CHAPTER XX

PUBLIC LANDS AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

and extension of our

domain.

226. How We acquired Our Public Lands. Not Beginning only does the national government control these territories and colonies, but it owns public lands public located in some of the states as well as in the territories. When the original states surrendered to the United States their claims to the land lying between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi River, and when we later came into possession by conquest or purchase of other territories, the United States acquired not only the right to govern these regions but the title to unoccupied lands as well. That is, all lands in these sections which were not owned by individuals became the property of the United States. Moreover, when the states were admitted to the Union, they did not become the owners of public lands within their borders, for the title of these unoccupied lands remained with the United States.

parks and

227. Our Public Domain at Present. Nearly one National fourth of all the land in this country now belongs forest to the United States, never having been sold by the reserves. national government. Only part of this, however, is reserved permanently for the use of the entire nation, partly in the form of forest reserves, which are carefully protected from invaders and from fires,

and partly in the form of national parks, the most noted and most picturesque of which are Yellowstone Park in the northwest corner of Wyoming, and Public lands Yosemite Park in California. The rest of the public lands are for sale on favorable terms, although most of them are at present undesirable because they are located in the mountains or the desert regions of the West.

for sale.

The general process.

SOUTH

METHOD OF MAKING SURVEYS

228. The Method of surveying the Public Domain. As these public lands were intended to be used as a profitable investment, provision for surveying them was made by Congress as early as 1785. Certain parallels of latitude called base lines have been selected, and certain meridians of longitude called

EAST

How town

ships are

named.

principal meridians, the intersection of a base line with a principal meridian being the starting point for surveying all of the lands in that part of the country. Townships six miles square are then surveyed to the north, east, and west, and possibly to the south, being named according to the distance from the base line and the meridian; the distance to the east or west being indicated by the number of the range, and the distance to the north or south by the number of the township, as shown in the diagram given opposite. However, as meridians of longitude con- Need of verge to the north, the townships which were not near the base line were, therefore, less than six miles across from east to west. To avoid this difficulty, parallels of latitude called correction lines are arranged every twenty-four or thirty miles, and a fresh start is made so as to keep the townships as nearly six miles square as possible.

correction

lines.

Townships

6

7

18

17

14

20

19

20

30

29

Each township is subdivided into thirty-six sections each one mile square and numbered as shown in the accompanying diagram. The sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections have been given to the states for the benefit of the public schools. Each section is further subdivided into halves, quarters, and 229. The Sale of Public Lands. lands have been surveyed, large

81

16

10

15

SECTIONS OF TOWNSHIP

possibly eighths.

36

The Homestead Act.

opened to settlement at a price that is purely nominal. The object of this liberal policy is to induce settlers to locate in the new territories and to foster a large class of small landholders. Unfortunately, large tracts have been obtained by speculators under the lenient land laws which we have had in the past and some of which are still in force.

At the present time agricultural lands may be acquired under the Homestead Law, which enables any citizen or person who intends to become a citizen to acquire title to a quarter section, one hundred and sixty acres, by living on it for five years. As most of the unsold public lands are not capable of cultivation under present conditions, the government has The Irriga- recently passed an Irrigation Act for reclaiming arid

tion Act.

School lands

in the newer states.

lands at public expense. This act provides that the proceeds from the sale of lands in the Pacific and Rocky Mountain states shall be used for the construction of storage reservoirs in desert districts. This act has already been put into operation in several states, and eventually large areas will be made productive by this wise policy.

230. Aid given to Education. The possession of these public lands has made it possible for the national government to develop the newer parts of our country not only by giving farms to actual settlers but in two other ways. (1) The newer states have been able to furnish better instruction in its public schools, because, when the state was admitted to the Union, Congress gave to it two sections out of the thirty-six in each township to be used for the advance

ment of education. The sale of these lands aided greatly in the establishment of a first-class school system which has in turn proved a great attraction to prospective settlers and has been of the highest intellectual value to the community. Congress has also done a great deal for the agricultural schools of the country (§ 83) through gifts of lands and money.

amount

of land

231. The Aid given to Railways. —(2) The devel- Purpose and opment of the newer sections of the United States has also been aided by liberal gifts of public lands to grants. railways in that part of our country. As no railway in an unsettled region can be self-supporting, this policy provided the West with means of transportation without which it would have remained a wilderness much longer than it did. During the two decades following 1850, the national government granted to railways, most of which were in the West, an area equal to that of the two Dakotas and Nebraska. A large part of this land was sold by the railway companies to settlers on very easy terms.

loans to

railways.

The national government gave additional help to National the first transcontinental railway by loaning to it a sum of $64,000,000. Most of this was repaid to the government during the closing years of the nineteenth century.

of our coasts.

232. River and Harbor Improvements. As the Protection national government has absolute control of foreign and interstate commerce, it has expended large sums of money in improving harbors, deepening channels, building breakwaters, maintaining lighthouses, pa