208 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



is owned by .0006 per cent, of the population. This 

 area is considerably greater than the combined 

 area of Germany and Great Britain, whose combined 

 population is 110,000,000 souls. Yet here in free 

 America one-fourth of the cultivated land is owned 

 by a handful of persons, whose number is less than 

 that of a good-sized suburb of an Eastern city. 



Speaking of this situation, the Public Lands Com- 

 mission appointed by President Roosevelt said: 



"It is apparent that in very many localities and 

 perhaps in general a larger proportion of the public 

 land is passing into the hands of speculators than 

 into those of actual settlers who are making homes. 

 . . . Nearly everywhere the large landowner has 

 succeeded in monopolizing the best tracts whether 

 of timber or agricultural land. . . . The com- 

 mission has had inquiries made as to how a number 

 of estates selected haphazard have been acquired. 

 Almost without exception collusion or evasion of 

 the law and spirit of the law was involved." ^ 



But land monopoly is not confined to the West. 

 It is found all over the South as well. Even in our 

 Eastern States round about the great cities men of 

 wealth are acquiring great estates for residential 

 purposes. Here the land is being diverted from the 

 production of wealth, badly needed in the near-by 

 cities, into pleasure estates. 



The reports from the land-settlement colonies in 

 Europe show that a man can support himself in 



' Senate Document No. 154, 58th Congress, Third Session, p. 14. 



