February 1953 page 12

text books widely used in American
schools. His findings clearly showed
that these texts were at fault in not
fully and accurately reporting the land
grant transactions.

No land grants here

Actually, only eight per cent (18,738)
miles of the nation's railroad mileage
received any land grants whatsoever.
The greatest portion of those receiving
the grants were the pioneer roads
which opened up the West. There is no
land-grant mileage in 22 of the states,
including North and South Carolina
and the entire Eastern Seaboard, with
the exception of Florida. Therefore
when you talk about land grants you
are talking about a relatively small
segment of the railroad industry—less
than a tenth.

Were these land grants outright gifts
or were they exchanged for value re-
ceived? Most history text books leave
the impression that they were outright
gifts from the public domain.

But take a look at the facts. In the
first place the areas where land grants
were made to railroads were undevel-
oped and inacessible. The United
States Government wanted to open up
these territories to settlement, agricul-
ture, mineral development, and the
like. But, being land rich and money
poor, it had to find a way to induce
private investors to build railroads into
a completely undeveloped area. The
land-grant system was the answer. Since
it has been so misunderstood it prob-
ably wasn't the best answer, but it got
results and results were what Uncle
Sam wanted.

There is no accepted yardstick for
measuring the value of the lands trans-
ferred to the railroads. On the basis of
the Government's cost in acquiring
the lands the 131,350,534 acres trans-
ferred to the railroads were worth
something less than $31,000,000. A more
nearly correct value of the land at that
time was slightly less than $1 an acre,
the average price the government re-
ceived from its sales to the public.
This would have made the land grants
worth about $130,000,000, a generally
accepted fair value.

A big string to it

Now it has been established that in
exchange for opening up the West the
United States transferred to the rail-
roads land valued at about $130,000,000.
But there was a big string attached!
The railroads receiving this land were
ultimately obligated to sell their ser-
vices to the Federal Government at
one-half of their standard rates. This
rate reduction for Government traffic,

[photo of Virginia Nance examining maps]
[caption to left of photo]
MAPS being examined by Miss Virginia Nance
of the Engineering Department are needed
to keep accurate tabs on the property used
for right-of-way purposes by the two railroads.

FEBRUARY, 1953