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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1885)
THE WEST SHORE. 131 which are supposed to bo mutters of gonoral information, to properly read and digest an immigration pamphlet It is occasionully tlio Caoj thai pooilivo luiiwUUiutiuU of facts are made, chiefly by irresponsible scribblers and " traveling correspondents," whose productions are com posed of equal parts of ignoranoe and imagination, but it is seldom the finger can be laid upon untruthful para graphs in such legitimate immigration publications as should be looked upon as authoritative or worthy of con fidence. For one case where dissatisfaction arises from actual perversion of facts, there will be ton growing out of the inability to fully comprehend or digest what has been published. It is too often the case that in reading of this region a few facts are seized upon, facts in strong and favorable contrast with unsatisfactory conditions at home, while all others are ignored, and over those is thrown the proverbial enohantmont of distance. Thus primed the immigrant reaches his destination only to suffer terrible disappointment. In his anger and chagrin he naturally bolieves and asserts that he has been de ceived, when, in reality, he is himsolf chiofly to blame for the erroneous ideas he started with. Suoli cases are met with every day. It is very questionable if there was ever a description of the Puget Sound. country issued for im migration purposes that did not call secial attention to the fact that it is a densoly timbered region, and that farms can only be made by yoars of hard labor in olearing the land, yet almost daily disappointed immigrants are encountored who complain bitterly of not finding vacant land there upon which they can at onoe begin farming. After the physical characteristics of that rogion have been so thoroughly doBoribed in publications of every sort, it seems almost impossible that an intelligent roan oould have so little comprehended what ho read as to expect to find open prairie land waiting for him along Fugot Sound. But the fact still remains that many do have just such ideas and hold others responsible for them. Still others come with the expectation of settling upon Government land within a few miles of Portland, Salem, Walla Walla and other old towns, whore the sur rounding farms have been nndcr cultivation for many years. No respectable publication ever said that vacant land oould be found in the outskirts of our chief cities. If an immigrant desires land in the heart of the Willam ette Valley, or contiguous to any of our towns, he must buy it; and he who has sufllcient capital will generally find it far preferable to purchase land whose character and location suit him than to undertake the task of olear ing forest land or making a home on the prairie, whoro he mast wait for towns to grow and market to be cre ated. The vacant lands of Western Oregon and Wash ington are only to be found in the foothills and moun tains and along the courses of streams now far removed from the usual routos of travel and not of easy access to market, and all are covered with brush and timW. East of the mountains there is a great quantity of ojxin prairie and river bottom lands, dovoid of timber, the choicest of which now remaining vacant lies at considerable distance from any railroad. There is, howaer, mneh good land comparatively near railroad stations, though none, of oourso, in the immodiate vicinity of any railroad town of prominence. It is evident that immigrants who desire to sottle upon Government land must come prepared to go into tho forest or help to develop some now region. The best openings are to be found by those who are willing to purchase. Such Mrsons will find much desirable land for sale at from $10 to T0 per acre, with cash and time paymonta. Tiieiik is a phase of the immigration quostion which has reoeived too little attention from the press, an evil which the present movement to inaugurate local town and oounty immigration lmards will have a tondnnoy to abate. In nearly every town there are a few land sharks har pies who prey upon strangers who are seeking for land There are reputable real estate dealers and there are scoundrels who make the business simply a cloak to hide their rascalities. Sotuo of tho simplest forms of swind ling practiced by thorn is selling land to which they have no title; bargaining for the sale of a fine pieoo of prop erty to which they have not a shadow of claim and which may not be in tho market at all, and then giving a deod to a oomparativoly valueless tract perhaps a milo or two away; purchasing railroad or other land for au immigrant and receiving from him the full value, while actually paying only the first installment; receiving foes for locat ing a claim Uxm land which they aro well aware is not oon to location, or actually filing upon somo worthless tract, while pretending to secure for their client some valuable one which they have shown him. These aro but a few of tho numerous dovioos employed by such mon. It should le the first duty of immigration boards to checkmate such reprehensible schemes, and those towns possessing no organization of that character should form one, it for no other purKso thn to defend themselves from the injury inflicted by such tricksters. Tho harm they do the localities in which they live cannot bo calcu lated. Not a tenth of their schemes are successful, and fully one-half tho men whom they attempt to swindle become distrustful and leave in disgust, when otherwise they would probably invest and become valuable addi tions to the community. In justice to them and to our selves we should endeavor to encourage and protect immigrants as much as possible. We have invitad them to come and settle among us, and it is our duty to keep them out of the clutches of these land sharks. It is also a duty wo owe to ourselves to prevent Intending investors and settlers from loiiig driven away by such unscrupu lous leeches. In shaking of the comparative merits of wheat grow ing and diversified farming, in which term dairying is included, the Ht Louis Ilrpuhlimn says that if one-half the money and lalor expended last year in raising Mis souri's crop of 35,000,000 bushels of wheat had been given to dairying tho net returns would have been doubled. There is in this statement considerable for farmers to think about Wheat raising in the Mississippi Valley is rapidly booming unprofitable iu competition with tb