Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-01-22
Prof. Sumner and Human Csn,mo dities.
from N Y Standart,l


! Prof. w. G.. Sumner is writing for the
independent as to the "Significance O.
| the demand for men," Referring to al
idea often expressed in one form or an
other, that 1t is shame men are sub
! lect to supply and demand, Pro-! Sum.
ner says that as we want to know the
facts about man and the world in which
he lives just as they are, it is 'irreva.
| lent and idle to talk about what is con.
sonant with, or what is hostile to, mans
| notions of his own dignity" and warns
his readers that sit will be found that
men are subject to supply and demand. -
This is not true, AID Prof. Summers
mistake is due to his neglect of his own
postulate that I'VE want to know tire
facts about man, and the world in which
he lives, just as they are, without re-
gard to any thing else whatsoever. "
One of the facts about man and the
world in which he lives is that the
means supplied him by natural
laws whereby he may provide for
his natural wants are taken away
from him by human law. He
can not provide for his wants as an
animal without land, and he can not
provide for his wants as civilized man
without land in civilized locations. II
the right to land be taken from men in
general and vested in some men, the law
of supply and demand will operate just
as Prof. Sumner says it will. The need
for workers on the part of land owners
or of men who can buy rights of access
to land will regulate the demand, and
the number of landless men whose me-
cessities force them to offer their
labor for sale will constitute the supply.
But if this is what Prof. Sumner means
when he says men are subject to supply
and demand, his phrase is grossly mis-
leading, He should have written: MEN
are subject to supply and demand when
land is monopolized." But to say that
would be to hint to oil to whom the idea
that the artificial monopoly of land
should be abolished.
1t is true that black men are subject to
slavery when and where human laws re-
duce them to servitude; but it is not
true that black men are subject to slav-
cry, in any such sense as that slavery is
natural condition of black men. So it is
true that men are subject to supply and
demand when land is artificially monop-
olized; but it is not true that men are
subject to supply and demand in any
such sense as that this is natural con-
dition or with any such implication as
that even attempts to remove them from
the operation of the law of supply and
demand must be in contravention of
natural law. If we found, as Prof. Sum-
ner does, that men are subject to supply
and demand, it would be, indeed, in
that connection, irrelevant and idle to
talk about what is consonant with or hos
tile to mans notions of his own digni-
ty:" but when we find that man is sub
ject to supply and demand because hui
man laws of land tenure and trade de.
prive him of what is as essential to his
existence as his lungs or his brains, it i'd
not irrelevant or idle to talk about what
is consonant with or hostile to his no
tons of his own dignity. His notions of
his own dignity-his notions of his own
natural RICH ts-are pertinent and useful
in the highest degree when he considers
the question of changing the human
laws that made him subject to supply
and demand.
IN the very centers of our civilization
to-day are want and suffering enough to
make sick at heart whoever does not |
lose his eyes and steel his nerves |
Dare we turn to the Creator and ask |
Him to relieve it? Surprising the pray !
,r were heard and at the behest with |
which the universe sprang into being |
here should glow in the sun greater
power; new virtue fill the air; fresh
igor the soil; that for every blade of
'rass that now grows two should spring
p, and the seed that now increases fif-
y fold should increase hundred fold!
Would poverty be abated or want re-
ieved? Manifestly no! Whatever
enefit would accrue would be but tenn
orary. The new powers streaming
through the material universe could
My be untitled through land. And
and, being private property, the classes
hat now monopolize the bounty of the
reator would monopolize all the new
ounty. Land owners would alone be
eneitted. Rents would increase, but
ages would still tend to the starvation
and Poverty.
THE man who told Mr.. Cavanagh that
|
cess to the land they would cut down
I the trees and thus put an end to rain
IL, gave an amusing illustration of tho
entail process that number of people
istake for thinking. Nothing in the
orld has had SO much to do With tho
of the forests of this coun-
y as the monopoly of arabic land by ,
regulators, who drove men up mountain :
des and into inaccessible places, that
lder any natural system would be de-
ted to forestry purposes for a thou ;
nd years. Next in Importance to land a.,
onopoly in bringing about this result =.
we been the stupid tariff laws that > .
MED our people the opportunity to OBJ
in cheap lumber from Canada, much
which is produced in regions not
tied to agriculture. The Standard. =
THE truth is, and from this truth there S
n be no escape, that there is and can
no just title to an exclusive posses :
IN of the soil, and that private prop
by in land, is a bold, bare, enormous r
ong, like that of chattel slavery. 4
The majority of men in civilized COM f
mites do not recognize this, simply b
cause the majority of men do not \
ink. With them whatever is, is right, I
til it's wrongfulness has been frequent
pointed out, and in general they are
ldy to cruelty whoever first attempts
s.-Progress and Poverty. =,
WHAT has destroyed every previous p
ilization has been the tendency to e