THE RISING SPIRIT OF UNREST 23 



along the route of the railways which they were 

 to construct. 



By 1873, however, the Government had actually 

 given to the railroads about thirty-five million 

 acres, and was pledged to give to the Pacific roads 

 alone about one hundred and forty-five million 

 acres more. Land was now not so plentiful as it 

 had been in 1850, when this policy had been in- 

 augurated, and the farmers were naturally aggrieved 

 that the railroads should own so much desirable 

 land and should either hold it for speculative pur- 

 poses or demand for it prices much higher than the 

 Government had asked for land adjacent to it 

 and no less valuable. Moreover, when railroads 

 were merged and reorganized or passed into the 

 hands of receivers the shares held by farmers were 

 frequently wiped out or were greatly decreased in 

 value. Often railroad stock had been "watered" 

 to such an extent that high freight charges were 

 necessary in order to permit the payment of divi- 

 dends. Thus the farmer might find himself with- 

 out his railroad stock, with a mortgage on his land 

 which he had incurred in order to buy the stock, 

 with an increased burden of taxation because 

 his township had also been gullible enough to 

 buy stock, and with a railroad whose excessive 



