The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-08-23
ceiving wages. AZ population In.
crcascs, the competition between the

means Of employment must increase
wealth and decrease wages until the
non-landowners merely get bare liv-
ing, and til. landowners get all the rest
Of the produce Of the island. Now sup
pose any Improvement or invention
made which will increase the efficiency
Of labor and the produce Of the island,
It II manifest that, ns soon rs il becomes
general, the competition between tho
non-landholders must give to the land
holders all the benefit. No matter how
great the Improvement he, 1t can have
but this ultimate result. 1.-THE improve
ments are SO great that oil the wealth
the island can produce or that the land
owners care for can lie obtained with
one-half tho labor, they can let the
other half of tho laborers starve or
evict them into the sea; or, II they are
pious people of tho conventional sort,
who believe that God Almighty in
tended these laborers to live, though
He did not provide any land for them
to live on, they may support them as
paupers or ship them of to some other
country MS the English Government Is
shipping the surplus" Irishmen. But
whether they let them die or keep them
alive, they would have no use for them,
and, il improvement still went on, they
would have use for less and less OF
them.
This is the general principle.
But, in addition to this population Of
landowners and their tenants and Ia
borcrs, let us suppose there to be on
the island a storekeeper, an inventor, q
gambler and n pirate. To make our
supposition conform to modern fash
ions, We will suppose highly respect
able gambler, one of the kind who en-
dows colleges and subscribes to the
conversion Of the heather, and a very
gentlemanly pirate. who flies on his
swift cruiser the ensign of yacht club
instead OF the old raw head and bloody
bones, but who, even more regularly
and efficiently than the old-fashioned
pirate, levies his toll.
Let MS suppose the storekeeper, the
gambler and the pirate we'll established
in business and making money. Along
comes the inventor, and he says: Il
have an invention which will greatly
add to the efficiency of labor and enable
yon to greatly increase the produce Of
this island, so that there will be very
much more to divide among you all but
as condition for telling you of it l
want yon to agree that | shall have q
royalty upon its use.' This is agreed
to, the invention is adopted, and does
greatly increase the production of
wealth. But it does not benefit the
laborers. The competition between
them still forces them to pay such high
rent or take such low wages that they
are not better off than before. They
still barely live. But the whole benefit
of the invention does not in this case
go to the landowners. The inventors
ROYALTY gives him great income, and
the storekeeper, the gambler and the
| pirate all find their incomes greatly III
creased. The incomes of all the four.
we may readily suppose, ere larger
than any single one Of the landowners,
and their gains offer the most striking
contrast to the poverty of the laborers,
who are bitterly disappointed Mt not
getting any share of the increased
wealth that followed tie improvement.
Something they feel is wrong, and
some among them even begin to muir
muir that the Creator of the island sure
" did not make it for the benefit OF
only few of its inhabitants, and that,
as the common creatures of the Creator,
they too have some rights to the use OF
the soil of the island.
| Suppose then some one to arise and
say: what is the use of discussing
such distractions as tho land question
That cannot come into practical politics
for many day, and that can only ex-
cite dissension and general unpleasant
ness, and that, moreover, SAVIOR of COM
munism, which, as you hborers, who
have nothing but your few rags, very
we'll know. is highly wicked and
dangerous thing, meaning the robbery
of widow women and orphans, and be-
ing opposed to religion. Let us be
practical. You laborers are poor and
can scarcely get living. because you
are swindlcd by the storekeeper, taxed
by the inventor, gouged by the gambler
and robbed by the pirate. Lanlholders
and non-landholders. our interests are
i'll common as against these vampires.
Let VS. unite to stop their exactions.
The storckeeper makes n profit of from
10 to 80 per cent on all that he sells.
| Let us form cooperative society
which will sell everything ut cost and
enable laborers to get rich by saving
the storekeeper's profit on all that they
use. As for the inventor, he has been
already we'll enough paid. Let us stop
his ROYALTY, and there will be so much
more to divide between the landowners
and tho non-landowners. As for the
gambler and the pirate, let MS put .
summary end to their proceedings and
drive them OFF the island"
| Let us imagine roar of applause
and these propositions carried out.
What then? Then the landowners
would become so much the richer.
The laborers would gain nothing. un-
less it might be in clearer apprehen-
sion of the ultimate cause Of their pov.
erty. For, although by getting rid OF
the storekeeper the lahorers might be
able to live cheaper, the connection be-
tween them would soon force them to
give up this advantage to the landown-
ers by taking lower wages or giving
higher rents. And SO the elimination
of the inventors ROYALTY and the pick.
ings and stealings of the gambler and
pirate would only make land more val.
liable and increase the incomes of the
landholders. The saving made by
getting rid of the storekeeper, inventor,
gambler and pirate would accrue t.
their benefit as did the increase in
production from the application of the
invention.
That all this is true, we may see il
We look around. The growth Of the
railroad system has, for instance. re-
suited in putting almost the whole
transportation business of the country
in the hands of giant monopolies, who
for the most part, charge "what til.
traffic will bear" and who frequentl,
discriminate against localities. The #
feet where this is done, as is alleged in