St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-04

work in the pursuit of happiness. You
may think | am arguing against evOlu-
ton. but | am not, for [ am quite pre-
pared to accept that theory as the
truth. Be that as it may, man has
taken on a character which distin-
guishes him from the brute of the field.
This world is gigantic workshop in
which we are all placed to do the work
of God, and to learn the great lessons
of life. At the close of the day
the Great Master calls us home to
enjoy the fruits of what we nave
learned. A man who sees things in this
light never again asks himself the queS-
ton, Is life worth living? He knows
that the battle is worth the fighting.
Life is worth living, nay, man, it is our
duty, and therefore suicide has never
been considered Christian virtue. Ii
we have the equal right to live we have
an equal right to improve those natural
opportunities which make life worth
living. Yet the time has come when
men have to ask permission of fav
ored few for chance to improve
the natural opportunities. If God has
given few men the right to
control all the opportunities, he is not
the father of all. but is the step-father
of most of us. One object of this labor
movement is to reasSert that every man
has right to live. This may seem
revolutionary to some of you. but II it
does. you ought to be ashamed of your
selves. Whose fault is it that some
men are crowded seven or eight into
small room in the top of tenement
row, where they can not half live? 1t
is the animal might, the animal craft.
and the neannesS in some human beings.
Snnh npnnln have mt thp fret nrln-
ciples of Christianity about them.
God made all the land and the water,
and no man has the right to claim any
of it because he reached certain place
there and took possession there. 1t is
right to call man of to-day landlord,
for he is usurping the place and the
ownership of God. For any one man to
say that the land is his is to
DENY THE RIGHT OF GOD,
who created the earth. No man can
own land, for he cannot always hold it.
When he dies it passes to some one
else, and so on down the line. My idea
of property is that making something
gives title to it. What we produce this
way is ours, because we have robbed no
one. and have earned it by hard work,
without depriving any one else OF the
right to 90 and do the same. When you
can solve the problem of making what a
man earns or makes securely his, then
you have solved the great labor problem.
Many urge that | talk against the rights
of property, and that was what | was
knocked out of the Christian pulpit
for. What l want to do is to stop the
great robbery that is going on in Gods
storehouse by the great grand son OF
some lord who received half county
in England or in Ireland for doing some
criminal service, of which do not care
to speak. LandlOrdiSm is the result OF
purchasing legislatures, of bribery, of
cOnquests, and of wickedneSS of all
kinds. The renting and selling value
of land is not regulated by location so
much as it is upon the improvements
which have been made around it. This
is obvious to every man. And is this is
nearly all the cause of the labor troubles.
1t is in allowing individuals to own
something which they have no
right to, and allowing the value OF
something which belongs to the COM
munity to go into the pocket of one
man. The only way to do away with
these difficulties is to
TAX THE VACANT LANDS
which are held for speculative purposes
to the full amount of their renting
value. In Minneapolis there are lots
which have never been built upon, but
which are of vast value to the ''OWner,"
because he is simply holding the land
to make children yet unborn pay big
price for it because it must be used.
If you will build up your vacant land,
make homes there, instead of sending
your boys to Dakota or Montana to get
homes you would have to keep them
home and send for your other boys who
are already there. The proper method
of taxation is to tax the full rental
value of all natural opportunities into
the public treasury. This would be
perfectly in accord with the statute laws
and with the best economic measures.
This would create demand for labor,
and, being such magnificent fund for
public improvement, that no other tax
would be necessary, except for police
protection. The way you do now, IS to
furnish the men who help build up
your town by building new houses and
new factories; you make him pay for
the land and then begin to fine him by
taxing him. When you change these
things the capitalists will not be the
masters of labor as they are now, for It
would be out of their power, for they
can not corner up all the natural oppOr-
tunities. Then the horrible war be-
tween capital and labor will 5e ended,
as it should be.
THE RAILROADS SHOULD BELONG TO
THE PEOPLE.
and not few railway kings. Our high
ways were originally public property,
for the transfer of products, but now
these things are sadly changed. Can
the state give franchise as valuable as
railway franchise to a few private
citizens? 1t is simply stealing, and
your legislators and your governors
know it when they sign the bills Great
ing the franchise. Then there are the
money barons. The money system of
the United States is all wrong, as is the
election system. When these things
are done away with men will cease to
crowd one another to the wall and sell
their souls in the fear of poverty and in