1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 171 



belonged to the tribe as a whole. So, too, the parent had 

 no exclusive right to his own child ; it belonged to the tribe 

 or to the " gens" or band. To civilize the Indian, we have 

 to instill in him the Christian idea of a family, the Christian 

 idea of private property belonging to the family, and, as 

 a last resource, of individual ownership in land. 



I am aware that a certain school of politicians, which 

 denies the right of private property in land, is making much 

 talk and is growing in this country. Starting with premises 

 that have but a thread of fact, they reach conclusions as 

 wild and fallacious as they are radical. This school of 

 politicians is almost exclusively of foreign birth. It is an 

 importation, and belongs to the city and not to the country. 

 It is simply impossible that such a school could grow up on 

 farms. It totally and entirely ignores the fact that agricult- 

 ural land is as truly a manufactured product as is the house 

 upon it or the plough with which it is tilled. Land in a state 

 of nature is not fit for agriculture ; it must be brought into 

 a state fit for cultivation by labor. Take the land of this 

 State of Massachusetts as an illustration. The labor ex- 

 pended on subduing the land and bringing it into its present 

 conditions would amount to more than the land will brin^ 

 to-day, even if that labor is not counted at more than 

 twenty-five cents per day. 



Land from which any man can earn a living if he sees fit to 

 subdue it, clear it for ploughing, dig it and put in his crops, 

 may still be bought in New England or even in the Middle 

 States for less than a dollar per acre. We hear of firms 

 "abandoned" in New England, which once supported a 

 thrifty population. That is not a feature peculiar to New 

 England. Land was sold last year in New York, the " Em- 

 pire State," — not in a remote corner, but lying but a lew 

 miles from great cities, — for one cent per acre, and con- 

 siderable quantities at less than one dollar per acre. I cite 

 this merely as an illustration that land has little value of 

 itself. A part of the agricultural vakie of land depends 

 upon its proximity to market ; a little depends upon its 

 native fertility ; but very much more depends in actual fact 

 upon the ability and labor of the farmer. Some lands are 

 so situated that they can and will have but a slight agricult- 



