Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-12-18
Major MURPHY Tells HIST
PLANS TO GET settlers

Idle and unimprovel with a its b3rders.
Ninety per cent OF all cur !.nd iS rpi0W.
able-and ready for the pillow. tpir soil
Is the best, the inete:olofice. a.d ssn-
ton facilities are adsquatc and rates
cheap. With the same workmanship. e this
land will produce as many dollars l'er
acre. year after wear. as the sloA IN
| acre LAM of Iowa. CUR school system
is as good as the bes:-with a splsndiM,
accommodating endowment U that viii,
in time, amoun to fifty million dollars +"
Notwithstanding these and tens Of
other advantages not possessed W other
states, there are literally millions OF
acres in all the western two thirds Of
i North Dakota that can be bought at
prices ranging from 500 to $40 per acre.
Undeniably the chief reason for this IS
that title to practically all Of this land
could be acquired in one way only, viz.
through home stealing, Now, 4 benetl-
cient government gave almost every fper.
son a right to enter land. and the re.
suit was that people OF every oecilpa'
fession and no profession-many OF them
with no knowledge whatever OF either
pioneering or farmtng-took up land.
I'VE are just beginning to realize that
farming is a business. In which, to be
knowledge, Industry and adaptablity-
requirements not possessed by the aver
age homesteader- and the result is that
fifteen years after the homestead Is
aa;s,n, not 5o more than u ,a per cent OF Of the the
land. In this connection. | might also
state that the history OF homesteading.
from and including Iowa west, also
shows that those OF the original settlers
who remain on land eventually are al
ways we'll to do. E.
Briefly. without going into the econ
omic effects of this condition, which is
apparent to every business man IN, the
state, the result Is that nearly half OF
the tillable land has gone into the hands
for the most part. it Is either badly farm.
ed or idle and unimproved. For instance
there were thirty.four thousand less
acres OF land In Ward county IN 1913
600 acres less in Renville. $4,000 less In
1913 than there were in 1910.
In q region where practically the only
industry. is farming the population
i shSn'd should 'txa 'h pe eSlti Sn edrm esch a ye.r iR Mas
cultivated the year before, but such IL
not the case. In Ward county. where
conditions are probably more accentuat-
ed, because Minot. the third largest city
cent Of the people live In the cities; and
villages. Il r,
1t would be foolish to close our eyes
to the fact that there are less actual
1dlIIleIS al oil INc Ec6lOIl ulUeT ulScuS-
sion than there was four years ago. 1t
might, Of course, be argued with a de-
gree of truth that the short crop years
which means depletion Of moisture, alb
normal weed growth and adverse con
ditiOns generally-were the factors main.
ly responsible for bringing about the con
ditions we are now called upon to- face.
The thinking man, however, knows that
history Is simply repeating itself In what
the slip shodi fellow. the typical home.
ste2der. and the man who insista,lon
growing small grains indefinitely Ia 1.-THE
exclusion OF real farming-corn, hogs.
cattle. dairying-all Of which the real
the country is splendidly adapted tots
being frozen out, In other wordsur;the
typical. original settlers. many Of whom
could not make a living in the Garden
and helped bring productiveness out OF
desolation and wealth out of waste, but
some OF them could not change jistheir
method OF farming. and mother nature,
destiny Of the country. demanded their
elimination-and that is what the;
crop years has done. ~ I'LL
Mr.. Pennington. head OF the 500 rail-
great practical forseeing builders q 1.-the
west, fully realizes the proposition we
are now up against. Having had full
confidence In the potential possibilities
Of this state. and the ability to inspire
%fnanciers with that confidence. andshav-
Ing built lines-lines compact and con-
tiguous-running through or touching
thirty OF the forty-eight counties q the
state, and serving the people Of more
has now authorized, the inauguration
Of a systematic and well thought out
plan to bring real farmers from the, mid
die west to purchase, occupy and till our
idle lands.
The 500 Is not In this movement Of
which am writing purely from philan-
thropic MotiveS-it Is In it primarily to
Increase its business. but it ia q mutual
proposition, and it expects the cooper
every banker. every business man and
every farmer-in short every land owner
In the territory served by its ines
Now, while all parts of the middle
the same conditions we are now facing.
and while the natural conditions there
are no better than they pre- here those
regions have long passed lthe home:
;te nmo! period 10 nan, and t the dama e. for fsrE:, Ian,
It is today selling at prices from 500
to $500 per acre. and it takes a compar-
atively. wealthy man to buy a farm of
North Dakota in contradistinction to
the states west Of us, and aCnada on
our northern border, has never iadyer-
tised-never inangurated or put into. .ef-
lect any systematic or sustained ef1Ort
In placing before the country our great
resources and possibilities. nslG
After the homestead period, the rail-.
roads did little advertising, and: today
the other great roads traversing NORTH
Dakota are exploiting territory to the
west and ignoring this region, This re.
suit Is that the people of the middle west
where our most desirable immigration
should come from. has little actua
knowledge OF our resources. and the only
immigration we are getting comes from
two sources-th0se who come OF theil
own violation and those brought here By
the real estate agents.
The object OF the real estate agen,
and l am not inveighing againat him
10 to get the largest commission possible
and this commission il usually between
$500 and $4,000 on a quarter section, &C
casionally more. This means h IT. hill
the purchaser may have obtained, q bar
gain from his original standpoint, yer
when he ascertains the true facts, he Ii
invariably "sore" to think he paid 81
large q commission; and human nature
IL such that the average man IN not eel
hsh enough to induce his old friends anf
neighbors to come alsO-even thpfn h. hi
could locate them on Just as gd1dR lant
a. he got. at 20 to IS per centTI4T thar
he paid-because they wound - how
he got beat when he purchased. u nrheY
the real estate man gets land Vide III
can get 1t cheapest, and sells where III
can get most for 1t. This means, af,fhi
reader well knows, that he fredNStI1ly
buys land from q mar who Is T. MINI
~ fairly well and sells ~ N en- Itary