History of public land law development

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218 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT was present, as some have assumed, but because the railroad was! Tenancy It was not until 1880 that the Bureau of the Census began to compile figures on the respective proportions of farms operated by owners and tenants. That there had been no effort to gather such data before, and little discussion about the need for such data suggests that few people were aware of the problems that were later to be associated with tenancy. True, land reformers had predicted that tenancy was certain to result from the policy of permitting unrestricted purchasing of the public lands by capitalists, and there was abundant evidence of its existence if one looked for it. Nevertheless, the census data of 1880 was shocking to those concerned with rural problems. For the four states we are here discussing, they show that Illinois had 32 percent of its farms tenant-operated, Missouri 28 percent, Iowa 24 percent, and Wisconsin 10 percent. Taken together, a quarter of the farms in the four states were tenant-operated. The great rush of northern Europeans and eastern Americans for land in the Upper Mississippi Valley that was somewhat slowed by the financial crash of 1857 and the War years revived thereafter. Those who had managed to retain their excessive holdings now could sell at continually rising and profitable prices and retire into the nearby town and live the life of a rentier. Land values were pushed so high that new immigrants to the West had to proceed farther toward the setting sun or become tenants in Illinois or Iowa. Though tenancy was doubtless still a temporary stage for many, the amount of capital required to own the necessary farm equipment, draft animals and other livestock, and to make improvements such as was required on Scully land in Logan and Grundy Counties in Illinois, made the tenant qualify at least as a petty capitalist. The fact is that as time passed tenancy was beginning to show signs of permanency, with some tenants being quite willing to remain in that status. Glimmerings of the American Dream It can be said that people planning in 1855 to develop a farm in the West-if they were willing to move into recently opened areas where land had not as yet been picked over by settlers and investors, and if they were not too seriously troubled about a remote location-could still acquire good arable land in Minnesota, Kansas, or Nebraska with a warrant or $200. If they preferred better located land and had a little more capital they could purchase tracts for $2 to $5 an acre, a price that within a decade would be regarded as low. There were abundant jobs on construction crews and in developing towns and cities. Wages were good. One could, as many obviously did, save enough in a year or two to get started on a farm as tenant or as a mortgaged owner, or could move farther west where government land was available. Those speculators who preceded settlers raised the cost of land for them. Those who entered land for settlers provided capital badly needed on the frontier, but at a high price. Some speculators developed their land, and all were interested in securing government aid for internal improvements for the West. The creation of a class of independent "yeomen farmers," was the goal that Jefferson had placed before the young Republic. They, not aristocratic landlords supported by tenant farmers, would be the stalwart defenders of democracy. By opposing the policy of authorizing individuals to purchase unrestricted quantities of government land, by urging settlers to take only such land as their resources would permit them to develop, and by favoring inalienable homesteads that would revert to the government on the death of the grantee, Horace Greeley also fought for this ideal. He feared that the policies the Nation had adopted up to this point would never achieve it.