FowELL] SOCIOLOGY LSIX 



skins may be property much longer than their flesh. This 

 appropriation from nature lias been universal among mankind, 

 and in its simplest form is always recognized as just. 



But there come complications in the appropriation from 

 nature which give rise to diflPerences of opinion about the 

 extent to which and conditions under which this appropriation 

 may be cari-ied on. By civilized man land is thus api)ropri- 

 ated; this is absolutely necessary that he may make it use- 

 ful. ^Vs he appropriates it by labor, the labor on the soil first 

 produces a single crop. The labor of appropriating the land 

 perha])s does not obtain its full reward by the first crop, but 

 the lalior for the first crop enhances the value of the land for 

 subsequent crops. 



All the land of the United States has l)een tlms apjn-opriated 

 from nature — at first by individuals under grants from Euro- 

 pean governments, but since the organization of the present 

 government it has appropria.ted the land and has either sold it 

 again to individuals or allowed them to aj^propriate it for 

 themselves by homestead settlement. But in assuming the 

 ownership) of the land the general government has invariably 

 recognized the prior titles to the land inhering in the aborig- 

 inal tribes, and has purchased it from them by treaties, paying 

 for the land by grants of money. The total sum thus granted 

 is more than three hundred millions of dollars. The title of 

 the Indians to the land was a title which arose out of a quasi 

 appropriation of the same — not by improving the lands them- 

 selves, but by gathering from the land their food, clothing, and 

 shelter; still, in some cases the natives cultivated patches of 

 soil. But tiie ownership of the land by these seemingly 

 imperfect processes was fully recognized by the government 

 of the United States. 



Tlie title to the land obtained by ap})ropriating it through 

 the labor of improvement has always been recog-nized among 

 modern civilized peoples. But there are other .agencies which 

 give the land value, not included in that produced by improve- 

 ments. Land may have an ever-increasing value given it 

 by extraneous conditions sometimes equal to or even greater 

 than the interest on the investment as purchase money. The 



