100 LAND AND LABOR. 



and more per acre. Thus extorting from the people 

 billions of dollars, and building up in our midst a 

 plutocratic power such as the world has never before 

 known. The whole thing stands as a' colossal monu- 

 ment of speculative madness and governmental folly. 



These grants are divided among about eighty cor- 

 porations. Some of the earlier and smaller grants 

 were limited to six sections per mile, and the sale of 

 the lands was restricted to actual settlers of one hun- 

 dred and sixty acres each, at two dollars and fifty 

 cents per acre. The first grant was made in 1850 to 

 the State of Illinois, for the Illinois Central Railroad, 

 and for the next twelve years all grants were made to 

 the States, and by the States to the corporations. 

 July 1, 1862, Congress made its first grant of lands 

 direct to corporations, in the cases of the Union and 

 Central Pacific companies. The change in the meth- 

 ods and amounts of the grants was complete and has 

 continued to the present time. The number of sec- 

 tions has grown from six to forty per mile, with no 

 restriction or limit of any nature. 



Forty-one days before the passage of the Union 

 and Central Pacific land grant Act, on May 20, 1862, 

 Congress, after a long and fierce contest, had passed 

 a homestead law, limiting the sales of the lands to 

 one hundred and sixty acres each, for " actual settle- 

 ment and cultivation/' at one dollar and twenty-five 

 cents per acre, to any one of age, who " is a citizen of 

 the United States, or who shall have filed his declara- 

 tion of intention to become such, as required by the 

 naturalization laws of the United States." But ut- 

 terly regardless of the beneficent land system just 



