Morris tribune., 1892-11-02

works. These extracts, which follow,
are taken literally from his own
writings, at time when he hoped to
win power in great cities, when he
cought the votes of the landless jewellers
of the metropolis by telling them that
they had as good right "a any one to
what you have acquired at SO much
cost and pain.
He puts you, farmers Of the North
west, on par with the Shareholders Of
the South:
We have not really abolished slavery, we
have retained It In Its most insidious and
widespread form-in form which applies to
whites as to blacks so far from having abol-
shed slavery, it is extending AMI intensifyiny,
and we make no scrupls of selling into 1t our
own children-the citizens Of the repuh lic yet
70 be. For what else are we Il i}g In selling
the land on hich future citizens must live, If
they are to live at all.
NnSre t1S ownership OF lanu mas ueSn HluCu
difNused. there will remain, for some time
after the mere laborer has been reduced to the
wages of slavery, G greater boiy of smaller
landowners occupying an informed ne posi-
ton, and who according to the land they
hold, and the relations which it bears their
labor may.to make s. comparison with ha tel
slavery, be compared, in heir gradat us, to
: celia, hos VIII,
! no slaves but are themselves ire or 10 par
| tial slaves, compelled to render service for
| one, two, three, four or five days in the Y e
but for the rest of the time their own ma 'tcrs.
He does not mean that we should keep
public land as public property for the
future, and leave men who now own
land alone. He means to dispossess
them:
Theirs Is no use in talking OF reserving what
there may be left of our public domain to
actual settlers. That wo", i be mercy lock-
ing of the sta lie door after the horse had teen
stolen, and even if it were not. would avail
not1in We can no more ADO ish
'
estates than vo :ould abolish chattel slavery
by putting limit on the number Of slave,
single slsr:tryner might own. There
Is 70 escape rom it. if we would save the
republic we y st make land common property.
This Mr.. George would do. as has
been said, by putting on land, on the
farm and the city lot, such burden of
unbearable taxation as would make it
ruinous for the holder to attempt to
hold it.
All it is necessary to do is abolish all
other forms of taxation until the weight Of
taxation rests upon the value of land, ire
spective of improvements and takes the
ground rent for the public benefit.
Practically. then, the greatest, the most
Fundamental of all reforms, tho reform which
will make all other reforms easier, and with
out which no other reform will avail, is to be
reached by concentrating all taxation into
taxupon the value of land, and making that
heavy enough to take as near as may be the
whols ground rent for common purposes.
1t will be a beautiful state Of things,
in the opinion of Mr.. George, when all
unemployed labor can go to the country
and occupy land as it will, multiplying
indefinitely agricultural products and
decreasing in proportion their value in
the market.
Not that every unemployed mechanic, or
operative or clerk. could or would get himself
a farm; but that from all the various occupa-
lions enough would betake themselves to the
land to relieve any pressure for employment.
Study this idea, farmers of the North
west, and see how the prospect invites
you, which is offered by Mr.. George in
the name of the Democratic Fusion
Party Of Minnesota.
Is it not the height of impudence and
of insult to your intelligence to ask you
to vote with the man who calls for the
confscation Of your property?
Is it not fitting thing that COM
mittee headed by man who spent the
years Of the war in publicly reviling
Abraham Lincoln and opposing the
cause Of the Union, should invite to
represent it before the people of Mime
sofa, the man who. in asking that tax
On land be substituted for all other
taxes, used this argument, insulting to
every veteran and every loyal heart:
We are spending great sums in useless |
public improvements, and are paying pensions !
under law which seems framed but to put |
g premium upon fraud and get away with |
public monsy.''
Irish Spies and Informers.