Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-07-28
From ssFarmer.''


We have had another unusually dry
season in this particular section, with
q few welcome showers about the mid
die of June, and another good sprink-
ling this week, which has made things
grow amazingly. IF ever the wheat
crop was Il failure it was so here this
season. The acreage sUwn last fall
was very large, but the weather was
so dry that the land could not be got
ten into proper state of filth, and as
consequence the plant got a very poor
root-hold before winter set in; hence
half of the ground sown was plowed up
for corn or other grains, this spring.
And of the wheat left, not more than
three-fourths was cut-weeds taking
the rest, and chinch bugs rendering
much light and worthless. A few had
good fields of wheat, but even with
them the quality can hardly be COM
pared with last or the year before; 50
that in wide section, if not generally
all over our State, there Is not enough
for bread and to seed an area as large
as was, sOwn last fall. Another peculi-
arity about our harvest this season was
the scarcity of hands. Small as was
the amount to cut, and in spite of the
large number of self-binders purchased
last year, it was next to impossible to
get the help required for few days of
pushing work. The study of most of
our farmers and landowners is not
how to employ all the labor they can
profitably, as it should be, but how to
get along by employing as little labor
as possible, and how to drive and di-
vorce labor from soil, it's natural hertz
age, all they can; SO that it only serves
4, 81 ~ tol l,nr s,,
while to make them see and mend this
mistake. Corn is looking finely, and
will be superintendent crop. Fruit
is not full crop; and vegetables can
not be on account of the ravages Of the
potato bug, cabbage worms, and other
insects.
Your correspondent, "Foreigner,"
should read Henry Georges pamphlet
on "Irish Landlordism." He seems to
make the mistake that the Irish World
does, and in fact nearly every Irishman.
We took the World for some time, be-
cause we sympathized with the Irish
people: but we soon percei we'd that that
paper was doing all that could be done
to mislead the Irish people, and to blast
and defeat them, by an appeal to arms
and violence, instead of tn reason and
constitutional means, as Bishop CrOke
advocates. This question of landlord
ism is as wide as the civilized world;
and British landlords are not the only
landlords there are, nor are they the
neanest. Set Ireland up as an indie
pendent nationality, and she, with En-
gland, would be forever playing the
role of the famous Kilkenny cats, till
one becomes subject TO the other again.
No, the Irish World ia making and
multiplying enemies where it should
have made and multiplied friends; and
instead of appealing to reason i'm sup
port of principle, it continually APP
peals to prejudice, and seeks political
independence as hopeless as it is mad
visable. Here, as there and all through
the civilized world, we must wake up to
the fact that through the legalizing Of
inter est and rent the law provides for
an unfair and unjust distribution #
wealth; and in spite of all this rigma-
role about life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, labor is denied the chance
to live unless it is willing to buy that
chance and pay all it is worth to get it.
The very basis and beginning of all re-
form is in the abolition of all laws that
recognize an unearned increment as
legitimate gain, free gift excepted;
and when this is done the reforms
tJdb 1iCiouus Ouo anu
America, need will have been accom-
plished. Time and again have we pub
licly challenged any one to show the
equity of either or both interest and
rent, but no one has ever done so; and
what IS more, no one can. What a
comment upon our institutions and
upon our civilization it is that we
should embody in law practice that
cannot be excused or defended. We
need no socialism, no communism, no
organization of any kind but a less
complicated, less costly, and at the
same time a more just and equitable
system Of government. Declare inter-
est and rent contrary to public policy,
abolish all laws for the collection of
debts except for labor, tax nothing but
the bare soil-and you thereby impose
conditions upon every one that will
sufficiently regulate the use of money
and limit the tenure of the soil; and
they are conditions, too, that will en-
force themselves because they coincide
with justice and equity.
Another of your correspondents OPP