St. Landry democrat., 1883-04-07
s'RILL ARP,
The Genial Southern IHumor;st o,, s5,e,
Spirit of Monopoly.
THE PEOPLE WANT HOMES AND A
LIVING CHANGE.

Blll Arp in the Atlanta Constitution.
what the people want and ought to
nave are homes and a chance-ho,nes
and living chance. Give a family =.
home OF their own and it is the hest.
safeguard for the perpetuity of a gov
ernment and the happiness of people,
was always sorry for a family who
nad no home, but had to dodge around
from house to house and place to place
mo orchard to improve, no flowers to
rove and nurse, no sacred spot, no cas-
tie, as blackstone calls it. | don't know
how other people prize it, but my home
Is Che dearest spot on earth to me and
my family. There is no place like home
mot Il rented home, forever wanting
repairs, bnt home to live and die in,
which the boys who have found work
afar of can look back to with affection
ana revisit Wlthpure delight, and where
the good wife and daughter can plant
the vine and rosebush, and sow the
flower seed, and the orchard and the
grapeylnes bring their fruit in due
season. 1t won't do to say that the
poor are too lazy to work and buy land
and have home. They haven't been
tried. They don't get enough for their.
labor to lay up anything. They are not
encouraged. Vanderbilt and company
get all they make over and above a
poor living, and Vanderbilt must be
protected. The trouble is our people
nave got hardened to fixing a minimum
prlce upon labor, just enough to feed
and clothe the family, with no margin
for old age or sickness, much less a
house. w hat does all this mean that
three syndicates are buying up all the
land OF the great west, 100000 acres and
3OO0O0,O00 acres iro Texas, and large
tracts in Arkansas ? Why don't the
United States government buy it up
and save it for homes for our people 9
Ihe government gave away 100,0OO,OOO
of acres in Texas at one time to a
wealthy corporation to hire 'em to build
a railrooad-more land than is obtaina-
BILE i'll any four States in the Union ex-
cept Texas, and our statesmen made
no protest. The money is all going
into the hands OF the few, and so is the
land. There is a way to stop all this,
but when it is agitated the rich and
powerful cry out agrarianism and rob-
big men and scare off the little ones,
and so it goes. What we need are
statesmen, not hirelings. We want
fearless men who can't be tampered
with. Letall this surplus wealth, these
blnated fortunes be taxed to support
the government. After man has ac-
cumulated 100000 begin to tax the ex-
cess, and the more he accumulates the
heavier the rate and when he gets it
up to a million take all the excess, il
necessary, to equalize in some measure
the burdens and the comforts of life,
and provide ehomes-humble homes-for
the people. A man with ten acres and
q house of his own is a good citizen in
peace and a tower of strength to his
government in time of war. A million
OF dollars is enough for any one man.
He ought not to hunger and thirst for
more, for he can't need it, and it makes
a dog OF him to hoard it up. Who has
any respect for such men as Vanderbilt,
or Gould, or Senator Sharon, or even
for the memory of Stephen Girard OF
A. T. Stewart 2 Nobody.