, 1892-01-20
STARVING FOR LAND,
GREED AND WANT DRIVING THE
PEOPLE TO THE WATERS EDGE.

AoHNNtaA NoAAtsloAAtAAN-
The spirit of progress moves ever
westward. Now that the feet of those
who march in the stupendous procession
have touched the shores of the great
western ocean, what next? The march
cannot continue into the sea; the hosts
cannot form in mighty phalanx in the
sky; man ann bridge the ocean in one
swift leap. But the advancement of
civilization cannot cease. Perhaps now
it will turn back and do its work over
develop the crude beginnings, fill up
the APPS and right some of the wretched
mistakes it has made, for modern civili-
zation has hurried along too fast to do
its work well.
The area of h earth has been gone
over, the inhabitants all visited with at
least some small portion of its blessings
and many of its evils; they are settled,
or at least placed, and a sort of hap
Hazard system of relations established
between them. The change is great
between the time when men wandered
freely in the wilderness, dwelt in caves
and lived on the game they killed with
their stone weapons and today. But
some of the privileges enjoyed by all in
those barbarous races would not be
slighted by many of the people of this
age. They could not lose the right to
occupy some spot of earth, and nopower
denied the right of every ont to the roots
lie gathered, the animals he killed and
the fish he caught in the streams.
Still, a world overrun with people who
could do no more than this would not be
t. desirable state of things. The cruel
M%althusian theory would nave had a
continuous excuse for its ever being
claborated-wars, famines, pestilences
Icing inevitable would likewise have
been necessary to the survivors. But the
spirit of progress should now assume
new forms. 1t can no longer hurry over
every foot of land in the world and place
its ban or its blessing las it may bs
c%onsidered) on all who occupy it. 1t has
accomplished this much to the last
limit. The common people of today are
turning their eyes in every direction all
over the globe for homes. The broad
rVpanse of the United States, which once
teemed exhaustless, is now nearly all
fenced in with "A parchment scroll"
There is practically no valuable free
Land within our boundaries. That deep
instinct in human nature-to take firm
hold of the soil as a foundation for all
the other blessings of life-has driven
llen into mountain Businesses, to aka
line deserts II deadly swamps in the
hope of building houses that could not
lie taken away from them. Wherever
, ,e fairly prosperous settlement is made
" l~eveling rocky hills, irrigating des-
,rts or filling up swamps a thousand
martyr lives nave been sacrificed. Yet
20 intense is the land hunger that there
are more thousands ever ready to follow
the ~frailest inducements held ont for
possible homes.
Even the shallowest conservative are
ceasing to ask the old question, why
do you not go out on the and and make
homes for yourselves of the starving,
homeless humanity that seems SO super
Nuous in our great industrial centers.
For it is becoming too evident what
terrible risks, what keen struggles, what
superhuman ~endeavors, men and women
will undertake when there is a bare
possibility offered of gaining a firm foot
hold on the earth.
No sooner had the government prom
ised to throw open for settlement some
reserved tracts of land in the Indian
Territory, than throngs of men and
"Ollth " ~ bOlutlS, hlitllN
eager to gain the coveted region at tn,
first signal. Men raced to the death,
and women fought with men for a spot
of earth to call their own. For days
old and young of both sexes stood in
line under storms and rains, enduring
stoically miseries that might well daunt
the bravest, to make their titles good.
There is no scheme so wild or hazard
Gus, which promises possession of land
to the landless, that does not find its ad-
herents. Homes in the United States
are becoming more and more difficult to
obtain; people are turning with longing
eyes to other American countries, coun-
tries of which little is known, except in
a vague way that they are hot, malari-
Gus and full of reptiles. Perhaps"
they are thinking, these countries may
not be so bad after all; fruit is easily
raised there, and we need never worry
about the price of coal"
And SO, though the distance is great
and the means of getting there very
poor, steamers being few and far be-
tween, though a seething surf surrounds
them and wharves are unheard of,
though fevers and poisonous reptiles
lurk in the rank vegetation and impene-
trable swamps, though the worst of
hardships await those who reach them
in safety, many are eagerly going there
for land.
Heartless schemers who have shrewd-
ly discerned this intense desire of home
less men have taken advantage of it and
are proposing fraudulent colonization
schemes. The only part they assume in
the plans is to take all the money the
poor colonists possess, then send them
to wilds no N has ever explored, to
brave dangers no one can estimate,
Homeseekers should thoroughly in
vestigate every scheme for colonization
before placing their money and their
future welfare in the hands of unknown
parties.
But is it true that and ID becoming
too scarce to supply the population of
the earth? Has the time really come
when all the desirable localities are oc.
cupied and hat from now on whoever
seeks a home of his own must do so at
the peril of his life? Is it true that only
the mountains, swamps, deserts and far.