Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-11-07


tai ecceatriciLies and weaknesses which
have long since made it impossible for sane
men to accept him as teacher, or TO regard
his manifestations of enthusiasm otherwise
than with surprise. In the present case
his sayings can only cause IL informed for
eigners to fall into the error Of supposing
that Americans are in sympathy with the
monstrous and piratical doctrines of Par
nell, and though this is to be regretted tits
kind OF mistake which cannot in the
nature Of things last long, For the sake
OF showing how absurd IS the position
taken by the Parnellites, however, we shall
examine what Phillips says about rent. It
is in these words: Rent, honest rent, is
g the surplus left after the tenant has com.
fort; material, intellectual, personal and
social comfort" Now this is equivalent
TO saying that rent is whatever the tenant
is inclined to pay after he has discharged
every other obligation, and has gratifed
every wish and whim. OF course this is
precisely the same as saying that the rela-
tions between landlord and tenant involve
no moral obligation and 10 legal contract.
In fact it is tantamount to denial of the
right of ownership in land.
For If the men who hold the titles to
the Irish farms do own them, it follows
that the men who lease them are bound,
both in ethics and in law, to pay what
they agree to pay, and that the question
of their comfors" cuts no figure in the
case. Nobody is obliged to rent land, but
whoever does rent land, doing it of bis
own volition, is bound to adhere Loyalty
20 the conditions OF the contract, and can
not shuttle out Of them by any irrelevant
! twaddls about his 'eolnfort" Wendell
Phillips aud ParneI are talking immoral
nonsense when they say that rent is the
surplus left after the tenant has comfort
Rent is nothing of the kind. 1t is the
price man agrees to pay for the occupa-
tion and use of land which belongs to an.
other man. II the tenant finds that he
has overestimated the productive capacity
of his farm, or if misfortune, such as a
failure OF crops, upsets his calculations, he
may solicit reduction in his rent, or q
postponement of his payments, But even
then he has no right to seek relief. It is
at the option of the landowner to give or
withhold it, and though in taking the
latter course he might lay himself open to
charge of inhumanity, he could not be
accused of exceeding his rights. If
tenant cannot pay his rent there is only
one course open to him, and that is to give
up his holding. He has no warrant for
holding on to the land. It is not his,
even though it could be shown not to be the
putative landlords. His relation to it is
simply that Of contractor, and if he fails
to pay his rent he breaks the contract, and
loses al claim to consideration, and all
legal status.
Nothing could be more dishonest than
the Phillips Parnell doctrine, for it involves
the literal ignoring of all moral principles
whatever. Ii the tenant is to fix the rent
there is no reason why he should pay any,
and in effect he would very soon cease TO
pay any under such an arrangement. For
to say that rent is the surplus LETT after the
tenant has comfort of every kind, is to say
that he need not reserve anything for rent,
and that, in fact, he ought not to reserve
anything if in so doing he is compelled
to curtaiI some of his comforts. The prin-
ciple advocated here is, in short, naked and
shameless swindling, and it is necessary TO
show it for what 1t is. The man or the Or
ganization that advises people to follow
this doctrine is guilty of scoundrelism,
and nothing less disgracoful. 1t is in no
respect better than to advise people not to
pay any of their debts until they have pro-
vided for all their whims and fancies
which is of course equivalent TO advocating
the non payment of all debts, and the con-
version of mankind into thieves and cheats.
It is as rascally to advise the non payment
of rent as the non-payment of butchers
and bakers and dry goods bills, and be-
tween the "norext proposition and that
of Wendell Phillips there is merely dis
tinction without difference.
It is very certain that unless confscstion
of the property rights in land is to be car
ried out, all the current talk about the
justification of refusing to pay rent
must be branded as sheer knsvery, for it is
nothing less. AS a matter of fact the
landlords Of ireland have precisely the
same right to the rent of their estates that
the landlords of America have, and we
know very well that in this country there
is no disposition to abolish the right of
ownership in land, or to destroy the
validity of contracts. Bat this is subject
regarding which it is impossible to occupy
doubtful position. No rent" applies
to all the world, fit has any application at
al and ii it deserves to be adopted then
civilization must be abandoned. Ameri-
cans cannot afford even to seem to acqui-
esce in theory which strikes at the roots
of all ordered society. which denies the OBJ
legations Of fundamental moral laws, which
declares that stealing and swindling are
right. which aims at wholesale robbery in
the most impudent manner, and which in
short is brazsn traveraing of the most
settled and best established rules of social
relationship, and a fatuous attempt to re-
turn to the brutal and la~less methods Of
the aimian stage of evolution.
a STRANGE CABINET RUMoR.