THE EMBARGO ON FARMING 197 



Imperial Valley of California, where the heat is 

 so terrible that women can live there only a por- 

 tion of the year, proves the hunger of people for 

 the land. 



But the free land of the West is all gone. It has 

 passed out of the hands of the government. No 

 longer do the open prairies, unfenced and un- 

 owned, keep down the price of land. No longer 

 does a free homestead to be had for the asking free 

 the would-be farmer from the necessity of being a 

 farm-hand or a tenant on the land of another. The 

 age-long movement of people toward the setting 

 sun came to an end about the close of the last 

 century when the remaining Indian reservations and 

 Oklahoma, were thrown ODen to the landless of the 

 earth. 



The enclosure of the public domain ended the 

 first great era of American history. It marked the 

 close of an era in the history of the world. For 

 the enclosures of the free land ended the freedom 

 of choice enjoyed by the city worker, it ended 

 the freedom of choice of the would-be farmer, in 

 a sense it ended the freedom of the western world. 

 And when the free land was gone, all land began 

 to hare a monopoly price irrespective of its real 

 value. It acquired a speculative value. No longer 

 was land desirable only because of its greater fer- 

 tility or nearness to the city. All land now had a 

 scarcity value, a value due to the fact that all of 



