The Ottawa free trader., 1884-12-20
ALIEN LANDOWNERS.

days ago unanimously instructed Represen-
tative Oats To report favorably his bill pro.
viding that no alien, foreigner or persons
other than citizens of the United States
shall acquire title to or own lands within
the United States. 1t is provided, however,
that such foreign born persons as have le-
gally declared their intention TO become
citizens of the United States shall be eligi-
bic TO acquire land.
1t is none too early for our government
to take decisive steps in this matter. The
theory of our national land laws is that the
soil is to be owned by those who will cult
vate it. On this are based our homestead
aud pre- emption laws and the discourage
mentS thrown in the way of entering gov
ernment lands in larger quantities than
quarter sections. All the surveys divide it
up in parcels at least that small, and there
is no idea anywhere held out that it is to
be staked off in immense tracts by non
resident holders and bought up on specua
ton without any effort to utilize its pro-
ductiveness. The purpose of the national
land laws has been defeated in various
ways-firstly and mainly by the vicious
practice of turning large bodies Of the pub
lie domain over to railroads. and by them
to spectators and monopolists; and sec
ondly by the cattle graziers, who parcel out
immense tracts among themselves and in
defiance Of the laws Of congress maintain
possession under laws and regulations of
their own. OF these, however, the surging
mass of western emigration will in the end
get centrol. The more pressing problem
is, to stop the encroachments of spectators
and menopolists, who are possessing them.
selves of vast bodies by an indisputable
title And these are almost exclusively
capitalists of the old world, who possess
themselves of large blocks of western land,
some of which they Use for grazing but
much of it is lying unused. They can buy
it very low and afford to wait until the sec
ton Of country where it is located settles
up and it will become valuable. Then they
either dispose of their holdings at an enor-
nous profit or import a number of their old
world tenants and establish landed aris-
tocracy in free America. A Nebraska
journal recently printed partial list of
such holdings, which ranged from four
million acres to five thousand acres, and
aggregated nearly twenty one million acres.
In some cases these lands were used as cat
tie ranches, and in others they remained
idle. All belonged to alien holders; and at
the rate this gobbling is going on, close the
of the present century will see the body of
of our present untenanted public domain
in the hands of foreign nabobs. The ne,
cessity for congressional interference in the
form of the Oates bill above referred to
thus becomes urgent and imperative.
As strong In point on this question we
copy and heartily endorse some extracts
from very able article in The Peoria Dem
ocrat: "In all the countries except our
own," says that excellent journal, the men
who own the land control the people; it is
not so here, for the reason land is cheap
and abundant Still it is being rapidly t.
ken up, and probably before the close of
this century there will be none of the pub
lie domain left. In all the older sections
of the country the land is working into
fewer hands. Farms are increasing in
size, and the ownership of real estate en-
titles its holders to a certain amount of re-
spect unknown few years ago. There are
not near so many landowners in this state
to day as there was ten years ago and the
number will grow less year by year. Moth
ing wrong is thought of this state of affairs
at present, for any man of tolerable means
can go farther west and acquire all the
land he wants at reasonable price. But
the time will come when there will be no
cheap western lands; western holders will
not part with their farms Then a con
dition will exist similar to that in the old
world; the landowners will be the aristo.
Gratis and their tenants mere vassals. Land
can be used to build up families; personal
cannot be tied up except in such
a manner as to risk its safety. Men are
more ambitious for the future welfare of
their descendants than is generally sup
posed, and many of large means invest in
lands, so that their children and grandchil-
dren will be provided for. Encourage
system of this kind and the grandchildren
will also tie up the same land for further
term of years, and so on until system ap
preaching the English law of estates will
prevail. This can be prevented in one
way only--that is, by cutting down the
number of acres one person is permitted to
hold At present, where it is cheap, lGO
acres is enough for man and his wife,
with like amount additional for each OF
his children, to be given them upon their
All persons should be disqualified
from holding more; and then, no matter
~ NN.aNt NtV.r