mately 200,000,000 acres are
owned by less than 50,000 corporations and individual men. Many of these
estates exceed 10,000 or even 50,000 acres in extent. Some exceed the
million mark. States like California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and other
Western States have great manorial preserves like those of England,
Prussia, and Russia which are held out of use or inadequately used, and
which have increased in value a hundredfold during the last fifty years.
These great estates are largely the result of the land grants given to the
railroads as well as the careless policy of the government in the disposal
of the public domain.

Here is one of the anomalies of the nation. Here is the real explanation of
the immigration problem. Here, too, is the division between the "old
immigration" and the "new immigration." For the "old immigration" from the
north of Europe went to the country. The "new immigration" has gone to the
cities because the land had all been given away and the only opportunity
for immediate employment was to be found in the cities and mining
districts. The "new immigration" from the South of Europe is as eager for
home-ownership as the "old immigration" from the north of Europe. But the
land is all gone, and the incoming alien is compelled to accept the first
job that is offered, or starve. It is this too that has stimulated the
protest on the part of labor against the incoming tide. For, so long as
land was accessible for all, the incoming immigrants went to the country,
where they could build their fortunes as they willed, just as they did in
earlier generations.

The European War has forced many new problems upon us. And one of these is
the relation of people to the land. Of one thing, at least, we may be
certain--that with the ending of the war there will be a competition for
men, a competition not only by the exhausted Powers of Europe but by
Canada, Australia, and America as well. Europe will endeavor to keep its
able-bodied men at home. They will be needed for reconstruction purposes.
There will be little immigration out of France; for France is a nation of
home-owning peasants and France has never contributed in material numbers
to our population. The same is true of Germany. Germany is the most highly
socialized state in Europe. The state owns the railways, many mines, and
great stretches of land. In England too the state has been socialized to a
remarkable extent as a result of the war. Russia and Aus