Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1900)
10 Conecrvativc. 20 per ceiit of the compensation fixed by law for carrying the mails should thereafter be withheld from nil land grant roads , and this has over since been done. The amount of such de ductions to June 80 , 1899 , was $10,676- 671. 671.In In the case of the Burlington com pany , this deduction for the fitato of Iowa alone has been $804,630. Its land grant in Iowa was 858,424 acres , which could have been bought outright from the government in 1856 for $448,000. Who made the better bargain in that case ? All the laud grants contained the fol lowing clause : "And the said railroads shall bo and remain public highways for the use of the government of the United States , free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of any property or troops of the United States. " Statistics are not available as to the amount of this burden in the aggregate , but upon many western lines it has been large. Appeal to Posterity. The suggestion is made that it is largely to posterity that arguments up on the question of the land grant policy must be addressed. In this , as in many other public matters , our after thoughts are often our only thoughts. The rail roads have been built ; the country has greatly developed ; the enterprises are successful and the lauds have , in many cases , enhanced in value. A spirit ex ists and probably always will exist that prompts criticism of success. In this case , it will take the form of question ing whether too much land was not granted , whether other conditions might not have been imposed upon the rail roads , \\hether the roads would not have been built anyhow , and whether , afttr all , gome other and better disposi tion might not have been made of these particular lands. But posterity , in parsing judgment , will not fail to note the conditions which exibted when the grants were made. Nothing more clearly recalls and reveals those conditions than the Senate debate on the Illinois grant in 1850. Si'inu Utteranci-H. Mr. Douglas said : "It is simply carrying out a principle which has been acted upon lor thirty yeais , by which you cede each alternate section of laud and double the price of the alternate sections not ceded , BO that the same price is received for the whole. These lands have been in the market for 15 to 80 years ; the average time is about 28 years ; but they will not Eell at the usual price of $1.25 per acre , because they are distant from any navigable stream or a market for produce. A railroad will make the lands salable at double the usual price , because the im- provenient made will make them valu able. " Henry Clay said : "With respect to the state of Illinois and I believe the snuie is true to a considerable extent with reference to Mississippi and Ala bama , but I happen to know something personally of the interior of the state of Illinois that portion of the state , through which this road will run , is a succession of prairies , the principal of which is denominated the Grand Prai rie. I do not recollect its exact length ; it is , I believe , about 800 miles in length and but 100 in breadth. Now , this road will paFS directly through that Grand Prairie lengthwise , and there is nobody who knows anything of that Grand Prairie who does not know that the land in it is utterly worthless for any present purpose neb because it is not fertile , but for want of wood and water , and from the fact that it is inaccessible , wanting all facilities for reaching a market or for transporting timber , so that nobody will go there and settle while it is so destitute of all the ad vantages of society and the conveniences which arise from a social state. And now , by constructing this road through the prairie , through the center of the state of Illinois , you will bring millions of acres of land immediately into the market , which will otherwise remain for years and years entirely unsalable. " Thomas H. Beuton said : "From the consideration which I gave to that sub ject at that early day , it appeared to me that it was a beneficial disposition for the United States to make of her refuse lands.to cede them to the states in which they lay. Lands which had been 20 or 25 years in the market at the minimum price , and had never found a purchaser up to that time , were classed as refuse , and it was deemed that the state , as a local authority , might be able to make some disposition of them , which the general government , without machinery of land offices , could not. The princi ple of the bill before the senate is to take the refuse lands and appropriate them to a great object of internal improve ment , which , although it has its locality in a particular state , produces advan tages which , we all know , spread far and wide ; for a good road cannot be made anywhere without being bene ficial to the whole United States. * * * ' But Mr. President , with respect to the general proposition. This applica tion rests upon a principle that the young states are made desolate , in a great degree , by having lauds in their midst that pay no taxes , undergo no cultivation , that are held at a price that nobody will pay , and which , in fact , in some parts of the country become jun gles for the protection of wild beasts that prey upon the flocks and herds of the farmers. " From 1850 to 1856 , every political platform and every letter of acceptance . " /.r" by a candidate for president urged upon congress the making of land grants for the purpose of developing the country. No man could be elected to congress without pledging himself to vote for a land grant. The Fiimncliil Kinks. Posterity will note , moreover , the financial risks incurred by those who undertook these railroad enterprises. Neither the general government nor the states would take the risks. The great question then , was how to induce private individuals to invest their means in these doubtful projects. Many of those who ventured , if not the majority , lost everything. Of the five railroad companies to which land grants were made in the stnte of Iowa , only one ( the Burlington ) survived to complete its line to the Missouri river. The four others all failed , the mortgages they had given were foreclosed and the property including the laud grants , passed into other hands. The large Pacific grants were made in the war period to secure the prompt building of roads through uninhabited regions to make more certain the retention of the Pacific coast states in the union. I believe that every Pacific road , except one , has been in the hands of a receiver , notwithstanding the land grants. Baildiug railroads in 1856 to 1870 , was a different matter from the present. Money commanded ten per cent interest and iron rails were from $80 to $120 per ton , with other materials in proportion. Posterity will also fairly consider the question from the standpoint of the government at that period. No pecu niary loss to it was involved. Alter nate sections only were granted and the prices upon the uugranted sections were doubled. But the great and paramount consideration was that of bringing the great body of unoccupied and unsala ble lauds within reach of settlers and creating markets where none existed. Aside from all these considerations relating to the past and part of the his tory of the country , who can say that a better or wiser disposition would have been made of these lands ? If donation to homestead and similar settlers was preferable , it is clear that it was the railroad which provided the opportu nity for settlement and cultivation by the homesteader. Moreover , the rail road companies have induced , en couraged and facilitated settlement and cultivation , as the government never could have done. It has boon to their interest to seek out the best class of farmers , to sell the lands to them on long time and at reasonable prices , to transport their household effects free , and by every means to stimulate them to industrious and prosperous citizen ship , for by so doing , they would best promote the prosperity of the railroad. In so for as these results have been ao-
