er the process is repeated, and so it goes, like an endless chain.
It is similar to the method of splitting fees practiced by private
employment offices and foremen who keep men coming and going.

There are no data collected to show the actual extent of the activities
of the land sharks, but, judging by the stories told by the immigrants,
by records of court proceedings, by suspicious land advertisements in
newspapers, especially in the smaller, less reliable foreign-language
papers, and by the number of cases brought to the attention of the state
immigration commissioners, it is safe to state that the immigrants
suffer very greatly from the land-shark evil.

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 de