here, as capital concentrates, it is st full
liberty TO indulge that trait which most
distinguishes it, TO wit, the concentration
in its own hands of much soil of the
country. This disposition, as we have al.
ready pointed out, must result in the de-
tendency of those agriculturiats who do
not possess in their own right, and this in
time viii be in imminent danger of degeu-
Grating into a base servility, wholly an
tagonistic 20 the institutions of 3 free
country, in which the theory prevails that
the people are the sovereigns. In view of
these facts, therefore, it must be a matter
of qualification that two processes are now
operating to discourage, TO some extent,
large land holdings, and that they are not
of wider influence, operating throughout
the Great West, is the sole regret. But
these influences are quite unequal to cope
with so serious an evil as the concentra.
tion of the land in the hands of very
limited class. The agencies 60 which werefer
are local, being the plans of the Central
Pacific Railroad Company to dispose of its
lands with rapidity. at the lowest possible
ratings, and, SO far SIS it can, to distinct
owners in small lots. For it must be evil
dent to the most approved railroad hater,
that the interest of that corporation re-
sides in the most thorough population of
this State with an independent class OF
producers. Il is to its interest not only to
have the soil cultivated that it may carry
the products to market, but to have il
titled by the many, that it may carry sup.
plies to them, and they themselves IS
travellers, and because in the varied cult
ure they may produce, as compared to the
few, shereis an increase of products. So,
too, by the settlement of the country by
many, mercantile carrying and commercial
shipping is augmented. and in these the
railroad company finds increased business.
Tnus every selfish confederation inclines
that corporation to encourage the found
lag of many communities, the indie
prudence of small landed proprie-
s1rs, and the most varied system Of agri-
culture. The second agency referred to
is to be credited 20 the same corporation,
and needs only to be named. It is the es-
tabl;shmeas AZ the East Of immigration
bureaus under competent superintendsnts,