The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-06-18
SPECULATION AND FARM DEVEL.
OPMENT.

Under this heading, and writing
particularly of Of land speculation
in the Willamette Valley, the Eu-
gene Register we'll describes a con-
dition that is prevalent all over the
state. It is particularly pertinent to
Morrow county. The Register says:
From all over the Northwest come
reports that the volume OF land sales
has decreased greatly during the last
two years, and those who are prompt
to howl calamity find in this situa-
ton occasion for lifting up their
voices in mournful chorus the bur-
den Of which is that this country has
reached and passed the high tide Of
prosperity and is now slowly reced-
ing. This IL q fslse cry, and to prove
how false 1t IL It is only necessary to
trace its Source. When this is done
II will be found that the howl Is en-
anating chiefly from speculative
holders who bought land with the in
tention of making money by selling 1t
to someone else instead Of develop
ing it. They find that they are un-
able to sell promptly at consider
ably increased price, and they howl.
1t is noticeable that the man who is
developing his land and is making his
money by working it Is having very
little to say.
It is even possible to find an ex-
tremely attractive silver lining in
this cloud that is troubling the spec
ulators. When land prices are boom
ing actual development is very likely
to lag. This is in response to an au-
tomato commercial law. When more
money is to be made by turning
around and selling to the other fellow
at a considerably increased price,
there is small inducement to spend
any energy and money in develop
ment Easy money is the natural foe
of industry, and the man who buys
a piece of land and sells it in few
weeks or few months and thereby
makes a larger profit than would
have been possible if he had worked
it is not likely to spend any more
time in actual farming operations
than can help. Boom times dur
ing which the price of land increases
rapidly are never times of great ag-
ricultural development. On the con-
xra htc of 70 M iyU
is usually at a standstill while such
conditions prevail. This is only nat
ural. When a man can make his
money by sitting in an easy chair and
selling and reselling his land it is
hardly to be expected that he will
follow the plow and milk the cows
and give his orchard the painstaking
care it needs.
The decline in land speculation is
by no means an evil in the William
cite valley. When those who have
bought land for speculative purposes
find that they cannot sell it immed-
lately for large profit, they will be
compelled to work it more inten-
siyely and more intelligently in order
to pay interest and taxes. Thus they
will become producers where before
they were only scalpers.
Land speculation can never make
a country Of homes, for the man who
makes his money by speculation
spends his time and his energy in
selling again, rather than in making
two blades Of grass or two cows or
two chickens or two hogs or two or
chard trees grow where but one grew
before. The legitimate business of
land selling is only in it's infancy
in the Willamette valley, for there
are thousands of unproductive acres
to be sold to men who will develop
them and make homes of them, but
we need feel no regret if the specu-