102 LAND AND LABOR. 



beneficent homestead system a breach of trust, on 

 the part of the government to the present and future 

 generations, that is without excuse, and can not be 

 too soon corrected. Now capitalists and corporations, 

 whether native or foreign, may acquire of our public 

 domain, through railroad corporations, an amount 

 that is limited only by the desire or the ability to 

 buy. Practically a purchase is made from the rail- 

 road company of, say, two hundred of the odd num- 

 bered sections, which are the railroad lands, or 128,000 

 acres. The purchaser goes into occupation of the odd 

 sections he has bought, and takes possession of the 

 even numbered, or government sections, that lie be- 

 tween. In this manner he obtains 256,000 acres of 

 that which the people had believed to be their birth- 

 right, 'and in which they were limited to three hun- 

 dred and twenty acres each. 



One half is bought from a railroad company, and 



the other half is sto [oh, no, not stolen ; such 



people never steal. That term can be properly ap- 

 plied to the wretched woman that is compelled to 

 steal a loaf to feed her famishing babes, for which she 

 is legally sentenced, by blind justice, to ninety days 

 in the House of Correction, whilst the children are 



left to what ? Who can tell ? Would it not 



be well to pull the bandage from off the eyes of the 

 blind goddess, turn on the lights, and give her at 

 least one good view of the horrors that are wrought 

 in her name ?]. No, no, the parties who obtain the 

 people's lands in the manner described do not steal. 

 The lands are not stolen ; they are only absorbed. 

 That is an inoffensive term that will express the idea. 



