SETTLEMENT AND COLONIZATION IN GREAT LAKES STATES 87 
land leading to heavy expenses for advertising and selling, and it 
- would seem that this is to be charged up as one of the undesira- 
ble consequences of the process of private sale and settlement under 
conditions ot severe competition which has so largely characterized 
the business of land settlement in the Lakes States. 
Even if the land is of good quality and sold at a reasonable price 
the promotion of land settlement by this class of agencies will have 
certain disadvantages, if not properly planned; for example, if the 
land is being sold in scattered tracts in an uninhabited area entirely 
remote from market and without any community facilities, with the 
settlers widely separated from each other and left to their own fate. 
If, however, such concerns are settling territory which is fairly 
well located from the standpoint of transportation, markets, and 
other community advantages, filling up gaps in territory already 
partly developed, by placing settlers here and there either on partly 
developed farms which are being resold or on wild land inter- 
spersed with partly developed farming areas, they may be render- 
ing a high order of settlement service. It is true, however, that 
even under these favorable circumstances a considerable number 
of settlers fail; and some of this failure could be avoided by the 
kind of aid and supervision furnished by the intensive coloniza- 
tion companies. 
Another great type of land-selling agency here described consists 
of those concerns which are assuming more or less responsibility for 
alding the settler in establishing himself on the land. What shall 
we say concerning the significance of this type of land settlement 
viewed from the standpoint of the public interest? 
Most of the concerns of this type appear to have been operated 
according to fairly high standards of business ethics. Furthermore, 
a considerable number are the product of careful and thoughtful 
study of the business of land settlement and have been exhibiting in 
their management an unusually high quality of efficiency in admin- 
istration. 
Some of the concerns described have developed to a high point 
their arrangements for aiding the settlers in the difficult business of 
improving their lands and establishing themselves successfully. Con- 
sequently, such firms are characterized by whatever advantages may 
be attributed to such facilities. 
From a public standpoint, the criticism of these enterprises would 
seem to consist largely in certain limitations which grow out of 
their private character and the excessive competition to which they 
are continually subjected. In the Lakes States as well as in other 
parts of the country there is an enormous area of wild land which 
at the present time is of little economic advantage to the owners 
and which is a continual burden of costs. Such land can be sold © 
even when it is not economically adapted to farming in quality, 
situation, or price, provided enough effort and expense are devoted 
to the job of selling it. The market for such land is extremely 
limited and in consequence the competition for settlers has been most 
intense. It is this excessive competition which has forced coloniza- 
tion companies to engage in Keavy expense for advertising and sell- 
ing, to provide easy terms of land credit, and to follow the policy 
of providing supplemental credit for development either in the 
form of buildings constructed in advance or in the form of sup- 
plemental loans for development purposes. These overhead expenses, 
4 
