The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-02-10
TO ENCOURAGE
new SETTLERS
Bill Pending in Legislature Would
Permit Counties to Assist

| Among the pieces of progressive leg
! islation soon to come into the legis-
iature will be bill to permit conn
ties To loan their credit To settlers by
issuing special Improvement bonds
Tor the purpose Of procuring money to
deiray the expenses of retaining cut
over lands, thus attracting to those
now unsettled parts of the state set
tiers who with a little financial sup
port would soon make the lands pro-
appropriated districts.
such an act would be particularly
| interesting to those counties i'm the
northern part of the lower peninsula
where there are millions of acres of
good land now covered with stumps
awaiting only the settler to improve
It. and make it productive. Michigan
has been a little slow In this move
ment. Wisconsin has such a law al
ready working most satisfactorily and
| good farmers are being encouraged 10
. enter the state and take up these
| lands and settle thereon Several
! other states have similar laws and in
all instances they are said To be work.
ing most satisfactorily.
Attract Poor Settlers.
| The plan suggested provides sim
! ply that when settlers attracted by
the cheap lands Michigan has to offer
but who lack the capital to come in
ana clear 1t of its stumps, ask the
county for assistance financially for
this purpose. the county may loan It's
credit To those wouldbe settlers and
give them the backing and encourage
I ment To come in and make productive
the lands which are now practically
valueless. The law will provide, first,
That ten settlers living in the county
must petition the board of supervisors
setting forth that they are the own
ers of certain described cut-over lands
which they would like to clear and
farm if they had the necessary funds
with which to do it. They must pre-
sent an estimate Of the cost Of doing
! This, the estimate to have been made
10y competent person.
The board of supervisors is there
uEon empowered to issue county bonds
! which are to pay per cent. interest
to be non taxable, with interest duo
semi-annually. The bonds may run
anywhere from five to twenty years
and may be retired annually in series
The bonds must be sold to residents
who care to buy them. If after hav-
ing been given fair chance to pur-
chase no resident wants them. they
may be sold outside the county.
County Let's Contract.
The proceeds of these bond issues
are TO go toward retaining these
cut-over lands mentioned in the Pc
tition, and the county supervisor may
let the contract for clearing the land
To tina lowest bidder, the settlers who
made the original petition for the aid
being eligible To bid for the clearing
of their own lands
1t is provided that the amount of the
bonds shall not exceed the estimate OF
cost set in the petition and in no case
shall exceed $25 an acre. The amount
of the bonds is then assessed against
the lands cleared and they are to be |
retired and interest paid upon them |
by the owners of the land who MAJ |
retire them as fast as he will. Until |
they are retired they stand as a lien |
upon the property and take preference |
over all other claims against the land |
BY this means ii is argued settlers
would he brought to these lands, get |
their advance money from the county,
pay 1t back to the county from the
proceeds of the land and make pro-
ductive land which now stands cover
ed with stumps but which in many
cases is rich and waiting only for the
pillow.
lE the northern counties of lower
Michigan and more especially in the
upper peninsula there are millions OF
acres of land in this condition. A lit
tie assistance to the settlers and they
would become productive. AS they
now stand they neither produce crops
nor taxes, but in many instances stand
upon the books of the state lands hav-
ing reverted for nom payment of taxes
II is believed this sort of aid would
do much toward making Michigan at
tractive to the settlers who are now
going TO the Canadian northwest and
To Wisconsin and other states having
such laws as this.