The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-20
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY FREDERIC }. HAsKIN. DirecaOr.
Washington, ID. C.
FARMS FOR SOLDIERS.

somewhere between two million and
five million is discharged, what will
be done with these men?
The man who rs now leaving his job
to go to war may be told with some
assurance that when he comes back
his government will do it's best to help
him make living, and that in all
probability he will be offered an OPP
portunity to get a piece or lana anu
become farmer. AT any rate, te
department of agriculture is unoftl-
cially known to be studying the prop D
lem of how to put the returned SOL
diers upon the land.
Fifty and even twenty-five years
ago the problem would nave pee9
easy; for the American people owned
an immense body of public land, most
of which was arabic. There is a law
which provides that if a soldier taxes
up a homestead, the time Whlch ne
serves in the army counts as tlIIle VI
occupancy toward giving him owner
shin of the land, provided he lives on
the land one year. That law VIII oe
of LITTLE benefit to the men VINO nave
been drafted for this war me on!y
public lands remaining are rev drlu
tracts in the far west. The Tree Idlu'
which for many generations d1o more
than ANYTHING else to make the amer.
can citizen free man, is a thlnS Oh
the past. ,c, time
The government, for long tll!e,
has been unable to give lahd TO Ie5
land to give Now it is faced with
the problem of providing an occupa-
ton for several million men Whlch 1t
has wrenched out of their usual occu-
pations for the purpose OF naklns
war. It cannot shirk the problem
To let these men accumulate IN the
big cities would be an obvious ms
take; they could not possibly all find
places. Furthermore it is known tnat
soldiers do not take kindly 70 routine
who left desks and counters with re-
luctance will go back to them still
more reluctantly. Experience SHOWS
that a man who has once tasted fresh
air and action. even in SO har , caIl5
ing as war, is untitled for the grind
of industrial life.
To Provide Soldiers With Land.
The government, therefore, wants to
find a way to provide its soldier citi-
zens with land, even though 1t has
none left to give. There is already
large class of people in this country
who own no real prCperty-who have
no real share in the nation. This, of
course, is not a desirable condition.
A man has certain inherent right to
a place in the sun" whether he is
strong and cunning enough to take
it from others or not.
If then, these millions of eX-sol-
diers cannot be placed on the land,
the appropriated class will be in
creased considerably, and so will the
! social discomfort which arises from
| this class. If, on the other hand,
each of these men can be provided
| with a bit of land, the appropriated
class and the discomfort will be cor
responding diminished.
/ The scientific experts in the employ
/ of the government, who commonly
| retain n d1 II Jeff
tons come and go, have seen the
growing importance of the land ques-
| ton for some years, and have gather
ed some facts and figures as to the
amount and ownership of land in the
! United States. These data now have
new significance and interest
There is widespread popular be-
| lief that q land monopoly" exists in
| the. United States. 1t is notable that
| the breaking of this MONOPOLY is a
plank in the platform of a new po-
iticsl party, more radical than either
of the now dominant ones, which was
| recently organized in Chicago.
No Land Monopoly Exists.
The figures which have been gath
/ cred show that such a mo opoIy does
not exist, in the sense that is probably
most often imputed to it in that
| there are few large bodies of land
/ held for specul3 tiv, purposes and not
/ adequately cultivated. But there is
a monopoly in the sense that nearly
all OF the arabic land in this country
| is now in private ownership, and is
| therefore to be purchased only at
competitive prices, which are gener-
| ally nigh. You can buy a piece of
land in almost any part of the coun-
try, but you will have to pay a price
Wnlch Is based upon speculation as
to what the land will be worth in the
future, as well as upon what it will
produce, and you will have to take
such tract as you can get, with such
| improvements as chance to be upon
IT, rather than tract of the size you
want and are able to pay for In a
word you must be something of a
| capitalist to become a farmer. This
means that the classes of people which
nave most need for land cannot get if
The land area of the United States
Is ABOUT ]. 1908, 100000 acres. OF this.
Sl9,OOO,OO0 is lin farms, and 47SOOO.
600 of the amount in farms is i'm
| proved, according to census figures of
| 1917 An estimate of the area actual
| ly in crops at about the same time
4 placed this area at 31S,516.OoO acres
or the area which was in farms but
not in crops, about 291,OO 900 was in
pasture. including both woodland and
| grassland.
There remained, it will be seen,
large areas in farms that We're not
| improved and large areas that are not
included in farms at all. Of course
much of this land is not arabic: but
it is estimated that in 1910 there were
457,00O.000 acres of arabic land which
had not been improved
Many Millions Unimproved
The existence of this large area is
the basis of the charge that there is a
land monopoly-that with the country
facing a shortage of foodstuffs, mill
lions of acres are held uncultivated for
speculative or other reasons But d
further analysis shows that 3O.OOO.O0O
acres of irrigable land had not beer
placed under irrigation, that 10000
coo acres of drainable land had not
been drained, that 127,0OO.0OO acres
of the arabic land were to be CLASH
fled as ''dry-farming' lands, the cult
walton of which is a somewhat uncer-
/. | tain venture, and that 35. 100000 acres
| tnet To- Il IL