Tombstone epitaph., 1916-05-14
A LAND PROBLEM AHEAD
(FRoM THE PEORIA JoURNAI.)

The Nebraska State Journal calls at
tention to the fact that Uncle Sans
opening of a 4.00O-acre tract in the
North Platte irrigation district for set
practically winds up the free
land distribution" Of the nation. II
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 e1erted outward. must here
after work itself out intensively.
Increasing land speculation, with
rapidly rising prices of land and
proportiOnately increasing dissat.
isfaction 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 will soon become &
reality in this rapidly growing country
and the constant pressure of popula
ton, increasingly higher than the ratio
OF production, is bound to bring u.
face to face with economic problems
that we have heretofore considered re
mote. The far-sighted statesman anC
publicist must devote his though
earnestly to the consideration OF thes.
questions IL we are TO escape the ex
tremes which curse the older nation.
OF the world"
In the above will be found one o
the reasons that the Canadian Govern
ment is Offering leo acres OF land fire,
to the actual settler. There is NJ
dearth OF homesteads OF this size, ant
the land is OF the highest quality, be
ms sum 40 IkOuuAtS , vi AlODu d
to GO bushels OF wheat per acre, whil'
oats run from fifty 70 over hundre,
bushels per acre. II is not only a mat
ter of free grants, but in Western Can
ada are also to be had other lands a
prices ranging from sl2 to $50 pc
acre. the difference in price bein,
largely a matter of location and dis
lance from railway. IL one takes int,
consideration the scarcity OF fire,
grant lands in the United States il &
not difficult to understand why Their,
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-tive dollars an acre OF less. Th'
increased price is warranted by TIT
increased value OF the product raiset
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 TO
the increase in Iowa lands. Value
in these two States. as well as in 9th
ers that might be mentioned. shoy
that Western Canada lands are goini
at song ct their present prices. Il
many cases in Western Canada today
there are American settlers, who real
ize 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 UT
improved land at such low price tina
in another few years they would hav
equally as good farms as they left O