SUMMARY REMEDIES. 117 



The fact has been pointed out that the lands of the 

 great railroad grants escape taxation, and so do the 

 bonanza farms that have grown out of and upon the 

 railroad lands. The railroad companies delay for 

 years the taking of patents for the lands confirmed to 

 them, for the special purpose of avoiding taxation. 

 Did the railroad companies, in obtaining these grants, 

 take the place of the government and become its agent 

 in the disposition of the lands, upon the same terms 

 as the government under the homestead laws, the case 

 would be different. On these terms, at the price gov- 

 ernment has fixed for its reserved sections within the 

 railroad grants, two and one half dollars per acre, the 

 Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and also the At- 

 lantic and Pacific Company, would be limited to 

 $64,000 per mile from the sale of their lands. Inas- 

 much as their roads cost not more than $25,000 per 

 mile, one who had not been educated in the ways of 

 such grants would naturally suppose such a donation 

 from the government all that could be desired. The 

 other railroad grants being only forty miles wide, the 

 receipts from the land sales would be limited to 

 $32,000 per mile ; but still an amount greater than 

 the cost of their roads, and some have received gov- 

 ernment loans in addition. 



It would have been far better for the people, and 

 for the government, that the whole body of the lands 

 within the railroad grants, had bqen donated on the 

 homestead conditions. At the first suggestion such a 

 proposition might be deemed extravagant. But a lit- 

 tle reflection will quickly show that it is by no means 

 as objectionable as the grants that have been made. 



