Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-11-07
Henry Gecrgelsm.

Henry GecrgeIsm.
1.-THE articles appearing under this head explanatory
of the single doctrines of Henry George, are
furnished by the St. Louis Single Tax League. A
portion OF the articles will be devoted to the discus
sion of the tariff question IN its relation to the single
tax Letters ofnquiry criticisms ofthese articles,
addressed to the author of the to the league,
will receive prompt or courteous reply
WHY ARE WE POOR?
1t is a question which forces itself on
our attention, and which cannot be
put lightly aside. Not perhaps the
actual pressure of privation for all, but
for nine-tenths of the people of Ameri-
ca CALLING sense that they do not get
the fair return for their la Dor and for
almost every citizen of America the
ever-present imminence of the danger
that sudden turn OF ill-fortune may
mean starvation. Our farmers are Ia
boring harder every year and every
year seem to earn less; our merchants
battle with such odds that bankrupt
cy always seems only a few doors away
and overtakes the large majority at
some time in their business career; our
workingmen who labor for wages show
a larger percentage of idle men yearly
and struggle under such grievous bur-
dens that fierce spirit of discomfort is
spreading abroad and separating the
poore st classes from their fellow men
by an ever widening gulf, these are in-
disputable facts to him who will but
honestly look about bin; yet the ma
ton as W hole is richer than ever before
and growing richer daily; not only in
the aggregate but even in proportion
to the population. The more men la
Dor together. the greater is the product
our country, but of all others. A
generation ago the millionaire was a
curiosity amongst us and the tramp
was unknown; today both extremes
are only too familiar. A generation
ago the per capita production of wealth
the amount produced annually on the
average by each person, was hardly
two thirds what it is to-day; yet pau
perism was then a thing that we heard
of only in foreign lands and grinding
poverty so rare as to be finely attribut-
able to individual fault; to-day there is
no one SO Industrious, so honest or so
deserving that once m issing his foot
b old in the struggle fer existence he
may not find it impossible 10 regain it.
1t should be easier today than ever be-
'ore for a man to make a living, bee. use
he processes of industry are on SO vast
\ scale as to have enormously increas-
I'd the field upon which labor may be
The return to every man for
lis days labor should be greater than
ever before, because the total prOduc-
ion is greater as compared with the
1umber of workers. The wapts of
increasing daily in both
quantity and variety, should afford
Zach day new OPENINGS for the profit
,ble employment of brain and muscle.
Yet what used to be all open field has
become privilege eagerly sought-the
light to labor! Our young men once
selected their avocation as a matter of
choice; to-day they humbly beg for a
chance anywhere and grasp at what
ever opportunity may be given them to
earn their bread. The nation has gone
IN prospering beyond precedent, but
is citizens have found their struggle
or existence growing harder and more
precious day by day. The few have
grown steadily richer, the many have
stood still or gone back ward, the
amount OF labor being done has enor-
nously increased, but insteai of this
making a fresh demand for more Ia
1or, according TO the law of OF nature,
he appointments for work have be. |
come immeasurabiy iy fewer for each of
Is. Our national development has !
oeen great but it has been SO Ill behav-
ID as to continually threaten its over
low.
For nearly hundred years after the |
Declaration OF Independence it was on
Y political question that confronted |
Is; within the memory almost III tnoSe |
Who have not yet grown boards, the /
burning Issues have become socia ones.
We have boasted that this is the land |
If freedom and equality; but the man
is not free who can live only at the
permission of another to labor, and |
equality bas long since become little
more than jest. It is little wonder |
hat a spirit OF unrest under the new |
is abroad; the wonder is that
he American people who have never
,rooked tyranny from others, should |
not have long since broken the letters
y hich they have united upon them
Ielves. Even to those who dwell In
. real or fancied security as to their