Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-03-23

Reasons NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF
North Dakota Plain to the Expert.
eneed Pioneers Of the state Of
Iowa.
Sioux City, Iowa, March 23.-Iowa
has ceased to be a child state and has
become a mother state.
The farm state which SO recently
the western border Of civiliz-
alton is sending out her children to
all the west, and hereafter Iowa re-
will be with sons that have
gone out to prairie homes, and not
with Ohio or Indiana fathers of pill
grims to the Hawkeye state.
For two years there has been a on
stantly increasing march of farmers
away from Iowa. This Is so noticeable
that the question has been asked:
What is the matter with Iowa?
Nothing is the matter. Iowa's sons
are leaving their homes to do what
their fathers have done in Iowa. 1t is
not that they think too lightly of
Iowa's fields, but that they have
learned we'll the lesson Of the pioneer.
So it is that every week farmers of
all ages are going from Iowa to all
the states of the southwest. to the far
northwest, to the Dakotas, to Mime
sofa, and even into Canada. in search
of cheap land that may be made high
priced land by the skillful method Of
the Iowa farmer.
1t is impossible to estimate the num-
Der. Last week there passed through
Sioux City in a single day three emf
grant trains of an aggregate of
eighty-One cars. Nearly all of these
we're Iowans. and nearly all were
going to North Dakota. Sioux City is
but one of the many gateways to the
northwest. At the little town of
Mapleton, half a dozen cars of emf
grants spent five days last week be
seeching passing conductors to take
them away to the Dakotas. The emf
grant business is ~ccnfessedly larger
than the railroads can handle with
comfort to the passengers.
A Holstein Oowa) banker says that
patrons of his bank have spent $780,
900 for Canada lands alone. In fact,
the buying of lands outside the state
reached such an extent in Iowa that in
northwestern Iowa three months ago
the banks became alarmed. The order
vent through the banking associations
that no more money should be loaned
Iowa. This has been strictly lived ut
to. Wealthy men whose credit is
VIGOROUSLY good have been unable tc
procure a LOGAN of 500 upon Dakota
farms or lands of any state excep'
Iowa. Notwithstanding this. the low;
farmers are keeping right on buyin.
western lands.
Draw a line across the state o
Iowa near the Chicago & Northwest
ern railroad and you will have a yer
fair dividing line between the south
western and northwestern emigrants
Up till this year many of those in tn
south half bought Missouri lands
However, Missouri realty has &C
vanced, and now the Iowan goes fal
Their, to Kansas, Oklahoma, Indian tel
ritory. Texas, or even New Mexico.
In the north central part of low
the trend is to Minnesota and Mort
Dakota. In the northeastern corne
of the state is one of the most favor
able fields for agents having Sout
Dakota lands for sale. Northwestern
Iowa farmers usually move to WASH
ington, Idaho or Montana.
These emigrants are buying land a
prices that We're paid for Iowa Ian,
not more than thirty to fifty year
ago. They are depending upon thes
cheap lands to rise in value, as dit
the Iowa farms, and belive they ma,
win as large fortunes as did the earl,
comers of Iowa.
In this part of Iowa instances ar
not rare in which land that sold {
quarter of a century ago for $40 al
acre now brings SOS. So the sons o
these men who earned this big ad
vance are not buying high-pricet
neighboring land. but they want to d,
as their fathers did, so they take
railroad and go west until they cal
find $40 land.
1t is conservative to say hat tn
average price of improved Iowa LAM
is now in excess of $50 an acre, AM
much of it is as high as $40 or $50
Pioneers who bought this land a few
decades ago were ridiculed as wer,
the pilots of the prairie schooners VIII
journeyed fifteen or twenty years ag'
to South Dakota. Iowa was more of
wilderness then than North or Soutl