THE DISPOSITION OF OUR PUBLIC LANDS 265 



rightfully be directed rather against the manner in which the laws 

 have worked than against their purpose. Since 1841 the lands 

 have nominally been reserved for actual settlers ; but practice has 

 shown grave defects in the settlement laws, defects which Con- 

 gress has no will to remedy. No man can legally pre-empt land 

 or take up a homestead more than once. The privilege is very 

 difficult to guard, and perjury and fraud are alarmingly frequent. 

 No man can legally acquire more than eleven hundred and twenty 

 acres of land, in the West, from the government ; a hundred and 

 sixty acres each as a pre-emption, as a homestead, and as a tree 

 claim, and a section as a desert-land claim. Actually, single indi- 

 viduals and companies own large estates which a few years ago 

 were in the hands of the government. 



The accumulation of the large tracts is often brought about by 

 fraud, but much oftener through the mistaken generosity of the 

 government or through defective land laws. It is not always 

 necessary to hire men fraudulently to take up land for the com- 

 pany. In Texas the state has sold its lands in its own way, 

 often in large blocks. The school-lands and the scrip for bounty 

 warrants have legally been used for locating wide-extending 

 estates. The railroad lands, although not in compact tracts, can 

 be used as a nucleus for a large accumulation : and, in a country 

 where land is cheap and money dear, the patient, long-headed 

 capitalist can buy up valuable claims in a legitimate manner. The 

 chief source of the present trouble in the West lies in the fact 

 that the government never recognized that grazing land must be 

 sold and occupied under different conditions from ordinary arable 

 lands. The first comers have been allowed to take up the water- 

 fronts. Any comprehensive system of irrigation of large areas for 

 the benefit of future land-seekers has thus been forever prevented. 

 The possessor of the rivers and water-holes has gained control of the 

 country behind his claim. In such a contest the largest and rich- 

 est concerns have a great advantage. There was a time when the 

 government might have laid out, for sale or lease, large tracts of 

 grazing lands, each with a sufficient water-front. It is now too late. 



The fundamental criticism upon our public-land policy is not 

 that we have sold our lands cheap, not that we have freely given 



