A Stake in the Land

by Peter A. Speek

LOWER TYPE OF LAND DEALER

One group of the ordinary type of land dealer might be characterized as being composed of narrow-minded, hard, and even heartless business men, working solely for their own interests. Their business consists merely in buying and selling land as rapidly as possible. In making prices for land and in making contract stipulations with the buyers, they do not "monkey," as some of them say. As a rule they do not charge a higher price than the land is worth—that is, not higher than the prevailing market price in a particular locality. They also avoid unreasonable or impossible contract stipulations. When land is sold, when the contract has been signed by both sides, then their care and interest in regard to the land and its owner end. If the buyer later fails to meet the contract stipulations in any particular the land dealer sees to it that he leaves the land at once. The dealer then advertises and sells the land again. Usually, no compensation for improvements made by the settler, in case of his failure, is stipulated in the contract. If there is any gain to the land dealer from the failure of a settler, the dealer often claims that such gain is more than offset by heavy expenses, such as for advertising, agents' commissions, and the like, in finding a new buyer.

The land dealer gives little or no consideration to the causes of the failure of the settler. According to the observation of the writer, a large number of failures in settling on land are not due to the personal defects or weakness of the settlers, but are due to external causes, such as lack of capital and credit, lack of market, poor roads, etc. The settlers who have failed owing to such causes might be criticized for their poor judgment in selecting the land, but the land dealers might equally be criticized for not warning the settlers of the difficulties before they buy the land.

The land dealers ought to know the market facilities, the extent of capital and credit required for success on a particular piece of land and in a particular locality. As a matter of fact, dealers of the type under discussion do not warn the settlers. They give advice of an optimistic character and they apply to the settler the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest. A number of these land dealers said to the writer:

Well, it is up to the settler himself, either to succeed or to fail. If he fails, he has himself alone to blame, and he must give place to the settler who is able to succeed. There is no room for weaklings on my land or anywhere else in this world.

The results which follow in the wake of such land-settlement policies are described in the following extract from the letter of a county agent. He writes from a locality where many of the settlers are immigrants:

In some parts of this country ... the statistics show that there is a complete change in the farmers every seven years. That means that several farmers are coming and going all the time. Several farmers are paying out taxes and interest on something they will never own.... As to the land companies doing things for the settler, in the most part they take care of the new man for a time, but I notice that they close them out, too, if taxes and interest are not kept up pretty well.

A similar condition is described in the letter below from a county agent in the same state:

The land companies in this county are not putting forth any special effort to make it easier for the new settlers to succeed. As far as I know, all the land companies in this county are reliable. They live up to their agreements with the settlers. However, I can also vouch for the statement that many of our farms, with very little clearing, are continuously changing hands.

The importance of advice and warning from the land company to the settler, and the deplorable infrequency with which it is given, are spoken of in this statement by a county agent: