THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 679 



There was in the West at this time a political and business 

 element which favored land speculation. It dominated the legisla- 

 tures of the states, and its influence was felt more or less strongly 

 even in Congress. Even under the Homestead and Pre-emption 

 laws, land easily passed into the hands of speculators. The only 

 check was state taxation ; for the owners of land could not allow 

 it to remain idle if taxes were levied, and in cases where the 

 amount of land was too large to be cultivated, the owners would 

 have been compelled to sell it. But the small owners were just 

 as eager as the great corporations to avoid taxation. So laws 

 were passed forbidding the grant of patents until the surveyor's 

 fee was paid ; and until a patent was obtained the land was not 

 taxable, although it could be occupied by the intended patentee. 

 What is now charged against the great corporations is really the 

 result of improper legislation, and could have been avoided by a 

 little legislative skill. It is true that taxes on the full value of 

 farm lands would have rested heavily on the settler, but a proper 

 reduction for debt would have made the whole system more sat- 

 isfactory in the end. The railroads, on the other hand, mistook 

 their own interests when they allowed land to remain unoccupied. 

 Eventually settlements, farms, and towns along their routes would 

 have repaid them in the increased business. As a matter of course, 

 there has been no little chicanery about the land affairs of the 

 nation ; but the Land Office of the government has struggled hard 

 to do justice and to protect settlers. Whatever of injustice exists 

 will generally be found due to the failure of the citizen to attend 

 to his part of the matter or in the failure of Congress to stop 

 abuses by appropriate legislation. 



None the less all these things aroused the opposition of the 

 people when they began to see that they had made a mistake in 

 their legislation and that speculators and land-grabbers had taken 

 advantage of it. This opposition began in 1870, after the huge 

 land grants to the various Pacific roads. It made '" public opinion 

 halt to give away to corporations a territory half as big as 

 Europe." The people watched with indignation the course of the 

 land companies into whose hands the greater part of the grants 

 fell. The citizen of the United States, it was felt, was being cut 



