The Labor enquirer., 1884-09-27

term. of land limitation, On that sub
ject see my Ethics Of the Soil, !" in the
Index, September 27. 1888 / have my
self settled in The virgin forest, cleared
and improved foot by loot, multiplying
the original cost and value of some parts
of my farm thousand fold. There are
many crops which yield in one season
an hundred fold the cost of the soil they
stand on, which but year or two before,
was in forest or prairie. Now for one
man who has such an ambition of pro-
that he will stint himself to-
bare subsistence in preparing ashome of
his own, there are several who prefer to
liye easier, in profiting by the past labor
of others. These pay one-fourth of
cotton or one-third of corn for the Use
of improved land. Does Zeno find that
too transcendental 1t seems very
simple and practical to folks here. It is
the custom of the country, though there
is plenty of good land still unoccupied
&
and free to entry.
Far from being tramelled by law, the
stay and exemption laws of this state
authorize the non-payment either of
rents or otherdebts. Honesty moreover,
is very rare and is hardly more deyel-
oped than among the Esquimaux or
other.savages, yet l hear of no refusals
to pay the rents in question. There
must then be strong natural instinct in
their favor, the justice of such "refec-
ton" of return to the radiation or exer-
ton of force in past labor, being obvious
to every understanding, and sensible to
the public conscience. Such rents are
simply compensation for labor performed
on large scale, and at a more distant
date, than the usual wages payment per
day, week or month. They do not in
any wise sanction, the exorbitant rents
extorted in consequence of land monopo-
lies, or Of difficulties created by govern
ments against the use of soil, waters, or
other raw material by labor, and which,
as l apprehend, may be greatly increased
by the naturalization of the SOIL" CIV
ing to government officers necessarily,
discretion and control over leases.
What the laws may be, matters COM
paratively little. 1t is in the construc-
ton and execution of them that the
trouble lies, under democratic consti-
tuition of government neither more MOI
less than any other, When it comes to
execution there must be personal au-
thority and this backed by force. ~
Were Zeno content with not under
standing me or even with misunder,
standing me, might attribute it to 8
want of simplicity in my style but this
cannot account for his inventions, which
bear too evidently the stamp of inten'
tional misrepresentation.
For instance, he says am one of those
who critlcise Progress and Poverty
without having read it." Why, SO tal
from criticising the book, have not ever
mentioned it. Naturalization of the
soil, project common to Henry George
Karl Marx and great many others,
object to bat how can any fair minded
man say that II think Mr.. George would
dispessess me after ten years labor" etc.
when in the same paragraph he quotes
me as declaring shat is not in Henry
Georges programme ?" I respectfully
defended Mr. George from any such in
tentions as that of allowing government
land agents to exercise fayoritism il
leases on dispossessing farmer of hi
improvements. I said, in substance, tina
a Revolution in the tenure of properties
which should vest in the state, power
hitherto unknown, might in the natura
course Of events bring about such op
preston, and others undreamed of BY
the first Revolutionists.
From State Socialism, apprehend the
more rapid and complete organization
of financial feudalism, the absolute fu
sion of Capital with the Church on the
throne of the State, and the utter en-
slavement of Labor. Therefore I am ar
Anarchist.
While equally repudiate the tyranny
Of majorities. or their representatives in
democracy, as the tyranny of minoritie:
in our actual republic and the monarchies
of Europe, and regard either system a:
alike incompatible with personal liberty
and good social order, still l might
have been willing to bear many evils Of
mlsgovernment, but for the obvious per:
fdy Of ours in alternating the public
lands to speculators, either native or
foreign, while Conspiring with capital by
banking privileges, which indirectly con
stitute a tax on labor for the aggrandize,
ment Of capital, as great as any Oriental
despotsm has levied on its subjects, shorI
of utter ruin and desolation, as in Persia
And as we have so soon reached this
pass, in beginning century ago with
the most enlightened and public spirited
statesmen and "a popular representation,
l fail to see what better hope ofjustice OIL
fidelity to trusts of power confded, we
can have for substituting for our actual
governors, Karl Marx, Henry George, OIL
their successors, among the State Socialist
leaders.
Plebiscites and proportional represen-
tation, as by the Hare or other methods
dascrihed in Simeon Stetson's namnhlet