Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-17
Billions Of Acres Bought, Sold and
Given Away.
SCHEMERS AND SPECTATORS WORK
Empires Stolen for Over One
Hundred Years.
CAUTION FOR THE FUTURE

piled and at prices and on terms which
have attracted to this domain millions of
people from all parts of the world
Beginning with the seacoast of underlined
limit the United States has appropriated,
bought and won by treaty on the main
land alone about 1901, 100000 acres of
land. The nineteen older states and Texas
were allowed to keep the 5O0,0OOO00 acres
within their boundaries, 50, 100000 acres
are in the Indian reservation and 10000 GOO
acres in the forest reserve. About S5O,COO-
GOO acres have been sold or given away.
With all this great business Uncle Sam
still has about 475, 600 acres of land,
open to sale or settlement, but the people
are clamoring for homes and the easy
liberality of the years gone by is shortly
to be checked. The real purpose OF the
public domain has ever been to PROVIDE
homes for the people. This has been de-
feated at various times by schemers and
ignorant lawmakers, aided by the vastness
of the estate involved, but as the popula-
ton increases by millions each year, the
public domain shrinks relatively in size
and the point has now been reached when
stock is to be taken, bad laws repealed and
new methods applied; that is, If Congress
agrees with the men who have been study
ing the question from disinterested point
of view.
lands by occupation, cession and purchase
About 260 1900 acres were acquired by
cession and about GOO. 600, 900 by purchase
The 1000, 100000 acres which have been at
the disposal of the government have cost
directly in actual cash about 100000, 600
A large part of this money is the cost of
surveying and administration and the total
does not express by many hundreds of
millions the real cost of this territory, as
included in the expenses of the war and
other departments of the government ne
cessitated by this growing jurisdiction. In
round numbers the government has recelv-
ed about $3.50, 000,000 in cash for the land
sold. Thus it Is that the present vacant
public lands now amounting to about 49,
100000 acres, represent a net actual cost
of only about $5O,OOO,OOO.
The government has paid about twenty
cents per acre for all the land it owns,
including the original cost, the cost Of
surveying and the cost of administration.
The average price received for land sold
has been about forty cents per acre. or
double what was paid for it. If the gov
eminent receives the same price In the
future as it has in the past the receipts
from public land sales will balance the
account so far AS the books of the land
Office are concerned. There are greater
questions involved in this matter, how
ever, than those Of dollars and cents. for
the administration of the public land in
the past has been hne of reckless prodigal-
ity and blindness to the future needs of a
great nation.
Land Given Away.
= Over one hundred million acres have
been given away in the form of bounties
and for military service, over ten million
acres have been donated to the states.
Nearly one hundred million acres have
passed to individuals under the notorious
swamp law, under which, by means OF
perjury and Misrepresentation, valuable
agricultural land has been stolen in enor-
nous tracts. Over one hundred million
acres has been given away for educational
purposes. Some Of this land has fulfilled
it's purpose, but from very little of it have
the schools, to which 1t was granted, re-
ceived the full benefit. The states receiv
ing this land have issued scrip, sold 1t to
individuals at low prices and the scrip has
been used to locate property to far greater
value than represented in the money re-
ceived by the college or school fund.
Millions of acres have gone under the
in salt claims and under the timber and
stone acts, all of which give the right of
location. To the railroads of the country
Congress has donated. during the past fifty
years, over 100 900 acres Of land, nearly
all of which is Of the choicest character.
With all this liberality, however. Con-
gress must be given credit for having re-
fused to consider thousands of wildcat
schemes whereby millions Of acres of the
public land were to be diverted to individ-
ual ownership. Several thousand bills have
been introduced in Congress, each bill pro-
posing a land donation to forward some
scheme. These propositions have taken
remarkable range. Men have come before
Congress asking for a grant Of land to aid
them in arctic exploration. to start dairies
private schools, to pay the expenses Of
trips abroad, and in fact it would be diff
ficult to name any industry or any branch
of human invention which Congress has not
been asked to favor In some form or other
with land grant.
OF the vast amount of money paid by
the government for it's great public estate,
nearly half, or about 500, 00O, 600, has been
paid to the Indians for quit claim deeds to
territory under their control Another
$1OO,0O0,O0O has been paid to states and
foreign countries for land. To survey this
land and pay the expenses Of the land Of
flee from the foundation Of the government
to the present day has cost nearly
When the United States government first
went into the land business the only idea
main In any quantity to any one who might
apply at such price as could be realized
This system practically prevailed until 1S41.
when the so-called pre-emption law was
passed. This is the first law which recOg-
nized 16O acres of land as being the ideal
size for a farm or homestead. 1t was not
possible, however, to secure enough land
under this law to carry out the purposes of
those desiring to create large holdings,
SO in 1862 Congress passed the homestead
law, still leaving the presumption law in
effect, however.
The homestead law came nearer to rep.
resenting the ideas of those who believed
that the public land should be given to the
people. This law required a five years resi-
dence and evidence Of good intention in the
matter of cultivation before title passed
from the government to the settler. The
land schemers, however, soon became dis
satisfied with this and had the law amend
ed, so that after six months residence the
settler could obtain title by paying $1.25 per
acre for the land instead of getting 1t free
IL he lived on 1t for five years. In 1873 the
timber culture law was passed. which gave
the settler the opportunity of acquiring
another 100 acres by planting certain
number Of trees. Theoretically the law was
correct in principle, but in practice the
conditions were almost impossible, espe-
cfally on the semi-arid plains of the west,
where few kinds of timber flourish.
The Desert Law.
/. Still the land grabbers were not satisfied.
A big ranch company in California found
It necessary to secure title to about 100000
acres of land, which It desired to use for
pasturage; so this company agitated the
enactment of desert law. which enabled
them to secure title to the land by, osten-
sibly at least, furnishing that land with an
artificial water supply. This scheme
worked so successfully that the demand
for such desert law became general. and