The passage of the Homestead Act by Congress in 1862 was the culmination of more than 70 years of controversy over the disposition of public lands. From the inception of the United States there was a clamor for ever-increasing liberalism in the disposition of these lands. From 1830 onward, groups called for free distribution of such lands. This became a demand of the Free-Soil party, which saw such distribution as a means of stopping the spread of slavery into the territories, and it was subsequently adopted by the Republican party in its 1860 platform. The Southern states had been the most vociferous opponents of the policy, and their secession cleared the way for its adoption.
The Act, which became law on Jan. 1, 1863, allowed anyone to file for a quarter-section of free land (160 acres). The land was yours at the end of five years if you had built a house on it, dug a well, broken (plowed) 10 acres, fenced a specified amount, and actually lived there. Additionally, one could claim a quarter-section of land by "timber culture" (commonly called a "tree claim"). This required that you plant and successfully cultivate 10 acres of timber.
Henry C.K. Liu
Doug Henwood wrote:
> [Interesting. Is this the Hollywood influence on the Clinton
> administration? From the World Bank's daily press briefing.]
>
> US, ALLIES ASK WORLD BANK TO RECONSIDER CHINA PROJECT
>
> The US and its allies have asked the World Bank to revise a controversial new
> project in China, saying a vote scheduled for today on whether to finance it
> would likely fail, AFP reports. Twelve of the World Bank's 24 Executive
> Directors urged World Bank President James Wolfensohn in a letter to "find a
> compromise" with Beijing, saying, "for technical and institutional reasons, at
> this point we do not believe the project can gain sufficient support from the
> board."
>
> Executive Directors who signed the letter include those from the US, France,
> Germany, and Switzerland, sources said. The other signatories were not
> immediately known. The letter increases the likelihood that the board of
> directors, which meets twice weekly, will delay a vote on whether to fund the
> planned China Western Poverty Reduction Project, the story says. Bank
> directors
> typically resolve such controversies before they ever come to a vote.
> Individual countries on the bank's board may request a delay before a vote, but
> such a delay may occur only once and typically lasts no longer than 48 hours.
>
> US officials said Jan Piercy, the US Executive Director, would be instructed to
> cast Washington's vote-which is weighted at 18 percent of the total-against the
> loan, mainly on the grounds that the project's environmental problems haven't
> been fully considered in accordance with the Bank's own procedures, reports the
> Washington Post (p.E3).
>
> The $160 million loan, which would finance the resettlement of thousands of
> poor
> Chinese farmers into a remote area of the country viewed by Tibetans as part of
> their traditional land, has thrust the Bank into the middle of a furious
> controversy between China and critics of its human rights policies, says the
> story. The attacks have incensed Beijing, the story says, where anti-Western
> sentiment is already running high because of last month's bombing by NATO
> of the
> Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
>
> Last weekend, the story continues, the New China News Agency quoted Vice
> Finance
> Minister Jin Liqun as saying that he hoped the World Bank board "will not use
> the political standard of the West [and] will not believe in the lies of a
> small
> number of people of the Tibetan exile splittist [separatist] forces."
>
> The Bank's staff has been taken aback by the controversy, in part because the
> resettlement wouldn't affect the Tibet autonomous region itself, although a
> portion of the project would involve a part of neighboring Qinghai province
> inhabited by Tibetans, and that includes the birthplace of their spiritual
> leader, the Dalai Lama, says the story. In a recently issued paper, the Bank
> staff noted that the project was aimed at providing a chance for a better
> standard of living to some of "the poorest people in the world, with incomes of
> about $60 a year."
>
> They would be moved from the hillsides of eastern Qinghai province, whose badly
> eroded land has been "likened to the surface of the moon," to a barren but
> fertile plain about 300 miles west in the province. The loan also would
> provide
> electricity, irrigation, schools and other facilities for the resettled area.
>
> Meanwhile, Associated Press reports that China urged the World Bank today to
> approve a controversial project to relocate poor Chinese farmers into Tibetan
> lands, saying it would help lift both ethnic groups out of poverty. China's
> Foreign Ministry denied that the project would weaken the presence of Tibetans
> in western Qinghai province, on the Tibetan plateau. Ministry spokeswoman
> Zhang
> Qiyue also denied allegations that the project could benefit prison labor farms
> in the area.
>
> Reuters also reports, citing an unnamed board member as saying the loan would
> likely be approved today despite widespread dissension from senior board
> members. The source said the loan has caused heated debate because it raised
> "serious concerns that the Bank's own disclosure rules were not fully complied
> with."
>
> In related commentary, an editorial in the WP (p.A16) says the World Bank
> cannot
> accidentally become the instrument of a Chinese policy that affects the
> survival
> of Tibetans as a distinct people and culture. The Bank itself has a structural
> problem. The line between technical and political is obviously too sharp. Or
> the Bank has been slow to grasp that decentralization works poorly when a heavy
> burden of accountability is devolved upon countries such as China that do not
> provide adequately for a free flow of information or for a space for dissent.
>
> The Wall Street Journal via Dow Jones, the New York Times (p.A8), the
> Washington
> Times (p.A18), and Kyodo News also report.