Whatever one might think about the takeover of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by a group of Western ranchers, the controversy does raise an important question: Why does a government of a nation that was founded on principles of private property and that purportedly opposes socialism own so much land in the Western United States?

A good rendition of the facts in the controversy appeared yesterday in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Western Land Revolt.” … Continue reading Federal Socialism in the West