The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-05-14
Jerry Simpson on Forts and Land
Grabbing.

Congressman Jerry simpson, IN IN
interview with Henry George, jr., pub
lished in the Sunday Advertiser, of New
York, makes some eminently sensible
observations regarding the bill now
pending in congress for the expenditure
of $f0O, 000, 600 to fortify seaports
who's to be defendedT' asks Mr..
Simpson "whos to be attackcd7'
OF course there is no answer. and Mr.
Simpson, justly replying to his own
questions, says: THE fact is, tins for
tiAcation business is humbuR from
beginning to end" He then procesds:
What we out in Kansas want and
the great farmer class throughout the
country are like us--is not to be taxed
for the building OF Notifications We
want q chance to plow the ground; a
chance to SOW and reap; chance to
sell our products; chance for some
reciprocity with people who want our
things and have things we want,
whether those people are in another
state or In another country. We want
q chance to trade and want friendly re-
lations everywhere. and we don't any
more need Notifications around the
United States than we need them
around the state of Kansas Wars don't
blow up in night. Wen have plenty
of time to get ready % veceive our
friends If they should want 70 Try to In.
wade us" r
Changing the subject Mr. Nimpson
said: I'VE are about to open uf for set
Element 9, O00, 900 acres of land In the
Cherokee strip and in the Cheyenne and
Arapahoe countries / presume, In do
ing 50, we shall witness another Okla
homa struggle Yet I hope congress
will adopt some preventive measures.
To my mind, the way to prevent the
land from being seized by spectators
and to preserve it for actual users, as
was the intention of the homestead
law. but which that law has failed to
accomplish. is for the people, through
their government, to retain title in the
land and lease it to the occupants as
was done by the state of Nebraska
most successfully with its school lands.
am informed that rental of 81 an
acre was obtained from some of that
land This charge upon land, while it
would bring in revenue and keep land
spectators out, would make taxes upon
improvements Just that much less But
if the barriers are simply thrown down,
then we'll have the Oklahoma business
over again-the spectators viii ride in
on fleet horses and seize upon all the
choice spots, while the real farmers.
burdened with their families, will toll
behind, and find on arriving only unde-
sirable parts of the new country left
1t is quite apparent that it won't do to
homestead this new territory. That
means handing q large part over to
spectators, and putting the remainder
under mortgage. which is the same
thing in the end. There is feeling in
congress that something should be done
to prevent this, but whether there is q
clear idea of this remedy l speak Of
can not say.
II would give the settler the right to
sell his improvements, but not the land
Everything that he produces upon IL
should be his, but the land should be-
long to all the people, and he shonld
have only the right to use it, and he
should pay the people for the privilege.
The land should be appraised period
ically, SO that the rental should have
its proper relation to any change in the
value. How. or by whom. this should
be done would be details to be settled
by territorial legislation.