LAND FOR THE LANDLESS 203 



Europe, with the possible exception of Russia. And 

 the condition of the tenant farmer working upon 

 the great plantations of Texas, Oklahoma, and many 

 of the Southern States is but slightly better than 

 the condition of the Irish tenants who were driven 

 to this country in the hungry forties to escape 

 starvation.^ 



The most unfortunate page in our history is the 

 story of the wastage of our public domain. It 

 amounted originally to 1,850,000,000 acres. It 

 cost us less than five cents an acre. The great 

 bulk of this imperial domain lay to the west of the 

 Mississippi. And it is out of this domain that the 

 great feudal holdings of the West have been carved. 

 From the largesses of the government in the form 

 of subsidies to the railroads and for other internal 

 improvements, 337,740,000 acres were taken. This 

 is an empire equal to one-sLxth of the total area of 

 the United States. It is an area three times the 

 size of France, with a population of 43,000,000 souls. 

 A great part of this domain was given to the Pacific 

 railroads. All told, between 129,000,000 and 150,- 

 000,000 acres were donated to the Northern Pacific, 

 Atlantic Pacific, Union Pacific, Central Pacific, 

 Kansas Pacific, and Southern Pacific railroads. 

 This does not include 8,000,000 acres granted to 

 the railways m the State of Texas. These land 

 grants alone would have more than paid the cost 



1 See Chapter XX, "The Tenant Farmer." 



