230 HISTORY OP THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



Oregon and Washington Territory belong to the region 

 of minerals, furs, timber and agriculture. 



" The Government land grant to the Northern Pacific 

 Railway Company, representing, as already mentioned, 

 50,000,000 acres for the main line, has an appreciable 

 value, the money price of which, at the rate at which 

 the Illinois Central sold its land, would amount to 

 $550,000,000 ; at the rate at which Minnesota disposed 

 of her school land, it would amount to $350,000,000 ; 

 and at the rate at which the Kansas Pacific realized, it 

 would amount to $165,000,000. Granted that even 

 the last figure is put too high, we may fall back on the 

 minimum price below which the United States Govern- 

 ment has bound itself to the Northern Pacific Railway 

 Company not to sell land in the alternating sections 

 adjoining the line. At $2.50 an acre the land grant of 

 the company is worth $125,000,000 an amount still 

 more than sufficient to redeem the entire $100,000,000 

 of bonds ; even the redemption at ten per cent, above 

 par permitted by the statutory regulations requiring 

 $110,000,000 to redeem the bonds, would still leave a 

 handsome surplus. However, another question is 

 whether the land can really be disposed of by way of 

 sale within the thirty years fixed for the redemption 

 of the bonds, and whether the demand for these lands 

 will so nearly equal the supply that sales can be made 

 at the given prices and during the specified period of 

 time ? The answer to this question is essentially de- 

 pendent on the same points which have been already 

 considered in connection with the security for the pay- 

 ment of interest on the bonds, namely, whether in this 

 case the population of the respective regions will increase 

 at a rate sufficiently rapid to insure that after the lapse 



