It is a notorious fact that the public land laws have been deflected
from their beneficent original purpose of home-making by lax
administration, short-sighted departmental decisions, and the growth of
an unhealthy public sentiment in portions of the West. Great areas of
the public domain have passed into the hands, not of the home-maker, but
of large individual or corporate owners whose object is always the
making of profit and seldom the making of homes. It is sometimes urged
that enlightened self-interest will lead the men who have acquired large
holdings of public lands to put them to their most productive use, and
it is said with truth that this best use is the tillage of small areas
by small owners. Unfortunately, the facts and this theory disagree. Even
the most cursory examination of large holdings throughout the West will
refute the contention that the intelligent self-interest of large owners
results promptly and directly in the making of homes. Few passions of
the human mind are stronger than land hunger, and the large holder
clings to his land until circumstances make it actually impossible for
him to hold it any longer.
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