22 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



and a trifle more than ten per cent of the total lands 

 in all the United States together, not including 

 Alaska and our island possessions. 



The following eleven far western states, because 

 of their large proportion not only of Public Domain 

 but other classes of Federal Lands besides, are fre- 

 quently called "the Public Land States": Arizona, 

 California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, 

 New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyo- 

 ming. Considerably more than half of Nevada is 

 Public Domain. Several states are still more than 

 half in mixed federal ownership of various kinds, 

 and their slender populations bitterly resent their 

 inability to tax all lands within their borders, es- 

 pecially as the National Forests may comprise about 

 their best lands. 



"The United States/' we sometimes read in the 

 local press and even hear said in Congress, "grabs 

 all our productive land, dealing us semi-starvation. 

 It is not fair." 



This view ignores the fact that every acre of 

 all of these states was once national property, private 

 owners possessing their semi-arid farms of to-day 

 only by gift of the nation, which has "grabbed" 

 nothing from its citizens, ever. The inhabitants of 

 these states, or their parents from whom they in- 

 herit, moved into them originally of their own free 

 will, knowing their condition, with all the United 

 States to choose from, applying for and accepting 

 the government's gifts. The lands in these states 



