Iron County register., 1886-04-08
NUMBER 80

life that he may be able to lay up .
competency to enjoy in old age; has hs
not the right to do it? Moreover wher
B comes. although he may be as pool
as Jobs turkey. has he any right t.
AS goods without first compensatins
him for them? challenge you to show
the justice of law that would compe
A to do any such thing. q
You say that want to make it ap
pear that all the poor are lazy. deny
the charge. I do not want people te
believe any such stuff. But what
do want them to believe is, that pow
erty results fiom laziness and incom-
potency. All so-called poor people are
not lazy; but most all lazy, incompe-
tent people are poor in greater or less
degree. The word "poor" Is only rela-
tive in meaning. 1t does not define
ones condition at all. 1t is only a
suggestive term; for the man who has
only ten dollars is poor compared to
the man who has hundred. The
man who has hundred, is poor COM
pared to the man who has thousand
dollars, and so on dd infnituna.
Wealthy men, sir, are not responsible,
in moral sense, for the condition OF
the poor. The great misfortune is,
however, that wealthy men, through
their greed for gain, will use the power
of wealth to oppress the poor. There
is where the wrong comes in, and that
brings us back to what have already
limited at before; the mean, selfish,
hateful, jealous. dishonest element of
human nature then has a chance show
itself, and it does it. You might take
one of these very men that you call
poor men, and place him in a position
where he could command the power of
wealth, and nine chances to one if he
would not make tyrant.
He would most surely do it. if this
tendency of the human mind were not
strongly combatted by high, moral
and religious training. You say you
see less chance for your children than
4
Each of your children may make a
wiser, wealthier man or woman than
its father. Give your children an eiu-
cation; provide :or them while you are
with them; teach them self.reliance,
good morals and temperance; leave
them what you can when you have to
go, and you may rest assured il they
are not .'lazy or incompetent" that the
selves. Has not the world always
provided for itself? AS mans wants
increase, he has the happy faculty OF
providing for them. 1t has always
been so; therefore, give yourself no
uneasiuess about the welfare of your
children. Each of them may do much
better than you have ever done.
No, no. dear Farmer" this writer
is not an employe of corporation; and
if he We're, so long as that company
did what was right, he could have no
cause to grumble. Both employer and
employe have certain rights that ought
to be respected. But there 1t Is again.
Do they always respect each others
rights? Here Is the place to get in
some of the reform that has been hint
ed at. Get in your work, if you can.
"Nestor" never reads such bosh as
land sreculators' pamphlets. There.
fore his ideas are not drawn from such
a source. Moreover. he is not discuss
ing this subject from what Tom, Dick
and Harry may have. said upon it; but
simply from the standpoint of common
sense.
You ask ME to show why land should
not be made the sole subject of taxa
ton. / will answer this question after
asking you another: Why not tax
any other property as well as land? A
mans land Is as much his property as
anything else that he may own. Why
tax the horse, and not the land? Is
not your horse worth rs much to you
in proportion to what you can use him
for as the lapd2 Nay, more, are not
your hands and arms even worth more
than the horse or the land? Are they
not worth more to you as capital. than
either the horse or the land? Then ac-
cording to your idea of the thing, you
would tax that which is of most value,
would you not? If SO, you would be
placed in the ridiculous attitude oi
taking the tax off of other personal
property and placing it upon your
hands and arms.
| But aside from this, what are men
taxed for? Will you deny that it is for
the support Of the government? Ii
not, infer that you claim to be citi-
gen uIder the government, and that
you are willing to be taxed to have it
administered. You claim the protec-
ton of the government; and, therefore.
you may rightly be taxed to support
lit. Now, what difference should it
make whether your horse, or your land
or other property be taxed. SO the gov
ernment got from you, as citizen,
what you justly owe il? According to
your idea of taxation, none but land
owners should pay taxes. So the rail-
roads. the factories, the office holders,
the merchants. and host of Others
| would so scot free. Your idea of taxa
ton seems absurd.
/ Allowing that your idea of taxation
were sound, / question whether the
revenue that could be raised by such a
system would oe sufficient to meet the
demands of the government. At the
least, in order that the revenue could
be raised on the land, the tax would
be so high that farmers could not Pay
t;t. au1 fhorafora world Il va tn ui % n !,