The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-08-12
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
CIVILIZATION THREATENED.

The Toledo (O) Sunday Journal,
edited by c. c. Packard, is one of the
many able and influential journals that
see and confess the need of some radio
al cure for the evils that affect not only
this country, but the whole civilized
world. There is found in all countries.
no matter what their tariff policy, a
tendency that threatens the extinction
| of civilization 1t exists in this coun-
try and it will be notably demonstrated
in the next census, by the figures show
Ing the growth of city populations and
the relative shrinkage of rural popula-
tons Commenting on this the journal
says:
when men flock to cities and when
farms are abandoned, or concentrated
in the hands of a few, there arises a
situation which indicates that that
which has forever been the curse of the
race, and which has always foreshad-
owed the downfall of that nation in
which such event transpires the abase-
ment of the masses. This is true OF all
the nations of history, from the Chal-
deans and Assyrians down to mighty
Rome, for no people thrives permanent.
ly whose existence is drawn from the
soil by alien hands. The agricultural
portion of such community speedily be-
comes separated both in habit and
thought from those residing in cities,
and the latter produce race of ener-
waited and weakened people, who easily
fall victims to their own vices superin-
duced by absence from that great pro-
moter of national, as of individual
strength, the soil.
This is true, but not the whole truth
The degradation of the rural commun-
ity incident to this process accelerates
that tendency which originally made
heather and pagan terms of reproach
and caused all that is desirable in the
life of the race to be called civilization.
1t is well that men should live close
enough together for companionship,
and oyercrowding and isolation are
alike to be dcplored. That we are I'M.
dergoing the process that destroyed
Israel and wrecked the civilization of
Rome is apparent to every man who
does not willfully close his eyes to
what is goitg on around him. No
country borg man of forty or more
needs any Statistics to show him how
the conditiox, financially and socially,
of the farmdfs of the eastern and mid
die states has changed for the worse
since the days of his boyhood. No one
having even he most superficial knowl-
edge of the life of the idle rich, and
their hangeh-on, can doubt that the
standard off morals 1among them has
fn haa tss IS sssaa ,h tsns
poor is a md ter of police court record
Our Toledo ,ntempq1ary not only sees
the tendency but it ees the cause. 1t
says:
"Undcr our syste1 of laws, which
permits unlimited prAate ownership of
the soil, there has arisen wrong
which we are all willing to condemn
alien ownership of great tracts by for
eigners who have neither part nor lot
with us nor with our growth, and who
simply hold the soil from those who
would otherwise find there homes for
| themselves and families. But with our
criticism Of this alien ownership, con
| fcssedly wrong and unfair and unjust
to those who come here to make per
manent homes, perhaps we will need
to go deeper in this matter and dis
cover how wisely we follow the Roman
rather than the Celtic or Saxon plan OF
land-holding, and whether we are best
situated by vcsting in some fortunate
person or his descendants that which is
as much matter of public right rs tn,
air, the water or sunlight, God, or ma
ture, as is preferred, provided the
earth, equally with the air and golden
sunlight, and the boundless ocean, and
it is not unwisdom which opposes the
holding Of land under perpetual ten
IRE by those SO fortunate as to acquire
it. 1t was not the owners of the Calu
met and IIccla mines who planted the
copper deep in the bosom of the earth
at that point They toiled not, neither
did they spin, nor put forth at atom Of
intelligence, or effort to provide thai
which is rightfully common inherit
ance to all. 1t was not man, but ma
ture, that buried the coal and iron I'm
derneath the Appalachian mountains
although it is now man who sits in hi:
Wall street office and DEGREES how
much coal shall be mined in giver
time, in order that certain price shall
lie maintained. Man had neither 10
nor part in planting minerals; the gas
the oil, the marble, nor the precious
metals in the earth, any more than HI
has provided the water that falls il
blessed dew at night, or in cool an,
refreshing showers to soak the parche'
earth by day, or the genial sun
shine which makes life and hap
piness. And yet man has SO arranged
that while all must have access to al
and sunshine and water, a few are al
lotted the rich blessings bestowed TO
the race in the bosom of the earth, ant
| nothing infallibly remains for Thu
masses but bare six feet of soil, il
which they are permitted to lay thei
weary bones, after obeying the becl
and call of the fortunate few in all tn,
long and dismal years during whicl
they have endured want and pcnury."
Under such circumstances it is no
wonderful that hopelessness of ade
quate reward drives the poor as well q
the thrifty and ambitious from tn
country to the easier life of the towr
where the chances seem greater, 9
that the hopeless poverty of crowde