676 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



III 

 LAND, FARMS, AND MORTGAGES 



The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the 

 people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien 

 ownership of land should be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and 

 other corporations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by 

 aliens should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers 

 only. Omaha Platform 



At the close of the Revolutionary War the states of the old 

 confederation found, among other things, a land question con- 

 fronting them. The land extending from the Alleghanies to the 

 Mississippi River was claimed by Virginia, North and South Caro- 

 lina, and Georgia, as well as by New York, Pennsylvania, and 

 Connecticut. By a series of magnanimous gifts, most of the states 

 surrendered to Congress these conflicting claims. These gifts 

 were the foundation of what is known as the public domain. 

 To this early possession the United States has added through 

 purchase, cession, and conquest, lands more extensive in area 

 than all the countries of Europe excepting Russia. 



This public domain has always been regarded as belonging to 

 the people, and it has been the policy of Congress to place them 

 in possession of the lands as fully as possible. The doctrine that 

 the prosperity of the people must rest largely on the possession 

 and cultivation of our extensive territory has been kept well in 

 mind during the last seventy-five years, and the result has been 

 that land has been distributed liberally, even though without 

 much regard to the ultimate possessor. This was done primarily 

 to maintain a continual progress in population and development 

 of the country. 



The sum total of the various lands composing the public 

 domain at different times was, in 1890, 2,894,235.91 square 

 miles, or 1,852,310,987 acres. The actual domain which came 

 into the possession of the United States was only 1,821,700,922 

 acres ; for the area now composing the state Tennessee had been 

 granted before the formation of the Union. This vast amount 



