Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-01-31
From Farmer" /"

has been SO far. We have had some
bad days, of course, but no very cold
ones, and the amount of snow fall has
been light. We have had several rains
sufficient to keep the surface of the
ground moist enough for wheat, which
is in fine condition, but at two feet deep
the ground is generally as dry as it
: was during the drouth of 1887. 1t
bodies anything but good to have such
condition of the earth at mid-winter,
and especially after one of the best
, corn seasons We ever had. But all the
) rains of last summer failed to wet :he
land more than Is to 20 inches deep on
an average. Our streams, it is true,
are now running freely, but this only
shows how fast the superficial moist
ure is escaping while the spade, or post
; augur, soon tells how badly we need
this escaping water in our soils. Furth-
er north it seems 10 be dryer still.
When we fleet that the amount of
moisture given area receives in sum-
mer IN the way of rainfall depends up
on the amount of moisture it has to
give in the way of evaporation, we
may well feel alarmed at the present
condition of the soil and at the manner
in which the little water we ave is
getting away from us.
I have said the corn crop was unusu-
ally large but that will not make it any
better for those whose labor produced
it; for the price is so low and the de-
mand so slack that it is tantlization
to have it. % cents at the warehouse
is the best now, SO that it will take, on
an average, about half the crop to pay
the rent, and the proud, free (?) Amer
lean citizen can grit his teeth over the
balance. That's what the blamed fool
gets for eaching what he doesn't
practice. He's sky-scraplng freedom
shrieker, and, on the fourth of July. a
strong natural rights man; but the rest
of the year he gets only as much free
dom as he has got the money to buy.
Well, Gen. Dick has stepped down
and out and Private Joe has stepped
up and in. Oglesby has been three
times governor &. this;state once U. s.
Senator, yet in his recent message he
calls attention to the fact that our pres
ent system of State taxation is fail
ure, and refers the legislature to the
system reported by commission some
years ago, but which was rejected at
the last session. We agree with the
ex-governor that our present system is
a miserable failure, as every system
which taxes any product of human la
Dor must necessarily be; but when it
comes to farming out the State taxes
to heartless and INSCRIPTIONS corpora
tions we dissent. The plan referred to
seemingly with favor by Oglesby is a
plan to tax railroads and telegraphs 80
much mile, ware houses so much
bushel on their capacity, telephones 30
| much on each instrument, &C., and let
the corporations owning these things
take it out of their customers. The
farmer here gets about IA cents a
pound for his wheat, pays about three
cents pound for his flour, and this is
a plan to give him less for his " heat
and make him pay more for his flour.
Of course If this burden is placed on
these corporations they must recoup
themselves out of those with whom
they deal, and to do stroke of busi-
ness in recouping themselves. To sum
the whole matter up briefly this is a
plan to double, or perhaps treble, the
State taxes; and these suckers are gud-
geons if they allow themselves to be
fooled by any such bait. They have
been fooled so long and SO badly that
one would suppose it time they were
getting their eye-teeth cut on this ques-
ton of taxation, The other evening at
a literary boy bad for the query box
the question "Why our government
was better than any other?" One man
present felt like saying that the ques-
ton was too previous, as we had no
government as yet, only misgovern-
ment, witness the crop of tenants, pau
pers, convicts, anarchists, tramps and
milionaires, all the fruit of mlsrule.
But never mind. Jonathan is wax
ing up to some potent facts and he'll
set things dead to rights pretty soon.
On the 9th inst. Tom l.. johnson,
Thos. G. Scherman and Henry George
were called before the tax committee of
the Ohio legislature; answered ques-
tions, made speeches, and Mr.. Scher-
man read and submitted an exhaustive
paper on the single tax. which has
since been published in the Standard.
Every man who is patriotic enough
ought to procure copy of the issue of
the 10Th and read Mr.. SIS exposition.
Here petition is being circulated
asking the legislature to adopt the
| Astralian system of voting. Nearlr
every one TO whom it is presented signs
it, without prospect to party. Anoth-
er petition asking the legislature ia
submit an amendment to the constitu-
tion abolishing all taxation on the pro-
ducts of labor including all improve
ments upon land receives between two
thirds and three-fourths as many sig
natures as that for electoral reform;
but these are mostly Democratic. Still
quite sprinkling of protaxtionist
ma mag opnear and sonoa of them lead