At Durham, for the first time in American land settlement, the farm laborer who works for wages is recognized as having as useful and valuable a part in rural economy as the farm owner.  The provisions made for his home are intended to give to his wife and children comfort, independence, and self-respect; in other words, the things that help create character and sustain patriotism.  The farm laborers’ homes already built are one of the most attractive features of the settlement; and when the community members gather together, as they do, to discuss matters that affect the progress of the settlement, or to arrange for cooperative buying and selling, the farm laborer and his family are active and respected members of the meetings.

From maps in school histories study the claims of the seven states to western lands.

What is the Ordinance of 1787?

Make reports on the circumstances connected with our various territorial acquisitions.

From whom did the colonists get the right to the land in the original thirteen colonies?

Do you know anyone who has ever taken up a “homestead claim”?  If so, learn how it was done.

If possible, get a description of a “land lottery” and a “land rush” in newly opened public lands.

Get all the information you can about the plan to provide land for the soldiers, referred to above.  Do you think this is a better plan than that of giving land to soldiers outright?  Why?  Is your state likely to cooperate with the national government in carrying out this plan?  How?

THE NATION’S INTERESTS ARE FIRST

The policy of the government of disposing of the public lands to individuals has of course been of great benefit to the latter; but we should not lose sight of the fact that the national well-being is the first consideration.  As the Commissioner of the General Land Office said in a recent report (1916), “Every acre of public land disposed of under this line of legislation is an investment, the profits to be found in the general development of the welfare of the nation at large.”

SAFEGUARDING THE INTERESTS OF INDIVIDUALS

It has been no simple matter to administer our public lands, and mistakes have been made.  Sometimes the interests of individuals have not been sufficiently safeguarded.  Many settlers have suffered serious loss, and many promising communities have failed, through the taking of homesteads in regions of little rainfall, as in western Kansas and Nebraska.  The government now seeks to protect homesteaders against such errors by distinguishing carefully between lands suitable for ordinary agriculture and those suitable only for dry-farming and stock-raising, by informing prospective settlers in regard to the facts, and by allowing larger entries in lands of the latter classes.  Another mistake was made in allowing many of the first claimants to stock-raising lands so to locate their claims as to acquire the exclusive use of the only available water supply for miles around, thus making useless other large tracts.  This might have been avoided by a little foresight.