214 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



The man who wants to buy a farm has no means 

 of rehable information. He knows nothing of the 

 condition of the soil, of the faciHties for marketing, 

 of the kinds of crops to be planted. He is com- 

 pelled to canvass a wide territory. If he buys at 

 a distance he must depend on the statements of a 

 land agent. There is no such thing as a nation- 

 wide clearing-house or bureau of information to 

 which the would-be farmer can go for information 

 on which he can rely. 



Thousands of persons are being exploited or at 

 least led into ventures in which they lose all of their 

 accumulated savings every year. They are the vic- 

 tims of more or less unscrupulous promoters and cor- 

 porations organized for the purpose. 



A thorough investigation of the experiences by 

 would-be farmers has been made by the Land-Colony 

 Commission of California. It sent out investigators 

 to secure statements of men who had purchased 

 small holdings and who, in large numbers, had been 

 defrauded by individuals and corporations operating 

 as alleged development companies. The experiences 



some means could be found to get the immigrant to the land on easy- 

 terms he would quickly absorb our institutions and become a per- 

 manent asset to the country. But all of the projects presented 

 were open to suspicion and many of them were thoroughly dishonest. 

 There was Uttle chance of the immigrant making good, and in most 

 cases the land was to be sold at a highly inflated price. Usually 

 there were no advantages in the neighborhood, there was no means 

 of marketing, no schools, and a five-to-one chance that even if the 

 land did produce a living it could not be disposed of. Hundreds of 

 such projects are to be found throughout the Western States. They 

 are speculative enterprises pure and simple. 



