The Stark County Democrat

A STARTLING STATEMENT.

In commenting upon the riots, with ill-concealed satisfaction, The Telegraph of London uses this language:

"But the sanguine emigrant always consoles himself with the hope that should his craft be no longer in requisition, there are 'boundless prairies' where retired artisans could 'eat, drink and be merry.' Yet even this source of comfort rapidly vanishes. Major Powell, in a paper recently communicated to the National Academy of America, asserts that 'all the public land fit for settlement are sold. There is not left in the whole United States, of land which a poor man could turn into a farm, enough to make an average county in Wisconsin.' Even granting that this statement may be somewhat exaggerated, the very fact that the question as to whether there is any considerable quantity of unappropriated fertile public land in the United States has become a matter of controversy clearly shows the agricultural prospects of a settler with little or no capital to be greatly inferior to what they were. The enormous reduction in the number of emigrants from Europe last year proves that this view is beginning to take hold of communities on this side the Atlantic and the strikes now in progress indicate that the pressure of competition is as keenly felt in the States as it can be in older countries. On the whole the chances of success in life for workingmen appear vastly more promising in British colonies."

This statement attributed to Major Powell is certainly startling. If there be not enough good land left in the United States to make a county in Wisconsin, it is incumbent to inquire what has become of the land. The assertion is preposterous. If Major Powell ever made it in the language quoted, has hyperbole escaped discussion in this country? At the best it is hyperbole. Many Wisconsin counties can be cut out of good lands in Colorado, Texas, Kansas and Southern California. The Texas farms are not surpassed by the finest agricultural districts of the northwest, and, with the exception of the northeastern part of the state, Texas is without a population. People cannot farm in the United States profitably until they can send their crops to market. When Texas has been opened up by railroads, enough farms can be had there to feed a good part of the population of Great Britain.

But the inquiry as to what has been done with the public lands is timely, and it is not difficult to answer. Congress devoted considerable labor during twenty years giving away the public lands, as the following table, giving the number of acres of land granted by Congress for railroads each year, shows:

Of this total the Pacific railroads received 159,486,767 acres.

A large amount of the land thus given away has lapsed to the United States by failure of the corporations to which the grants were made to comply with the conditions. The lands thus forfeited have not been restored. Somebody is getting the benefit of them, and paying nothing for it. Congress has been so busy giving the land away that it has taken no action to discover what the corporations failed to possess themselves of after it was given.