The Labor enquirer., 1884-05-03

1ueIc dWdlIluS youA [. ?.
Park the zephyr's sound alarms:
IF you do not come to-day
Other men viii take the farmsp"
Great and generous is Uncle Sam. His
specially in the free gift business has
long been recognized in his weakness
for giving away farms. So magnanimous
is he in this sphere that he does not halt
at the narrow bounds If nation and fam
lily. So far is he from distributing his
innumereble farms merely among his
own household that in the nobleness of
his heart he has already turned over
more than 100000 acres of farms to
foreign syndicates. Knowing how lavish
were his farm-giving propensities, his
children as far back as 1851, induced him
to restrain his generosity through a
homestead law by which all might share
his gifts, but SO uncomfortable has since
been his gift mania that over 100000
acres have fallen into the handsfof spec
ulating American svndicates, till finally
nearly all the available. lands under the
homestead law have been secured by
American allies of those English land
lord cousins whose shadows now darken
large portions of our continent
Meanwhile these toiling millions of
the east have been buried in the deathly
factories of enslaving corporations at
wages which have barely sustained them
above actual want. To-day thousands
find themselves in the streets or tramp
ing the roads from place to place in
search of employment. 1t is asserted
that there are at present nearly as many
people out of employ ment as in 1873,
while from month to m onth the failures
are steadily increasing. 1t is in view of
the hardships and enforced idleness of
these poor millions in the east that our
poetical friend above dips his fowery
pen into the beatitudes and calls us all
west far beyond the big Missouri where
Uncle Sans plantations lie smooth and
ready for the plow.
By way of consolation l read these
two verses to an Irish reighbor, who is
out of employment, ant, when I came to
that touching line, go out west and
take the FARMS" he broke in upon me
and exclaimed: Faith, and you may as
we'll invite the farms to come east and
take us, as to ask the like of me to 60
west and take the farms it's just as far
one way asit is the other when poor
devil hasn't cent"
The monstrous crime of putting the
people at the mercy of land-grabbers and
spectators has already been consum-
mated in this country. Even though
the poor toiler in the east had the money
to take him to the west there is no avail
able and accessible farm that can be had
except by paying tribute to some land
syndicate which has already fastened its
grip upon the SOIL Exactly the same
system that has brought Ireland where
she is, is steadily and surely developing
in America. One British duke owns
425, 900 acres, and numerous marquises,
earls, baronets and other English mobiles
have extensive holdings in the west
which they are enlarging evervs success
sye year. Already the English journals
in enumerating the possessions of En-
glands great landed proprietors refer to
their American estates" among the
other parcels of their wealth
Meanwhile, what are called the pow
erful and respectable classes in this coun-
try are anything but jealous of these
vast foreign syndirates. To wine, and
dine, and toady with these great En-
glish aristocrats who are invading our
soil is regarded as social honor of the
most exceptional kind, and wherever
possible intermarriage of the American
millionaire's children wish these vandals
is accepted as an achievement most rare
and honorable. 1tis only question of
time when familY affiliations of the
American milliona;res with the descend
ants of the reigning British aristocracy
will cement the internal British system
of landed property into interests as con-
solidated as though our country were a
no rf of Graof PrifoT,, ;t,o1f
That the toiling masses of the east
will yet be compelled to go west is
beyond doubt. 1 find the last two
verses of the above poem alike the most
touching and the most Suggestive
"If you do not come to-day
Other men will take the farms"
Alas, other men nave already taken
the farms, The to-day of present his
tory for the disinherited toiler is the
sight of nearly 25O,0OO,O0O acres of farms
secured by title to foreign syndicates,
railroad corporations, and land-grabbing
conspiraeies of American rings under
the homestead law. When the eastern
toiler is finally forced to go west by the
pressure of industrial decadence which
seems steadily to be the lot of the eastern
states he will simply migrate into the
land slavery of the Old World which
his fathers sought to escape when they
emigrated to America. r r
Of all the serious and far-reaching
issues that can agitate the minds of
thinking men the present drift of Ameri-
can landed lnterestsiIthe most enormous.
While the great journals of the land are