The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-11-24
BY C. L. WANTLAND.

been told and retold so often in Wash
ington and in the west that at last
the Importance OF the subject is be-
ginning to be recognized.
Uncle Sam has secured from other
countries and his own Indians in all
about 1000, 600, GOO of acres, and now
owns about halt Of that amount
The original cost Of the vast terri
tory covered by the Louisiana pur-
chase in 1903 was about cents per
acre; the cessiOn from Mexico IN 1888
cost about 4 cents per acre; Alaska.
secured in 1867, cost about . cents per
acre. The net cost of all the remain
ing public lands after considering eX-
penditureS and creditins receipts, Is
probably % cents per acre, or total Of
$3.50, 900. 900.
1t now costs about $4,000 per an
mum to maintain the land department,
which employs about 5000 persons. Up
20 1887 the total outlay had been about
S3OO,0e0,00O, or about 800 600 in eX-
cess of receipts, but twenty-seYen
great states had been added to the
Union, which the census Of 1880 showed
had wealth amounting to more than
20, G00 00e 000-
40 man can estimate safely the pres
ant value of the public domain. Prop
erly handled, its development may as
tcnish the world and may provide the
safety valve needed when the next pc
Tiod of depression comes to the cOuu-
try. Neglected as at present, and
made subject to additional state and
national complications, it may prove
10 be a curse instead of a blessing.
Omitting Alaska and other distant
possessions. We find over 500 600
acres in the western states and terri
tories, about one-half of which are IN
1rveyed. About $50, 100000 acres have
been reserved for national parks and
Indian and forest reservations. About
100000 600 acres are considered of some
good cor grazing purposes and are now
used by about 25 900. 600 sheep and cat
Tie, as common fighting grounds, under
conditions gradually growing worse as
the prevention Of control makes pro-
lection and Improvement impossible.
These large tracts not being subject
TO state and county taxation. force
additional tax burdens upon lands un-
der private ownership, and prevent
the states from using their school
lands to the best advantage. Texas,
owning all of its lands, receives from
lease mentals each year about $4,000
Oklahoma, since being allowed to lease
school lands, has received about ST.
100000.
The public land states and territories.
leasing lands they now own, receive
about 100000 each year, and if the
public government lands within these
states were under lease, at the same
average rates, the amount to be re-
allied i'm ten years would be sufficient.
IN connection with the net receipts
from public land sales, to more than
double the area of irrigated land in
all the west now estimated at 10000 600
acres.
The census returns show that i'm the
eleven western states there are now
only about 250,000 ia, ms, and that
about 50 per cent of tie people are
living in the towns and cities In this
great country, agTicultUP is not keep
ing pace with any other branch of in
dustry on with population. and yet we
are assured that probably 1850. 600
acres of the public lands can &c re-
Claimed II the waters, which now run
30 waste, are stored for use at the
proper time. Surely the secretary of
the interior was right when he said;
mat this vast acreage, capable of
sustaining and comfortably support
ing under a proper system of irriga-
ton population of at least 50. 600 600
people, should remain practically q
progress of the age or in keeping with
the possibilities Of the future"
. - .
In 1892 a great political party declared
the public lands to be & sacred trust
and that they should be granted in linn
Ted quantities.
For ten years the homestead law
was discussed in congress.
In 1870 a compromise m sasure. pro-
Vlding Tor cash payment of % cents
per acre after five years residence.
passed both houses but President Blu
chanan vetoed it, declaring that con-
gress had no power TO grant free homes
on the public domain or to grant land
Iof use IN tne education of the peo-
pie.
In 1862 the great free homestead act
was passed President Lincoln signed.
and considered it one of the best acts
of his life
About 12O,O0O,OOO acres have been
taken up under this law and under its
provisions, and with tn assistance of
railroads, the prairie states were de-
yelOped.
If different conditions had not been
encountered as the westward move
ment reached what we now know as
arid America. probably under the oper-
ations of this same law the western
states would have today a large pOpu- !
latlOn instead of having more than - /
per cent of their land area still in
Uncle Sans hands.
In 1888 a convention Of trans Missouri
states and territories was held in Den
Yer. Before that convention Governor
Samuel H Ebert of Colorado argued !
the cause OF the arid west lie stated /
the conditions clearly. suggested as. the |
rs
gation. and closed with this appeal:
Let US then lay our wants respect /
fully and earnestly before our natiOna I
congress. Let US send uD petitions 1
from every state, territory, town and 4
hamlet confident that the statesman !
ship Of the country win recognize and 4
provide for the needs of the country.
No graHder possibilities ever sum /
moned a people to d vigorous and unit /
ed effort
Thread your mountain valleys anC
parks with these great arteries of ply j
steal life, throw over your arid plains 4
the cool network of q thousand canals /
and lakes pour over them the annual /
tides of labor and life flowing from the 1
east. and there is no picture of mar
vest and vintage that viii equal the /
harvest glory which the benehcieat (
mother k-iu spread at your feet. There 1
IS no dream of commercial wealth auc /
commercial power that VIII equal the 1
realization Of that to which this grand /
counueet 80 the ~N--~'- -0nditiOn e.
hale a continent invites US"
--y3sta eOs q -o4, -..------ nave srgeC I
action since then. but congress has :
failed to realize the great Importance 4
or the subject. Very little construc-
tive legislation has been secured.
q o O.
The forest reservations were estab-