The Great Land Squeeze of 1885
While the Northern Pacific Railroad publicly promised to 'build up the country,' settlers in King County found their land held hostage for mineral rights and future profits.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The manifesto of the Northern Pacific Railroad to settlers in Washington Territory is known to all. When they turn the sod of the Northern Pacific Railroad's land grant, they are building up the country. The railroad has been held up to our admiring gaze as a tangible, benevolent agency. Now, how much of this credit is deserved? That the Northern Pacific is induced to bring settlers into the country is of course true. But the treatment of the settler, when he has arrived, is a most important consideration. The settler will not stay in a country where he does not receive fair treatment, where he cannot purchase land easily and cheaply, or where he must improve his land without being subjected to restrictions and annoyances. If deliberately withholding lands from market is a way to build up a 'country,' then the Northern Pacific is building it up.
At to withholding lands from market, the following letter from Paul Schultze, General Land Agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, to a citizen of King County, will explain itself: 'Dear Sir: Your letter of 6th inst. relative to the southwest quarter of section 33, township 24 north, range 6 east, is at hand. Said land is not in market. It is in the vicinity of other lands valuable for coal. The mineral lands of the company will not be sold. Agricultural lands, however, in the vicinity of lands valuable for coal or iron, will be offered for sale to purchasers who are willing to take the surface only, reservations of coal and iron to be inserted in contracts and deeds. It would appear that the above land is agricultural in character, and it will probably be offered for sale at an early date, subject to the above conditions.'
The land in question is in the midst of a flourishing farming community, the only drawback of which is the exclusion of these railroad lands from which the settler is barred. This is exceedingly shrewd on the part of Mr. Schultze. Occupation and improvement of the land will increase its sales value materially. When the land is finally put on the market, the railroad will ask for the highest price, and it may be presumed that Mr. Jones would also have the 'first privilege of purchase,' thus paying the railroad a good price for his own improvements. This is the healthy greed of the benevolent Northern Pacific.
“If deliberately withholding lands from market is a way to build up a 'country,' then the Northern Pacific is building it up.”
In 1885, the Northern Pacific Railroad wielded its land grants to control property and squeeze value out of settlers, a practice of corporate land hoarding that echoes today’s concerns over housing availability and the concentration of property ownership by institutional investors. Much like the 19th-century settler, modern renters and buyers struggle against opaque systems where 'development' often benefits the landlord far more than the community.
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