Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1916-05-04
A LAND PROBLEM AHEAD
tFRoM THE PEORIA JouRNAL.)

The Nebraska State Journal calls at
tention to the fact that Uncle Sans
opening of 4,000-acre tract in the
North Platte irrigation district for set
tlement practically wiads up the free
land distribution" of the nation. 1t
adds:
Free or cheap land has been
the American safety valve. A
population straining for self-bet-
terment has had its own remedy
to go west and grow up with the
country. With the government
reduced to advertising an opening
of forty-three farms, the safety
valve may be considered forever
closed. The expansive energy for
merly exerted outward, must here
after work itself out intensively.
Increasing land speculation, with
rapidly rising prices of land and
proportionately increasing dissat-
fsfaction among the landless would
seem inevitable. The tone of our
politics and the intensity Of our
social problems cannot but be vi
tally changed under the strain of
dealing internally with a social
pressure which hitherto has had
the wilderness to vent itself upon.
Land hunger win soon become q
reality in this rapidly growing country
md the constant pressure Of popula
ion, increasingly higher than the ratio
II production, is bound to bring US
face to face with economic problems
that we have heretofore considered re
mote. The far-sighted statesman an6
publicist must devote his thought
earnestly to the consideration of these
questions IL we are to escape the ex
tremes which curse the older nations
of the world"
In the above will be found one o.
the reasons that the Canadian Govern
ment is offering 100 acres of land free
to the actual settler. There is nc
dearth Of homesteads of this size, ant
the land is Of the highest quality, be
ing such as produces yields of from 81
to 60 bushels Of wheat per acre, while
oats run from fifty to over hundred
bushels per acre. 1t ia not only mat
ter Of free grants, but in Western Can
ada are also to be had other lands a
prices ranging from $12 to $50 pei
acre. the difference in price being
largely matter of location and dis
lance from railway. II one takes into
consideration the scarcity of free
grant lands in the United States 1t II
not difficult to understand why there
has been most material advances IL
the price Of farm lands.
A few years ago, land that now sell,
for two hundred dollars an acre IL
Iowa, could have been bought for sew
enty-five dollars an acre or less. TIL,
increased price is warranted by tn,
increased value of the product raised
on these farms. The lands that toda,
can be had in Western Canada at tn,
low prices quoted will in a less tim,
than that taken for the Iowa lands t,
increase. have a proportionate in
crease. In Nebraska the lands tina
sold for sixteen to twenty dollars pc
acre seven years ago, find a market a
one hundred and seventy-five dollar,
an acre, for the same reason given fo
the increase in Iowa lands. Value,
in these two States, as well as In 9th
ers that might be mentioned, show
that Western Canada lands are goint
at song at their present prices. II
many cases in Western Canada today
there are American settlers who real
lie this, and are placing a value o
sixty and seventy dollars an acre OF
their improved farms, but would sci
only because they can purchase un
improved land at such low price thai
in another few years they would have
equally as good farms as they left OF
such as their friends have in the Unit
ed States.
The worth Of the crops grown In
Western Canada is of higher value
than those of the States named, so why
should the land not be worth fully as
much. Any Canadian Government
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