Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1881-09-02
THE LAND QEsTION.

To discuss the land question from scrip
tural stand point as tho Enterprise is doing
can only result in an indeterminable argu-
ment. The journal above alluded to quotes
the purchase of a cave by Abraham Of
Mackpelah for burial vault for 400 sc hekles
which was nearly $500. This will strike the
reader as huge price for a burial spot in a
country where be had been for years rowing
about and appropriating land wherever he
saw fit. In Gensis Xxx it tells how he took
possession of the land between Kadesh and
Shur in Gerar without paying anything for it,
He was over hundred years old when he
purchased the cave of Mack pelah and at such
exorbitant figures that it is clear that the
original owner of the cave took advantage of
his lack of knowledge of the ways and the
country and got largely the best of him.
When he first spoke Of wanting the cave they
were willing to give it to him for nothing
and said: None of US shall withhold from
thee his sepulchre but that thou mayest bury
thy dead" The children of Heth seemed
willing to accord to Abraham the freedom of
the country and open handed inequalities Of
their sepulchres. When, however, he seemed
anxious to pay money for the same they
named good stiff sum and he counted out
the shekels at once. Prior to the time Abra-
ham had been acting very strangely. Think
ing that he had an order from heaven to sac
rifice his son Isaac he bound him with cords
to an altar and was about to xii! him with
knife when the work of death was intercepted
by an angel. He also drove Hager and her
Young son Ishmael into the wilderness to
starve. Ishmsel was his own offspring. He
purchased the cave on the occasion of the
death of his wife and this extravaganza
coupled with his previous acts lead to the
uumistakable conclusion that his mind was
wandering. Four hundred shekeIs was a
large sum in those days where very little cir
culatng medium was required and its pur-
chasing power for the necessaries of life
equal to many thousands of dollars Of our
money. 1t is on this incident that the Enter
prise POUNDS it's theory of land monopoly, etc.
If one looks in scripture for presidents it is
not hard to find almost anything wanted.
The children of Israel thought nothing of
driving settlers of their lands, killing all who
resisted and apprcpriating the property just
as the Southern Pacific Railroad did at Mus
sci Slough within the present year. In
Deuteronomy XIV, 21st, the Israelites are
commanded not to eat Of anything that dies
of disease, but to sell the tinted meat to
strangers and aliens. In biblical times the
land was free as air to all who would cult
vste it, and if to-day law was passed pro-
hibiting any man from holding large tracts
of country which he would neither till or sell
ii would result in increased prosperity to all
classes Of people and the country at large.
Land monopoly has always been a curse to
any country which has allowed it and some
of the greatest nations of the earth haye met |
their downfall because the land upon which |
the support of the inhabitants depended |
passed from the hands of the many who cul- |
tivated it unto the few who allowed it to run |
10 waste. L