Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-07-05
a WARNING TO FARMERS.
Lesson of Land Speculation, "Let wen
Enough Alone"

Lesson of Land Speculation, "Let Well
Enough Alone"
Under thu title. The wild Land Craze"
Robert G. Mackay presents in Collier 3
Weekly seasonahle and suggestive advice.
emphasizing his conclusions with facts
from the melancholy history OF former land
crazes. Let we'll enough alone is his
warning signal. III you have a good farm
don't be anxious to leave It and follow
the gilded promise OF the land agents as
the moth follows the flame. While citing
Iowa as an example, the facts apply with
equal force to farmers in Nebraska and
adjoining states. Some Iowa farmers were
rich. contented and happy" says Mr..
Mackay. referring to former booms; they
were blessed with abundant crops-ther
gransries bursting with corn and wheat.
and they had cattle and sheep upon a
thousand hills They had money out at
interest and stored in banks and safety
vaults. waiting for profitable investment.
They were the happiest. most contented
people TO be found i'm our broad domain.
1T was then the tempter came and spread
out before these simple. thrifty farmers
the alluring bait Of cheap lands and large
profits. Idle money In time grows restless
congested money breaks its bounds peri
odicaIy. Just where It will drift no man
can tell-it may be real estate, the Klon-
dixie or Wall street stocks. Let it once
break It's bounds, II spreads out in a reck-
less fashion, uncontrolled by argument or
mems past experience. The Iowa news
papers were paid we'll for advertising the
land schemes. and circulars We're mailed to
the chief towns to whet the appetite, with
the desired result that the farmer became
land hungry the banker became land hun
cry. Master minds we're among the land
promoters, and the banker once in the
tolls, the great body OF the prosperous
farmers would be an easy prey.
Iowa lands had been purchased years
before. for a mere song, and the farmers
knew how rapidly their lands advanced In
price; crop was added to crop till men sud
denly found themselves rich. Is II any
wonder that cheap lands were an alluring
bait to men with such an experience be-
hind them7 Cheap lands wild lands
was the cry; and the land sharks had a
supply of millions of acres Of very cheap
lands, very wild lands. All the way from
Wisconsin to far western Canada large
bodies Of land were extolled in dulcet tones
that charmed the listeners and won the
attention OF the Iowa people 1t was as
music to the ears OF the easy spectators
that were in evidence all over Iowa The
price of land ranged all the way from 70
cents to SO per acre, but these lands were
not the rich acres OF loan that gave fame
and riches to Iowa. Men did not stop to
investigate: It was not intended they
should Time was limited; the flood was
carrying people on to the rainbow land Of
the country, later on known as 'get-rich-
quick land. II was a harvest for the
lumber barons OF Wisconsin and Michigan.
Cut-over stumpage was at last to be hosted
on an unsuspecting people; and vast tracts
Of swamp lands for years the paradise Of
the poisy frog and sandhill crane, were
now to be sold to the syndicates and re-
tailed by them at enormous profits to the
small dealers. The scheme was a long
time Matching; II was now ripe The rail-
roads were carrying thousands into Wis
consin, Dakota and the Canadian north
west; trains were crowded to their utmost
capacity-such was the curtain raiser to a
drama and tragedy that. In It's last act,
brought sorrow and death to many happy
homes in Iowa.
Since the days of Klondike in 81. no
stampede has surpassed the mad rush OF
these land-hungry men. The day Of awak-
ening came, which was more rapid and
deadly In it's work OF generalization than
the building OF a boom. The former works
slowly into confidence, the latter drops as
with a paralytic stroke that causes stupe-
faction bordering on insanity. The wild
lands that had been sold on easy payment
paper with straw men on the notes, the
mortgages and the agreements-these were
in turn sold to the banks. Here was a nom
producing asset on almost worthless lands.
The true character OF these lands was
practically unknown to the bankers; specu-
lation was running at such pace that the
bankers showed about as little judgment
as the mass of the people.
II was never in a boom yet that banks
were not more OF less involved and fire.
quently the heaviest losers. Farms that
never carried n mortgage before. in all the
years past. were mortgaged by Iowa farm
ers in order TO get into the chase after
wild lands It's hard TO write this OF the
staid, conservative farming class, but it's
true. The day OF reckoning came, and It
was a cruel awakening, carrying with It
the lesson that the slow. conservative
course OF building fortune is the winner.
The bank paper was due. and who was TO
meet It? In most cases the men had van
ished and the land was worthless. The
banks. one after another, began to close
their doors. The final climax was that forty
banks failed in Iowa in one year with liza
bilities of 100000 and no less than eight
bank officials committed suicide-a record
never before reached in Iowa. I do not
claim that all this loss OF. life and money
was chargeable to the mad speculation in
wild Misrepresentation in stocks added to
the disasters-but the chief cause was the
wild land craze. Iowa has rich and bound
less recuperative powers, and in a few
years she will make good her losses, and
the severe lessons her people have learned
will not have been in vain"
Personal NOTES.