The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-09-21
A Plea for the Single Tax.


Editor Free T'rder: While mother earth
has yielded another measureless harves tot
food products, while barns and warehous.
es all over the land are grooming with
their fill of rich grain, the coal fields OF
Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, as we'll
as all large centers of population, contain
multitudes of starving people who are en-
forcedly idle or who cannot decently sup
port their families on the wages they must
accept, or make room for those that have
nothing. Every little while, now here,
now there, even this consideration Is lost
sight of In the hopeless and suicidal at
tempt to remedy things by means of a
strike. In London we have the spectacle
of large host Of men parading the. streets
and refusing to continue to work for what
Is insufficient to keep soul and body to-
gether, while still larger number are
hanging in the balance, whether or not to
cast in their lot with these, or cling to the
pittanee they have. Go with me into the
city of Chicago, or, for that matter, into
any metropolis where miles on miles Of
retail stores line both sides of the street.
These tradesmen make up considerable
proportion of our so.cailed middle class, in
distinction from the wage worker, and their
station necessitates certain responsibility
of appearance which is by no means an
insignificant item of their unavoidable ex'
penses. Enquire of these as to their con-
dition. 1t is the same story, that ninety
nine out of every hundred will tell you;
the sane dire struggle to lay up the rent
coming due and exc out living besides
the same grim phantom of tine morrow
which is utterly unprovided for, and which,
in case of sickness, disaster or death. con-
signs their dear ones TO pauperism.
And yet, Mr.. Editor, the country Is pros
perousl very prosperous Let our large
business houses show you the wonderful
increase their books exhibit from year to
year; go and view the returning throng
of excursionists as they land In New York
from the Paris Exposition; count the con-
stantly increasing number of our million
aires, and it will carry conviction that the
country Is extremely prosperous. But
what of the people?
What is the explanation of this seeming
paradox of increasing prosperity, increas
Ing wealth and the Increasing poverty of
the masses?
Why is that, when we know that all
forms of wealth are produced by the ap-
plication of labor to the raw materials OF
nature, the laborer, he whose toll creates
these things, is the very one who Is con-
stantly on the verge of starvation? Why
"a that as material progress goes on, wages
90 not also Increase but, on the contrary,
tend steadily to lower levels?
These social problems are frought with
great dangers to all members of the COM
munity, and he is no good citizen who
brushes them lightly aside, for let men and
women bear in mind that If we escape the
deluge, our children will have 1t as lega-
cy. It is the imperative duty of every citi
zen and every mother to familiarize them
selves with these questions and study their
bearings. We have hosts Of good people
In our temperance societies, church sOcie-
ties, Young Mems Christian Associations
and numerous other like agencies, devoted
TO the elevation and betterment of man
kind. Let these worthy people but see
that they neglect the most important, In
fact, indispensable lever for the accom-
plishnent Of their purposes when they ig.
more the fact that the poverty Of the mass-
90 Is the one insurmountable obstacle
which estops all progress. This poverty
has gone down 80 deep that 1t is almost
dehumanizing; 1t cannot be reached by
charity. There is but one cure, one RENE
dy for it-simple justice; and justice is
cheaper and more effective than charity.
Until they help US apply this remedy
there can be no response to moral suasion,
for poverty has we'll nigh extinguished
that to which they appeal. What Is neces-
sary Is to restore the absolute equality be-
tween man and man In the only distinction
in which such equality is posible-the
equality of opportunity In all other re-
spects the equality of men Is a manifestly
absurd proposition. Abolish all laws which
create or depend on special privilege, and
of such privilege the private ownership of
land Is the foundation and basis for all
others and directly responsible for the
faulty distribution of wealth which has
divided the human race into such distinct