River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-12-19
Public Lands.


energy and secure enlarged results.
Such combination, in the abstract, is
certainly to be commended. The
merging Of associated industries may
result in restricting trade and prevent
ing competition, and such comhina-
tons should be under legal restraint.
These industries that have thus far
been at work under consolidation
have resulted in increasing the pro
duct and generally in reducing the
cost to the consumer-who is one Of
the fellows benefited and is not the
fellow that is kicking up the fuss.
The kicker is generally the fellow
whom the trust has left out of Job
and who wanted seven cents out of
the consumer when the "trust" that
superseded him is getting along with
one cent from the consumer. These
''trusts" are all industries. They
are doing work, work for something
that is in demand, something that
benefits the people, or at least, some
thing they want, while working
for their own interest. They are
useful to the state in proportion as
they reduce the cost of production
and enlarge the product for which
the reduced cost makes an increasing
demand. The managers of these
industries are "schemers," but their
schemes to bring success to them
must at the same time give advan-
tages to their customers over the
old methods or they fail.
There is a class of schemers, how
ever, whose schemes result to bene-
fit the schemers exclusively, and
that to the detriment of others at the
same time and in the same ratio that
benefit rebounds to them. We refer
to spectators, having in n;nd
especially the spectators in landed
estates. 1t is a process similar to
gambling. Nothing is produced.
There is no accretion. 1t is a seq
regation. What one man gets an
other loses.
The lands in the north half of this
state belonged to the government
and should have been held subject
to homestead or retained for sale to
actual settlers at the nominal price
of SIPS an acre. Had statesmen
been endowed with more of the wis
dom of craftsmanship and less of
greed; with more of honesty of pur-
pose and faithfulness to their trusts
as servants of the people, this ex-
tensive area would now be peopled
with prospecting farmers. The most
of the good land is now in the hands
of spectators, obtained for mere
"song" and which is held at high
figures, at prices from five to ten
times its cost to them. The ethics
OF business permit man to take five
dollars, or five hundred, from a man,
as does the ethics of highway rob-
berry, giving him in return, in the
one case, nothing, and in the other,
what cost the seller a mere trifle as
compared with the price taken. The
"trust" has the excuse for existence
that it is producer, and adds some
thing to the state. The speculator
has no such excuse. What he gets
in addition to what he invested, an
other man loses.
ne best OF the uncultlvated agri-
cultural lands are in the hands of
spectators, but one-third of the area
of the United States is still public
land-belongs to the government.
This constitutes about 6oo,ooo,ooo
acres and is nearly all west of the
9sth degree of longitude and is in
what is called the arid regions. In
this belt of territory there is not
sufficient amount of average annual
rainfall to insure the maturing of
agricultural crops. To make large
portion Of this area profitable as
titled land, irrigation is necessary.
1t is estimated that 100000 acres
OF good soil in this region may be
reclaimed to agriculture by irriga-
ton, but to effect this, great reservoirs
must be built at the cost of millions
of dollars. Congress has in view the
sequestration of these lands from the