Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-01-04

TO choose from land lying at an angle OF
about torty,fve degrees and halt covered
With cliffs and boulders. But in some of
ou- counties large tracts OF the finest
land are owned By men living in other
/ States. or. il living in our own State, the
resul. is the same, as men can not buy the
I lands for farms or settle upon them, unless
. l. be as squa,terS or tenants. This has
! been q great bar in EIuiering the settle
msut aud development Of many Of the
/ best portions Of III" State, and will continue
to keep these portiouS.in the back woods so
long as go much land is held by few men.
! This is . serious national question.
I There are now more workiDgmen in our
cities than can find employment. The
tide Of immigration is still pouring in upon
the east ard upon the west They must
be furnished means Of making a living,
T They caano. find it in the cities tor there
age lille men there already. They must
then 20 upon tarms. Bat there are now
ouly 100000 acres Of land left where
m~r can obtain free homes, and that soon
I will be gone. Still there viii be millions
aud millions ofacres lying uuculuyated, but
/ in the possession OF large land owners, and
men Of small means can not buy an acre
bit. But in the mean time the number
Of unemployed men and the consequent
disconteut will De increasing. When o
certain point has been reached, what
then,
In reterriUg to the agrarisn laws Of
| Rome, Mr.. Gill sounds this warning for
or republic The soil of country ia
! ike the blood once it is badly viuated it
seems impossible ever TO cleanse 1t, and the
poison keeps constantly breaking out. 1t
was thus with Rome, whose public do
main, though continually increased by
conquest, wss helpless 10 protect the pub
lie from the consequences Of early i'm.
providence. Periods OF distress, agita
/ lions, struggles between rich and poor,
Iard laws made under terror Of the fire
brand in the hands of hunger, are the
phenomena which, like ulcers on the hu-
mar body mark the progress OF sgrarian
disease throughout the course OF Roman
history. Feudalism, landlord
ism. usury, slavery spread their humOrs
over Romes tarr body. The ulcers became
cancers, aud the disease, 90 thoughtlessly
admitted into the system, became the dis
ease the patient died Of in the end. Lat
iiundia perdidere Italian" wrote the his
,oran with the scientific precision of a
physician closing the entry Of an interest
ing cas-.
/ Does America, that looks TO no con.
quest 10 add 10 her domain, whose day for
purchasing I.ouisianas and Alaskss ID
over, America that is inviting lhe overflow
populations Of the world to take possession
OF here territory, and is giving to every
one the privilege Of citizenship, that allows
even aliens to possess her sOil--does Amer
lea nope that the law of cause and effect
will suspend itself for her benefit, or that
The consequences that followed the mis-
takes OF Rome will not follow like mistakes
when committed By q republic Of the nine
teeu,h century? She would seem indeed
10 os confident laa, q miracle will happen
Tor her protection 10 Judge By the stupen.
dour reckiessuess OF her policy in regard
20 the land She Is sguauderiDg her pub
lie laul o, such rate that it would be
rash 10 name the hour beyond which there
will De square foot Of it still left; and
she has allowed to intrench themselves
upon her soil systems and Conditions OF
land tenure that have spread ruin and
misery wherever they have been given
EJotirg in the Old World
But there is a forecast one may make
that it IS as prac,i, ii rs q meteorological
storm warning. 1t is that day for an
American LiCiuius has arrived who will
reform the landlord and tenant tenures,
remodel the homestead and presumption,
the timber culture and desert laws under
which 50 much ,raul is perperated, and
restrain the eucroGchments OF monopoly
upon the public domain. Let us hope,
with AN abiding faith in American human
nature and law-cvalJ, that the new laws
vii, no. De so framed that the men OF
money can evade them and that the Amer
/ can Senator who takes the part OF Licinius
vii. not ike his cynical prototype, be their
earliest yiolator. Let US hope that the
evil may be checked in time before it take
root aud spread, and before it be LEI. for
some T5erius Gcaschus, in noble despe
ration to shake the republic to its iouuda-
tons, and fail of his oH7ac; after all
The administration OF President Cleve-
land has called halt in the reckless
suuauderiug Of the nations land, and it is
hoped ;he good beginning made will con
,inue to ac; until the growth Of the ulcer
that is fastening tie teLtacles upon
the land Of this nation shall be stopped.
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