New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-11-16
TIND md LABOR.

The philosophy of the Labor party IS this;
@Wages are depressed, advance OF wages %
prevented, by the existence OF a large uhen-
Moved class Men who cannot lind employment
are everywhere the force which those VINO
oppose us utilize to resist our just q 'manas
But there would be no unemployed class II tue
land were not the exclusive property OF IN
dividuals: if any man out Of work could take
land and raise on it his subsistence. The con-
cluson comes logically; labor wants free land
and really wants little else.
If the logic is good, the Labor party has
found solution of many problems. But the
discovery is so important that it is well to scru-
tin 70 it closely. Is labor unoccnpied because
land is not freeq Would there be no unoccu-
pied labor if land were free7 That there is
some truth underlying the claim, no one VIII
deny Freedom OF land would tend, as
abundance of cheap land does powerfully tend'
to lessen the number of the unemployed But
the fact must not be overlooked that nearly all
the influence which free land would have, DO
it grea, or little, cheap land must have. lie
who can get good land for 81 rs per acre, or
on long credC without any cash payment, neeu
not starye unless he would also starve IT land
were absolutely free This is the state OF
facts. Land in vast quantity can now be had,
and conld nave been bad at any time since the
Ra,uhlican marty enacted the Homestead bill,
at q mammal price Large railroad grants, at
which demagoyues rail so much, have enabled
willing workers to get good land without CASH
PAYMENT companies Offering large tracts at low
prices on deferred payments in order to
| encourage settlement along their lines. MIL
ions of acres have been taken as hom esteads
or on easy terms from companies Literary
millions of workers have thus been withdrawn
from older States, where they had crowded
ont the unemployed or were themselves
unemployed
But there is still an idle army. Would there
not be nearly or quite as large an idle army II
land we're free ? The men who do not go upon
| the land are those who do not know how TO
cultivate, or have not the energy, or are tied I'd
| present homes by family or other burdens, or
are unwilling to give up the life OF towns for
the life of the country. If that is 80 now, would
| it not be so still if land we're freef The last
difficulty is the great one; multltudes Oh
workers prefer the towns with their excite
ments and amusements, their societies or
destinations or their chances of more remuner-
ative occupations, to the slow, quiet
comparatively isolated and patiently persistent
life of the country. Multitudes of bright boys
leave the country every year, abandoning
| homes where their work is wanted and W ould De
we'll paid, because they prefer the chances and
| excitemeDts of life in towns. Would Tree
land stop that tendency If land at next to
nothing an acre does not tempt the une Employed
away from suffering ideness in cities, would
| land at nothing an acref
The tendency of modern labor is to diversi,
Acation. Each man is brought up to know now
to do one thing, but not many things Ii ne
can get that thing to do very well; II not, ne
is comparatively helpless, and free land is
| Tantalus- gift to him. When the Labor leaders
study these difficulties, they will find that the
Republican party in enacting the Homestead
law and making lard virtually free to ALL has
long ago done what they proposed. But 1t has
not eliminated the army of the unemployed
and the Labor party itself cannot do that, I'M
| less it can alter human nature and atop the
hegira of boys from the country to the towns.