The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1888-04-07
END RsEp.
BEAVER MEADOW, April 2. ;

EDITOR ADvocATE:-Your sparkling pa
per with Its eight pages. extensive adver-
tisements OF your progressive business men
and with its replete contents of local news
and contributions came duly TO hand.
Thanks for the permitted enterprise, thanks
for the edification and knowledge afforded
by the ADVOCATE.
The contribution BY Hon. w. NJ. Rap
sher on "Our Public Lands for the peo-
ple," alone is worth more than the paper.
1t is valuable. 1t affords so much food for
thought; contains so much real truth and
logical deductions upon this very important
question that it makes one think that
"Wisdom does not always speak in Greek
and Latin"
This contribution weighed paragi aph by
paragraphcommends itself to every thought
full student as well as to every observer, of
modern tendency to those extremes, the
concentration of the power of wealth in
the hands of the great minority, on the one
hand, and the hapless, slavic, subjectiye
condition OF the great majority on the 9th
er. Such is the indisputable tendency of
to-day. Will any one contend under the
economic organism such as confronts the
people now, that there is such a thing as a
| Just and proper distribution of the wealth
produced by the "bone and sinew." Hard
| ly; nowadays it is subsidies granted, land
moncpoized and the great public high
ways with their watered stocks, managed
! in the direction of this inevitable tendency.
| The benefcaries of this condition, as a
rule, are the drones created by the misuse
of the bounties of nature-land. Take for
| instance that incisiYe reference or contrast
presented by Mr.. Rapsher as to the pitiable
and hapless condition of Ireland's poor
tenants, living in their novels, as compared
| la kuJI1 h0 re
of their tenants labor to live in idlepess,
luxury and dissipation This is case in
point, and its lessons should be applied.
| What shall the remedy be? What prophet
icism-less than a, 100000 real estate own
ers to population of 60,000,000. Take
the inequality and disparity of to-day and
then prophetic vision as to the future and
The assent will be ready that 'The remedy
to prevent all these evils is to enact a Law
making it a criminal offense, punishable
by fine and imprisonment, to own or hold
more than certain limited quantity Of
lard by any one corporation, to be fixed and
regulated by law" or to hit the monster
in the subsoil in which the laproot of this
immense evil is planted, adjust taxation Sc
that it will be improbable for either cor
porations or individuals, to appropriate thu
bountes of nature or land over and abovt
that point in which they can profitably us,
, their bounties or land, that is, destroy thu
speculative value of land, and kindred ex
-cressences. Do this and the wrongs o
: Ireland will be rectified and the power ant
tyranny of the few 'coal barons" of tn,
anthracite coal regions will be gone.
The landlord CT American soil is vestet
with more authority and greater tyrannica
power than the landlord of Ireland. Thi
, statement may contain news but it is tn
truth. The Irish tenant has more rIgh
and legal privileges than his American
t brother. The simple advantage the Amer
Y lean has is the sparsity of population a
! compared to that of Ireland. With the in
crease of population, density of settlements
and great production of wealth, utilize
] solely for the individual, the speculation a
u TO the future, unless a remedy is a applied
n is clearer and more comprehensive than tina
' speculation of orthodoxy as to The "here
5 after of SIM" The former presents wha
d may be called tangible condition-terribl
v poverty anc great wealth-its tantacle
4 now are abhorrently manifest in our cos
= fields-witness the hovel with its subjectiv
d dependents and then the palaces, the wealt
1t and the tyranny on the other hand. Irelan
v presents no worse contrast. The baroI
= like Lady Matheson, says, "These lanC
and their contents are my property and yo
q haye nothing to do with them. II yo
Is do not accept my terms you can starv'
/ that is your lookout not mine, for | alon
:. possess the right TO control and derive ii
y benefits springng from these lands
n this picture oVerdrawn? 1t is not.and henc
le as Mr.. Rapshsr says, There is high'
n law than any ever written on paTchmei
:, that warrants and justifies men in refusir
IL to starve in the sight of opportunities
* earn living, from which they are shut o'
by the greed, pride or caprice of minor
ty,n JUSTICE.