New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-08-18

The opening of each new reserva-
ton to settlement by the government
serves to show the strain to which eco
nomic pressure has attained, even IN
this new country where but short
time ago the supply of land seemed so
great that people looked on uncon-
cernedly while small empires were
given away to railroad companies,
and the remainder to private individ-
uals.
The opening of tract of land now
means rush wherein hundred grasp
at the chance to get bit of the earth's
surface to call their own and ninety
nine come away empty-handed and
disappointed, and just as much poorer
as the expense of the trip has made
them.
These slim chances to get land are,
however, like everything else in the
arrangement and working of capital
list society in that those who are in
greatest need of the land are barred
from all chance of getting any. The
millions who toll hardest and are poor
est cannot make the necessary trip for
fling, and have no capital or surplus
to go on the land if they should be the
lucky one in hundred to draw prize.
And this is true in every avenue of life.
Chances for profit and investment go to
those who have the means to take ad.
vantage of them, and the working class
are hopelessly chained to their power
ty. Even philanthropic efforts can
not reach those who are in greatest
need.
As an instance, Charles Edward
Russell, in "Soldiers of the Common
Good,'' showed that all the much
Wanted municipal dwellings erected
in London had done was to give those
who had steady work and were able to
pay rent, chance to get better quar-
tors for the same, or possibly less
rent, while the great problem of the
unemployed, their need and suffering,
remained untouched. Only the dole of
charity can reach them.
And SO with increasing multitudes
here, nothing can better their condition
unless it first of all gives them a
chance to turn their only possession,
their labor power, into money or into
purchasing power. It matters not if
there are "green hills far away" being
opened for settlement if each day
brings to the working class only
enough for a meager existence. But
among those just above the lowest
stratum of workers the hunger for land
increases as the uncertainty of their
economic position becomes more fully
realized. If possessed Of enough wealth
to give them feeling of security they
would have no use for land, or coun-
try life under present conditions.
Hanging on the ragged edge, with
the abyss of want on one side and the
fields of plenty far above them and
out of reach on the other, the land
seems to offer them a release from the
dread and uncertainty of their posi-
ton.
The great advertising space now de-
voted to agricultural lands shows the
growing need and pressure, and is the
most stl liking change that is discern
ible in the current newspaper. The
land shark thrives, and the desert
blossoms as the rose under the magic
of his wide-spreading ad.
Every accessible acre now possesses
a steadily increasing value not
dreamed of by those who saw the great
western prairies when the few scatter
ing settlers were hidden from view
along the creek bottoms. None Of
these will ever forget the impression Of
vastness and immensely. Millions Of