Iron County register., 1880-04-08

| -uiAuOidtIeS WIZ, tWcuty years dSo
were penniless boys. Yet how absurt
to suppose that those millions could b
actually earned in twenty years b.
those penniless boys. In these accu
mutations we see the earnings, not O
the penniless boy alone-be he ever 81
industrious, intelligent. and frugal-bu
of thousands of others; most of whom
went down, in this scramble for life, t.
| to premature graves, or grew gray
| from care and toll when they shoulC
have been in the prime of life anG
manhood; and of the many who con-
tributed to one mans enormous wealth
| a very few gained competence,-and
those at such cost and physical loss
| that they were compelled to endure
life before they were pecuniarily able
| to enjoy it.
Mr.. Jefferson feared for the freedom
Of the people if great wealth accumu-
lated III the hands of the comparative
few; yet Jefferson lived in day when
ships sailed like hay-stacks, when the
riage, and when the transmission of in
telligence by electricity had not been
dreamed of.
Twenty centuries ago Aristotle said
that democracies had an irresistible
tendency to merge into plutocracies.
If the tendencies in this direction
were so great in the slOw-lnOving past,
what must they be in our day?
The attention of our statesmen cam
not be too early or too earnestly direct
ell to this subject. AS the agencies
that increase the creation and accumu-
lation of wealth advance, so must the
laws that affect its distribution be ad-
vanced; and yet we must not tramp1e
upon personal rights or individual lib
erty-we must make no arbitrary dis
trihution of property or money-but
leave labor to it's own efforts and de-
serts. It ought not to escape the at
tentiOn of our thinkers that the final
and the worst result of our present
system of political economy is, that it
drives and divorces labor from it's first
and best resource-the soil; and if this
effect could be reversed, thousand
crimes and issues would be forgotten.
How shall this be doneo is the ques-
ton. We see that all depend upon the
soil as the infant on it's mothers breast;
and such dependence secures natur-
al right to the soil. and this common
right we call the right Of eminent do
main. Plainly, then, we should exer-
else this right so far as to make what
is primarily the common property bear
the common burden, and destroy every
interest in the land except to till and
improve it. In order to do this, we
need not resort to any agrarianism, or
any socialism,; for there is no need to
change our present form of individual
tenure of the soil. All we need to do
is to- declare interest and ground rent
contrary to public policy. make the sol:
the only subject of taxation, and let ev-
cry product of human labor, including
the Improvements upon land, go Who'll
ly free. The doctrine of land limita-
ton is wrong i'm principle, and would
effect only injury. while this plan
leaves every man free to own all he
can, but makes it to his interest to inn
prove to the maximum every rood he
does own. It strikes directly at the
very root of every form of aristocracy,
and frees the Ship of State from ten
thousand barnacles and teredoes.
If our form Of government is incom-
patible with such system of taxation,
we had better change its form; for
nothing more clearly demonstrates the
badness of form of government than
the fact that it has to resort to a bad
system of taxation.
The widespread and growing dis
content among the masses of the coun-
try. is caused more by the unequal dis
tribution of wealth, as affected by our
government and laws, than anything
else. A great change is inevitable, and
any political party that will drop all
other issues and favor
First, The soil, in proportion to its
natural adaptibility, shall be the only
subject Of taxation; and every product
of human labOr-domestic or imported
including the Improvements upon
land, shall be wholly and entirely
free.
Second, Interest and ground rent are
contrary to public policy, and shall not
be collected at law.
Third. Coin only is money at law.
The standard of value shall be coin
coin containing 371l grains of pure sill
yer with such amount of alloy as the
National Legislature may order. Gold
may be used for coins representing any
number of whole dollars over one and
under fifty-one; and copper and nickel
in coins not to exceed three cents.
Any party that will favor these
measures-and all as constitutional
provisions-will do more for this cOun-
try, and the world, in the cause Of hui
man freedom than has ever been done
for either vet; and as soon as these
measures, their scope and tendency
were understood, they would receive
universal and almost unanimous sup
port,-n0t only of this nation, but of
every people struggling for freedom.
Once adopt them ourselves, and every
man, woman and child west of the
Mississippi river, might live between
it and our Atlantic seaboard and still
there would be room and work, and
food and clothing, for more.
w. C..
n - 49,. n