Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-08-13

lord to mold land idle and compel peo-
pie to pay price for the privilege Of
using it Any man has natural right
to take possession of and use, as long
as he pleases, any piece of land that no
one else is using, and the only right or
duty of government is to prevent others
from forcibly dispossessing him. The
only natural and just title to land is oc-
cupancy and use, and the individual
user derives that title not from govern
ment nor from society, but from the
labor expended by him in taking pos
session and making improvements upon
it This ownership in the right to
peaceably possess and enjoy part of
the earths surface is just as absolute
and just as equitable as is the owner
ship of the house you have built, the
crop you have raised, the cattle you
have bred, or the hands and brains
with which you labor.
But if l should stop here, my argu-
ment would have no more value than
the dictum of the anarchist on the one
hand and the verdict of the supreme
court on the other This is one side OF
the sign board. Let us see what is on
the other side. What is it that Mr.. Lee
dom calls crime? What is it that is the
foundation of landlordism and the all
sufficient cause of most of the poverty
and vice and crime that afflict modern
civilization? What is it that permits
and invites men to get "a legal title" to
vast tracts of land and then hold them
out of use?
Isn't it the simple fact that we permit
the ground rents - the social
wealth'-those values that are pro-
duced by the community-tog go into the
pockets of the landowners instead of
causing them to flow into the public
treasury to meet public needs? Isn't
this what Mr.. Leedom means when he
declares that private landholding is a
monstrous iniquity." Mr. Leedom
doesn't mean to say that private land
holding" is wrong in any sense, but he
does mean that the private ownership
of ground rents is wrong, and with him
| think we shall all agree. From this
it follows that when society gets wise
enough to demand its own wages for
public needs, when society ceases to
permit private land owners" to con-
fiscate social wealth for their own pri-
vate purposes. and thus secure for itself
such fund that it will not be obliged
to confscate private earnings for their
social purposes, then and not till then
shall we cease to be bothered with that
meaningless phrase 1.-The injustice of
private owership of land" 1t isn't
private ownership of land that
we are fighting against at all.
We don't propose to change in any way
our system of land tenure" We are
fighting against the private ownership
of land values" that's we are opposed
to allowing the wages of society" to
swell the fortunes of the Owners of
land
Thus the whole question comes to
this: rs there natural source of pub
lie revenue? Does society really earn
wages enough to meet public needs? Is
there natural and therefore a just
system of ''taxation?"
To him who has confidence in the
justice and orderliness of nature can
come but one answer, ''Yes."
So we see that in the last analysis it
is mere fiscal question, a ''mere"
question of taxation; but I think some
of us will be obliged to broaden our
conception of the Importance of Fiscal
questions and give a much wider
scope to the word ''mere. &C. J.
Buell., st. Anthony's Falls Mimi