The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-29

And in the barbarous portions of the
world, there has been no change. Five
hundred years before the Christian era
even in afar Cathay," we hear the "shriIl
voiced barbarian from the south" CRYING
out against the exactions of the usurers
and the expressions of the rich, and de.
ploring the down-tlodden condition Of
the working classes. The evil has been
familiar to every one; but there have
been wide differences of belief as to the
cause. Every imaginable theory has
been suggested and innumerable rem.
edies have been devised. A few have
been partially adopted. Some have been
of slight benefit, while others have mis-.
erably failed. And the evil still re.
mains.
The suggestions herein made as to the
cause and the remedy are submitted to
the thinking people of the world fol
their candid consideration. For no re.
form can be made, either in the customs
or laws of free people, untilthe think
ing people shall have first indorsed it as
right and necessary.
And if this theory of the cause and
the remedy be thus indorsed, the ques.
ton will arise as to how the reform may
be put impractical operation.
In the first place.. the masses must
have full opportunity to become famll.
lar with all its features. 1t must be pre-
sented to them in fair and candid man.
ner. If they shall approve of it, and
feel that 1t is the proper way to right
their wrongs, it should then be made a
political issue and men chosen as legis.
lators who will advocate such laws a.
will properly put it in force.
The rich arislocrats and corporations
will fight like robbers in their caves fol
their ill-gotten booty. Their tools aahl
menlals will crowd the halls of every
legislature. Their influence will be felt
even in many of the newspaper offices
They have stopped at nothing in the
past to further their raids of robbery
and they will stop at nothing now. A
man who has been bred a robber does
not hesitate to kill A man bred as a
pauper does not hesitate to beg or steal
Misrepresentation and falsehood, and
bribery and corruption, will be brought
in play by them. But with the masses
once awakened from their terrible night
of slavery, and knowing their rights and
the justice of their cause, these-infiu-
ences cannot prevail And all the hordes
of wasteful idlers, of usurers and rob-
bers, of landlords and tyrants, must and
shall be beaten and destroyed.
The reform may commence in single
state, and its best effects will be felt
Such state could suffer no harm, and be
placed at no disadvantage but, on, the
contrary, would be- bettered from the
start
Let the state pass law abolishing rent
after twenty years from date and before
that time the farmers would own their
farms.
Let the state pass a law abolishing in
terest; and the mortgages, and trust
deeds, and notes would soon disappear.
Let the state condemn the property of
railway companies under its right of en-
inent domain, the same as the railways
condemned the land in the first place
let fair value be! fixed, and pay it to
the bondhoIders and stockholders in ten
or twenty annual installments. Make it
lump sum, but include in it a fair allow
ance for the time they will have to wait
for their money. And set aside one-half
of the net earnings for the purpose Of
making these payments.
And the reform will be readily and
honestly accomplished within the twenty
years although its influence will be felt
at once.
But it may be said that when the
farmers shall have bought their farms
and paid off their mortgages, and when
the state shall have paid for the rail-
roads, there would be no money left.
The fact is that the landlords and the
mortgages and the railroad companies
would, in the twenty years, take no more
money out of the state than they would
if the law should not be passed. At the
pres mt rate of rent, the landlords are
paid, under the present system, the full
value of their land in about every four
teen years. But the present value is not
the fair and just value. They have
given land fictitious value by their
competition for investments. And with
law prohibiting rent after twenty years,
this false value will gradually disappear,
and at the end of that time the land
would sell for its natural value, which
would probably not be over half its pres
ent selling value. So that, at the end OF
the term, the farmers will have acquired
the full ownership of their farms, with
out paying any more than they would
otherwise have paid as rent.
The railway property, while it also
has a fictitious value, would probably be
purchased by the state at its present sell.
ing value, as the state would at once as
sumo possession, and there would be no
opportunity for a decline. But the
amount will be easily paid out of the net
aarninus lnno before the tMenty years.