The Globe-republican., 1890-11-05

twenty millions OF acres, and which ara
constantly being increased Attention
was called to the immense governments
grants TO railroad corporations: to the
vast tracts owned b. private spectators
and purchased as investments by the
growing class OF millionaires: 20 the ex-
tensive cattle ranges of the far west
and to the rapid increase of grain farms
numbering thousands OF acres each. so
that the time can not he far distant
when the whole Of the great public do
main Will have passed into the hands OF
a limited number, who will be virtually
lords of the land.
Already one seeking a homestead on
the public lands must go nearly two
Thousand miles from the seaboard in
search of it, and perhaps then seek in
vain for desirable spot Even under
the shadow of the Colorado mountains
all land capable of cultivation has been
absorbed. while in that portion where
irrigation is needed TO produce crops,
the water as we'll as the land has been
monopolized. There the unfortunate
immigrant. after having bought right
10 earn his bread by the sweat OF his
brow from the monopolist OF land. finds
himself compelled 70 pay heavy tribute
yearly to the monopolists of the water,
who have seized the sources OF supply,
turned the streams from their natural
channels into artificial bitches" and
exact for their use prices SO extortion-
ate as to swell the dividends of those
corporations to eighty, ninety and ono
hundred per cent annually on the cap
ital invested. OF the millions of acres
of public land yet remaining. large por-
lions are included in the great Amer
lean desert; in the barren alkali lands;
in tracts too mountainous and sterile for
cultivation; and comparatively little re-
mains outside OF the Indian reservations
and the tracts set aside fo- railroad Sc
lections, that is sufficiently inviting to
tempt speculative investment.
considering this condition of the
land into which by the will of God We
have been brought. can one turn to the
Holy Scriptures and read declaration
such as that made in the text: The
land shall not be sold forever: for the
land is mine or can he read that the
earth IS the Lords and the fitness
thereof and that the earth hath He
given TO the children of men, without
having forced on him the conviction
that the benehcent purposes of God are
being set at naught and frustrated by
the greed and seltishness of those whose
grasping avarice and lust OF powec
prompts them 10 appropriate what the
Father of all made for the equal use
and benefit OF all?
rs il possible for anyone TO believe
that the merciful Creator made the
earth that greed and avarice might seize
on its best portions. and through their
possession enable the idle TO reyel in
luxury on the fruits of the poo- mans
toll? Has God given any generation of
men the right to disinherit their sue
cessors TO the very end of time, and in
doing this deny that the earth hath He
given 10 the children of men% MOI
What the Creator did was the reverse
OF this. His law. immutable As Him.
self, is announced in my text: The
land shall not be sold forever;
it is Mine, and ye are strangers and
so;ourners with Me- To generation
after generation, as they should come
and go, the right to the use of the land
that Only-was given. while the crea-
tor of the land kept and still keeps the
ownership in His own possession The
land is mine, saith the Lord.
If l am told that this divine law Of
land was given to the Jews only, reply
o. 81 -
mandments was given to the Jews only;
both laws, that of life and that OF land
We're given by the same God. and are in
vested with equal authority. What was
good. right and just FOR jew is good.
right and just for Christian also. II
am told, as | may be, that the moral
law is binding on all men because OF its
nature, reply that the same is true OF
Gods law of land. 1t is so eminentIy
wise and, in the nature Of things, so
just, as to have commanded the assent
of the clearest thinkers OF the world
Mr.. John Stuart Mill, whose reputation
as a political economist is world wide,
says: The land Of every country belongs
10 the people Of that country Thomas
BtItESOH Sdiu IL - u ScIA-tFlutHL
that the land belongs in usufruct 10 the
living Herbert Spencer, confessedly
among the profoundest thinkers OF the
age. says: Equity does not permit pri-
yate property in land. For if one por-
ton of the earth surface may Justly be-
come the property of an indi vidual. then
AT the earth's surface may be so held
The world, he says, is Gods bequest
20 mankind. All men are Joint heirs 70
t In saying this the first thinker of
he age tells us that pure reason, vindi-
,ates the dictum of revelation by lead
ng up TO the very statement made in
,ur text-the land belongs TO the Gre
tor, who gives the use OF l. 10 the
reatGres he places on it. az in their sue
,essive generations they come and 90,
md 10 no generation has He given the
light, nor can they in any other way
rave gained the right, TO SO dispossess
he generations to succeed them as that
limited number of mankind may claim
o own the planet on which all must live