The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-10
A BARGAIN COUNTER RUSH FOR
 LANDS.

LANDS.
 The scramble for state school land in anticipation of the advance in price May 21 is not unlike many such instances of eagerness to secure public land upon the opening of Indian reservations. Many are buying wholly upon chance and know not what they are getting Some will find when they visit the land they have purchased that foutune was with them and that their property is worth many times what they paid for it. Others, possibly, will be disappoint- ed and will forfeit the small amount they have paid as the first instalment on the purchase price. While some buy without having knowledge of the char acter of the land, others incur the trouble and expense of examining the tracts, so that they know before they invest that they are getting the value of their money.
 This rush to buy land just at this time manifests a peculiar trait in hu- man character. The state school lands have lain open to purchase all these years, and great majority of the peo- pie have never even thought of exer- cising their right to purchase hree hundred and twenty acres at the low price of dollar and quarter an acre, The legislature passed an act doubling the price, and immediately hundreds of people become eager to avail them selves of the opportunity to. buy this class of land before the new law goes into effect But doubling the legal price of two sections out of every thit- ty-six in the distant and unsettled DOT tions of the state can scarcely have a. very marked effect upon the real mar ket value of the property.
 It is the feeling that an opportunity is passing that creates the desire to buy, and opportunities are things the enterprising American never likes to miss. Whether it is a two dollar shrt waist marked down to $1.9S, or salf- section of land upon which the sale price will be advanced in few days, the chance to get a bargain" is too tempting to let pass. The buyers, eith- CT of shirt waists or of land, do not al- ways stop to inquire whether they are getting value for their money. In the case of the state land, however, it would seem that there is little proba- bility of loss if one exercises reason- able degree of judgment in making his selection. Blindly purchasing the first school land that is found vacant will very likely result in loss, for there are doubtless many sections in the poorest part of eastern Oregon that have no real value whatever. But a man who selects land after examining the sur- veyors field notes in region known to have some power of producing vegeta- ton, and in a portion of the state which is likely to be crossed by railroad such man can scarcely uose upon an investment of SIPS per acre.
 Some such will lose, no doubt, but the chances are good for an investor to realize in time the amount of his in- vestment at least. Oregon is yet new state, and the development of the east ern portion in the next few years should be very rapid and great. Land that was considered worthless twenay years ago is now producing crops, and the future may witness similar changes in the estimate of the value of land. The success of some of the great irriga- tion enterprises now planned for east ern Oregon would add very materially to the value of all the bunchgrass land of that region. Those who are buying state land from the map" should re- member that they are practically play ing a lottery and if they draw blanks theymust blame no one but themselves. Let none such give Oregon bad name because of their 1oss.--Portland Orego- nian.