Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-08
uNPREcEpENTEp SCENES.
FORGETTING LAND GRANTS.

Were the owners of block of land to
give half of it to capitalist, on condition
that factory be erected by him on the
charge them with squsndering their estate.
Were the aforesaid owners members of a
joint stock company, each having an equal
interest in the block, will anybody seri-
ously contend that they would have genu-
inc grievance, or such cause Of complaint
against their Board of Directors as to war.
rant ousting them from office There is
but one answer. Instead of depouncing
the Directors they would be most likely to
commend them for exercising business
prudence and sagscity. fer they would
recognize that half of their land had been
more than doubled in vslue by the i'm.
provemeut erected on the adjoining half
The vacant land next the factory will GER
tainly now possess some value, while posi-.
bly, the whole block may have been utterly
worthless before.
The fact is very well known that land
is constantly given away by individuals as
well as by small communities, with pre-.
cisely the same object-to enhance the
value of the remainder. So there is really
no gifts or giving away involved in trans
actions OF this character, but merely an
exchange of equiyslents-a bargain in
which each party believes it has secured an
advantage. When we hear of the people
of wide-awake town raising means for
the purchase of real estate which they pro-
pose to give away on condition that court
house, college, asylum, manufsctory, rail
road shops or other public or private insti-
tuition be located in their midst, we all
know what it means. 1t requires no very
acute vision to see the string tied to every
dollar thrown into the pool.
Demagogues in the present Congress are
bowling for the wholesale forfeiture of rail.
road land grants. Much of the clamor
about restoring these lands to the public
domain has no rational basis, and much OF
it is positively dishonest. When the Gov
ernmant makes a land grant to promote
railway construction it acts from precisely
the same motives which impels an individ-
ual to give away half of a worthless estate
in order that the remainder may become
valuable. The Government gives to the
railroad builders only half the land along
the line of the road. The grant includes
only the alternate sections. The instant
the grant is made tde Government doubles
the price charged to settlers for its alter.
nate sections along the railroad. The rate
is raised from 81 25 to 81 80 an acre.
A settler can get homestead anywhere
in the wilderness to-day for 81 % an acre.
but farm uuconnected with the iron
highway to market is about as uuproft-
able thing as a man can well own. Build
a railroad into the wilderness and the land
at once acquires value. The Government
having worthless land, invites capital to do
the building. The inducement is land
grant. Along the line of the proposed
road, within given area, there lies, say
10000. 900 acres, which the Government
will dispose of to settlers for 81 % an acre,
at which price it IS worth SO 500, 900 in
the aggregate. But there are no settlers
or purchasers. Without railroad the re-
gion is Only sterile waste. So the Gov
eminent concludes to make q grant of
5000, 900 acres to whoever will build the
road through this wilderness, itself retain
ing the other 5000, 600 acres, to be dis
posed Of at 81 80 an acre. Should the
Government sell its 100000 acres (the
alternate sections which it has reserved }
at 50 so an acre, it would realize SO. 800, =
900, exactly the sum it would have re-
ceived for the 100000 at 81 p an acre.
Now that railroad is built, the Gev-
ernment receives as much for 5000, 900
acres as it demanded before for 10000, 900
acres.
Who loses by this operation? The rail
road investors make a good turn, but who
loses anything? Certainly not the Gov
ernment, and by the Government let it be
understood that we mean the people. The
agitation which aims at the forfeiture OF
the California and Oregon and the North,
ern Pacific land grants is without excuse.
It is carrying antirailroad feeling to un-
warranted extremes. Il is not so much a
popular demand for land forfeiture SIS it Is
passionate clamor for land contiscstion by
communists and demagogues. Virginia