Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-23
A CONSTRUCTIVE LAND PLAN

III NOrrnern racine Railway company an
nounces the adoption of a new method of handling
its land sales, the purchase of which is to give the
settler a longer time within which to pay for his
land, permitting him to: devote a larger share of
MS funds in the early years of his settlement to the
work OF Improvement. Heretofore, the company
mas sold its lands under contracts the extreme dur
alton OF which has been ten years. Under the new
plan this period is extended to 19 years under amor
tzatlon conditions which make the annual pay
rnent $S1 for each $1,000 of Indebtedness. Not
only is greater opportunity given the purchaser to
make improvements. but a reasonable amount of
Improvement is required. This feature of the CON
tract is set forth in the following terms:
las a material part of the consideration, the
purchaser makes the following averments and
agreements that he is now residing within a radius
OF ten miles of said premises, or will establish his
residence either upon the premises or within a
radius of ten miles thereof within six months from
the date hereof, and will maintain such residence
during the period OF tive years; that he will utilize
the premises for farming or stock-raising purposes,
and to that end, he. will, within one year from the
date hereof, place upon the premises improvements
OF a value equal to five per cent of the purchase
price, and within the second third and fourth years,
he will, III each year place thereon additional i'm
provenents OF a value equal to S per cent of said pur-
chase price. When improvements to the value of 20
per cent of the purchase price shall have been placed
on the premises this agreement shall be fulfilled"
The making of land grants to railroads has been
the subject to much criticism. The size Of the
gifts to the railroads has been greatly exaggerated,
one popular method being to compute the value of
the coded lands long after the road has been built,
and when the acres had reached an imposing COM
|merclal value by reason of the very presence of
the road. AS a matter of fact, much of the land
included IN these grants had no value for genera
tons without railway service. The building of a
railroad through hundreds of miles of uninhabited
country was a hazardous undertaking., as a good
many men found to their cost, and the land grant
system was intended to encourage investors to un-
dertake enterprises which were essential to the
development of the national estate, and which were
not inviting without some concessions of this kind.
In many cases the handling Of the land by both
government and railway company, worked badly.
The federal avs were intended to provide for the
distribution Of public lands, either without cost, or
at nominal prices, to actual settlers who would
occupy and use the lands. That was done in hun
dreds of thousands of cases. But the law could be
evaded, and was evaded, and through its evasion
large blocks of land passed into the possession of
persons whose only interest was speculative. Thus
settlement and development were retarded. In a
somewhat different manner a like fate befel much
of the railway acreage. The railway companies
were interested in the settlement of their territory,
and endeavored to promote it. But large blocks
OF their lands were actually acq uired by SPECTATORS
with the usual result.
The Northern Pacific company is adoDtinp now
a policy with reference to the disposal of its re-
manning agricultural lands which would have been
immensely beneficial had it been adopted at the
beginning. 1t is not yet too late for much benefit
to be derived from it.