Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-05-30
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE WESTERN FARMER AND
THE SINGLE TAX.

HARTFORD, Mimi, March 1G.-I have
been for years an ardent believer in the
single tax. but have never before ad-
dressed a letter to The Standard, ex-
cept to send in my yearly subscription.
4 am located in a backwoods district,
and being usually driven with work all
the year ronnd have had no opportun-
ity to do any missionary work, except
to keep up = desultOry correspondence
in a few papers should not write now
If it were not for the fact that can see
that the single tax is getting before the
people of my community in some mys-
terious manner, just as epidemics
spread, without any apparent cause.
The late political cyclone made me rep
resentativc of my county in the Mime
sofa legislature, and, being known as
believer in the single tax. my cores
pondencc shows unmistakab bly, that the
outlines of the cat are becoming visible
to many. A resolution expressing the
sentiments of local farmers club was
placed in my hands recently. which dis
approved of a state bureau to encour-
age immigration, ''as all the benefits of
Immigration accrue to land specula-
tors" do not know that any of these
farmers are single tax men, but there
is no doubt they soon will be. Numerous
petitions are. being signed by farmers,
urging the enactment of law that viii
compel railroad companies to pay taxes
on their lands. acquired under land
grant acts that exempted them from
taxation, for say these farmers, the
settlers who have improved the country
have given these railroad lands all their
value and enabled the owners to exact
/. higher price from the purchasers who
want to settle on them and improve
them" These farmers are learning
the'r A. Il. Cs, and will get on in time.
A widow, who has taken up home
stead claim in Dakota, passed through
our neishborhood last week, asking aid
20 keep her family from starvation until
| she could get another crop from her
land. The authorities had done all
they could for her and others in similar
circumstances, but all they could give
them was some corn meal. and her
youngest child was suffering from lack
| of nourishment, the coarse food disa-
grccirg with it's young and delicate or
gan1zation. She was only one of many
living on the free lands of Dakota who
have lost three crops from drought. but
| having no where else to go they cling
desperately to the only land they can
| drought ard failure Of crops will de-
| populate portions of Dakota. There
! are thousands of families living out
there on the bleak plains clothed in
rags and subsisting on the most mea gre
diet. praying Heaven to give them rain,
| SO that they can make enough money
| to build themselves homes. while mil
lions of acres of fine agricultural lands
in Minnesota, Iowa and other states
situated in the region of ample rain
| fall are lying vacant, in the grip of the
land speculator.
believe the present session of the
Minnesota legislature will result in
| strengthening the cause of single tax.
| 1t is composed largely of farmers who
are earnestly seeking remedy for eX-
| isting industrial wrongs and are es-
| pecially deSirous of formulating a plat
| form upon which the farming class and
| the so-callcd wage workers can occupy
| as Il common ground. Single tax men
| will know where they will finally land
| if they persist in an honest search for a
remedy that will cmancipate all in
dustry. Within the past year | endeas-
! orcd to get the single tax discussed in
! the county and local farmers alliance
organizations in my county. but failed
! to get n hearing. Recently ! have re-
! ceivcd notices from two different local
tiles requesting me to be present on
dates named. to participate in a discus
sion of the single tax. think we can
make these meetings so interesting that
| the people will want more of the same
kind. II. Sheets, in the Standard.