The Republican journal., 1903-11-26
Battle of Need and Greed.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Nov. %. There
will be great battle in this Congress
over the repeal of the land laws. 1t is
a question of direct personal interest
to every American citizen, and every
American citizen should make it his
business to understand the merits of it.
Under the Desert Land Law, an in
dividual can take up 500 acres without
living upon it day or an hour. A man
and his wife can take up $40 acres, equal
to a square mile, of the most fertile soil
in the world in this way.
The first question is. do the American
people want to give their land to any
body save an actual resident who To-
Gates for the purpose of making home
and realizing an independent living? Is
it good public policy to encourage the
acquisition of land by enterprising
spectators who expect to sell it at a
large profit to the real settler, or to
rent it to tenant farmer, or to con-
solidate it with other cheaply-acquired
holdings into large estate?
These are questions which are being
asked of congressman and Sena tors at
Washington They are questions which
affect the people of the East as we'll as
those living where the public lands are
located
Now, why does this question come
home to every tireside in this country?
Simply because this land now belongs
to all the people. 1t is the heritage of
every American child. 1t is such in no
merely sentimental sense, but in the
most downright practical way. 1t rep
resents his hope of getting chance to
work for himself on his own land, OF
making a competency for old age, and
of leaving productive property for his
children.
NOT NOMINATING LAWS.
This hope is defeated by existing laws
under which the most valuable agricul-
tural lands are being absorbed at an un-
precedented rate for speculation and
monopoly. And there is no way OF
preventing it SO long as these laws re-
main upon the statute books. They
were not intended to foster real home
making, except by most uncertain
and indirect process, and in their actual
application they do not usually produce
this result.
This is the truth about the Desert
Land Law, as it is known to everybody
who has seen it in operation. 1t 1t was
necessary once, as means OF tempting
capital to speculate in the development
of new countries, 1t IS no longer neces-
sary because Uncle Sam himself has
taken off his coat and gone to digging
bitches in order to assist the masses of
the people in getting homes on his big
estate.
What is proposed as substitute for
the present law? An amendment to
the Homestead Law, by which a settler
may initiate his filing before the water
is on the land, and obtain title only
when he has lived upon and cultivated
the land in good faith for five years.
This plan will work no hardship what
ever upon the actual settler, but it will
shut the door ON the speculator and
render it extremely difficult for syndi-
Gates to consolidate many small hold
ings into few large ones.
SMALL FARMS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED
Here is another question which some
of the Western legislators will have to
answer: Why should anybody be per-
mitted to acquire 800 acres of irrigated
land? Why should a single family be
permitted to take $40 acres through the
filing of husband and wife? Is that
amount of irrigated land essential for
a prosperous home?
III Utah, according to the census
figures, the average farm unit is y
acres. And Utah is in the temperate
zone, with a much shorter growing sea-
son than many other parts OF the ard
region. The utmost limit which any
single family should be permitted to
acquire is quarter-section, or 100 acres
of irrigated land. There are many
places where a limitation of 50 acres,
or even of 40 acres, would be far more
reasonable.
Is it good public policy to give sim
gle family an amount of irrigated land
which would comfortably support from
eight to sixteen families? That is what
we are doing when the law is strictly
complied with, while there are instances
where single families have acquired
the ownership of lands which would
support ten thousand people. This has
been done, of course, through the
shameless abuse of the law.
LANDS GOING RAPIDLY.
T The question is before the country,
awaiting the decision of the peoples
representatives in Congress. 1t is
live issue to-day, but it is one which
time will remove from the field of dis
cussion. That is to say, all the best
lands will be gone unless action is
taken without much more delay. They
are being taken now at the rate of
about 1000 acres a day.
The battle is between human need
and human greed. Every man who
wants his country to be as wise as the
most ordinary business man, and every
man who wants his share of the public
land for himself or his children, should
stand by the President of the United
States in his demand for the immediate
reform of this crying evil.-William E.
Smyth.