96 LAND AND LABOR. 



rightfully belong. I must be very brief. A full dis- 

 cussion of this matter would require volumes. 



Some of the most prominent objects that attract 

 the attention of one who, with a railroad map before 

 him, attempts to study the action of government in 

 relation to our land system, are the immense tracts of 

 the national domain that have gone into the hands of 

 corporations. We see a belt, eighty miles wide, ex- 

 tending from near Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, 

 covering some of the best agricultural, pasture, and 

 timber lands in the country, that has been granted to 

 the Northern Pacific Kailroad Company. Then we 

 see a belt forty miles in width, from the Missouri 

 river to near the bay of San Francisco, held by the 

 Union and Central Pacific Kailroad Companies. Near 

 the Pacific coast we see a belt extending longitudi- 

 nally through California, owned by the Western and 

 Southern Pacific Companies ; which, as is well known, 

 are owned and controlled by the same parties that 

 own and control the Central Pacific. And we see a 

 belt, forty miles wide, stretching through Kansas into 

 Colorado and New Mexico, towards Arizona and Old 

 Mexico, that is represented by the Atchison, Topeka, 

 and Santa ~F6 Railroad Company. Then another belt 

 eighty miles in width, extending across New Mexico 

 .and Arizona to near the Pacific, represented by the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Company, being substantially the 

 Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Company. Wher- 

 ever, in the great West, we may turn our eyes, we see 

 similar belts that are only a little inferior to those 

 mentioned. 



A brief examination of the official data touching 



