Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-01-22
Si,u..- IA DEPARTMENT.


a PRACTICAL ILLUS IRA TON.
A very effective method of shown!
the evils of slavery, much in vogue il
anti-slavery days. was the contrasting
of the workings of the two systems o
labor, free and slave, as they were seel
in two different States, separated onl,
by a river. as in the case of Ohio ant
Kentucky.
The south side of Long Island pre-
sents similar opportunity of contrast
| ing the working of the two systems
Of common and private property il
| land.
The territory of Long Island was orig
nally granted by patents from the crown
to certain individuals having influence
at court or by purchase, some of which
grants were confirmed by subsequent
| colonial governors, and some were re-
| purchased from the Indians, who lived
upon it. Most of these grants extended
| from the sound to the ocean, and conse-
Iuently included the bay that intervenes
| between the south shore of the island
| and the outer beach, a narrow strip
of sand separating the bay from the
| ocean.
With one or two exceptions these
| grants have not been held to cover or
| convey any right to the waters of the
| bay or to it's bottom, if covered by water.
AS consequence, the bay and its nat
ural products have been held and used,
as they were by the Indians who lived
on its margin when this country was
discovered. Every person, at least ev-
cry person residing in the town which
ole .i-li nEi 10, -
launch his boat, and take from it's
waters its natural products without any
restrictions except such as are binding
upon all, and enforced by the town for
the good of all. If any revenue is de-
rived from renting portions of its bot
tom or for the privilege of cutting grass
on its islands, that revenue goes into the
treasury of the town, not into any pri-
vate pockets.
Here, then. is an example of natural
opportunities, which by some good for
tune escaped the clutches of monopoly,
and are now, as they have ever
been, free to all who choose to use
them. The general result of this is,
that nowhere in the United States is
there less suffering, less poverty, and
more independence than in those
towns bordering on the Great South
bay. Here there are no strikes, no lock-
outs, no beggars and no poor, except
from misfortune or vice. In times of
financial depression and business stag
nation. when want of employment con-
verts skilled wor1men and wealth pro-
ducers into homeless tramps, the towns
of Long Island bordering on the bay do
not feel the hardness of the times" as
it is felt elsewhere. And why? Be-
cause natural opportunities are never
closed to any one. When man can do
nothing else or find nothing else to do,
the bay, with its ineXhaustible store of
wild fowl, shell and other fish is open to
him at all times without the permission
Of any one and without the necessity of
paying some one for the privilege. Hum
dreds of men in all the towns bordering
on the bay do now, as their ancestors
have done for generations, follow the
bay for a livelihood, and from the earn
lngs of which many are enabled to own
their homes but which is becoming
more and more difficult to do, because of
the monopoly of the land near the
shore; which natural opportunities from
their enhanced value (being held from
use for speculative purposes) are no
longer accessible to any but the rich.
Grants conferred by some King or
Governor, long since turned to
dust, and who had no more right
to give away the land of Long
island to the then existing generation,
than he had to convey territory in the |
moon, much less to deprive the men of |
succeeding generations of natural |
right enable few to hold the land from |
those who could use it, awaiting the
coming of the wealthy, who, because of
its advantages near the sea, will give
for it sum which the baymen can never
hope to possess.
Now, supposing the same system had
on the water as on the land,
how different might not the condition of
the baymen have been to-day! Instead
Of ownership by the town, there would
have been many private ownerships or
landlords. No man could then have
launched his boat upon the bay without
somebody's permission. On every bush
Il of shellish he brought to shore, and
IN every take of fish he would be re-
CURED to pay tax, just as the barons
IF the Rhine used to exact toll of all
who sailed past their castles, the former !
AK being no more justitiable than the
after. AS result of that system, we !
hould have seen palatial residences
modern castles) in every town {
rected by the descendants of t
he original grantees out of the s
ents levied on the industry of the S
aymen, who from condition of l
and comfort would be- ,
ONE dependent and poor in proportion S
S their landlords became rich. Or it 1
hight happen, as it has happened in /
cotland and Ireland, where whole d
ounties have been depopulated because t
became more profitable to let the land Q
Or game preserves for the pleasure of s
my lord" than for legitimate industry.
Who can doubt that if the bay was in
rivate hands to-day it would not be !,
ong before it would lapse into the pos :
ession of the Goulds and Vanderbilts,
nd be used by them exclusively for {
leasure.
The baymen's occupation would then.
Ike Othello's, ''be gone" and with the II
'ss of those natural opportunities y
ould commence fiercer struggle for b
xistence than they or their ancestors u
ave ever felt before which would re- l.
lit, either in emigration or a gradual II
duction to the condition of the peas u
ton co the ground rent Of their poor ci