found to have been left by the former owners and trying to reclaim 

 the land protecting what forest growth exists and replanting the 

 forests that 'have been devastated. 



Two things are to be considered in connection with this big-public 

 estate of 650,000 acres. One is that while there is some good land scat- 

 tered on it, it is the poorest land in Michigan. The other fact of note is 

 that it pays taxes, every acre of it. 



It is the poorest land in Michigan as a matter of course. It is the 

 land made up in largest part of homesteads and cut-over lumber lands 

 which couldn't afford to pay taxes five years in succession and was 

 allowed to revert. It is bankrupt land in t'he real meaning of the word. 

 That is the broad fact. There are comparatively large areas of good 

 land in the public domain, some of it, as will later be shown, capable 

 of yielding today thousands of dollars to the. state treasury from sale 

 of standing timber. 



OPPOSITION AT FIRST. 



Good or bad, as stated, all pay taxes. The reason for this throws 

 a vivid light on conditions under which the would-be regenerators 

 of the bankrupt lands would have to work. Up to 1917 there was 

 opposition all through the north country to the policy of turning these 

 bankrupt acres over to the Public Domain Commission for withdrawal 

 from the market. At first it was the local patriots and the exploiters, 

 joining chorus in the chant that the lands ought to be sold^ by the 

 auditor-general and "the farmers given a chance to develop" them. 

 Latterly the chances of getting farmers on to such land becoming 

 more and more remote, the opposition centered on the true-enough 

 claim that withdrawal of these lands would mean that the counties in 

 which they were located never would derive any tax money from 

 them a genuine hardship in the poorer counties and a valid-enough 

 argument, in spite of the fact that the lands in question had reverted 

 because they did not pay taxes. They might, some time. 



The argument was wiped out at the legislative session of 1917 by 

 enactment of a law which requires the Public Domain Commission to 

 pay a tax of 5 cents an acre on all its holdings, and of this amount 

 the counties having public domain lands get their share. What helped 

 to enact this law was a provision in it that the money so derived must 

 be used for the construction of highways. If there is anything these 

 interior northern counties dote on it rs highways. They need them. 



PUBLIC PAYS TAXES. 



So the public pays taxes on its North Michigan domain, whether 

 some of the other fellows do or not. Next, naturally, we want to 

 know about income and here we are, again, back on the main track. 

 We will hardly need to be told that the public domain is not earning 

 its taxes, much less earning anything for the public not at this time. 

 What we want to know is, what are our representatives on the job 

 doing to make the proposition pay out taxes anyhow, with a view 

 to net income sometime? That is the main track spoken of. 



Answering that question, one must of necessity at the same time 

 furnish facts that will answer the larger questions about the 'conditions 

 and prospects of the whole 10,000,000 acres of bankrupt lands, among 

 which lie the acres of the state domain. Remember that the public 

 domain is a sample of the whole worse land, but better administered, 

 as probably will be agreed when the facts are set forth. The conditions 

 of the country and' the problems of the people on the land, as also the 

 problems of the people on the undeveloped lands and in the towns and 



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