The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1893-02-17
'Then you pay the taxes" said the

taxes to pay, though they are not half as
high as Jones's are. Lord Sanders is rich
and knows better than to improve his
lands, and then we cannot even have de-
cent school to send our children to, be-
cause the agent will not permit us to vote
as we please. Oh, he's shrewrl one, is
that Lord Sanders. He knows he can get
just as n.uch rent for that old shanty with
a few poles and straw stack for q barn,
as though he had good buildings"
''What is the reason You cannot make as
much as your neighbour I asked. "Are
his crops better than yours?"
''No, sir" said the man. 'We raise
bushel for bushel; we did last year of both
wheat and corn"
''Then what is the troubles" asked the
duke.
''Well, sir, I can tell you the trouble He
could choose his own time for selling his
grain, and he received one dollar per
bushel for his wheat and twenty-five cents
a bushel for his corn. | had to sell when
Lord Sanders agent demanded the rent,
and got sixty cents per bushel for my
wheat and fifteen cents for corn. On the
two you can see quite margin for free
dom; yes, freedom l am bound under an
iron clad lease almost as hindi1-- as bill
of sale used to be in slavery times''
'But you need not stay here if the terms
do not suit you,' remarked the duke.
'That's true. But here l have shelter.
my wife and child are quite comfortable
If l should leave here | might dO even
worse. Some of the tenants on Lord San
ders' estate have terrible struggle to get
along. One day last winter when the
thermometer was twenty degrees below
zero, I went to a tenants house, and there
they were boiling whole corn to keep them
from starving. Their fire was made of
roots dug from the earth ten miles distant
and brought home to burn to keep them
from freezing. Oh, could tell you tales
of sufferings that would make your heart
ache. If there is any more suffering in
Ireland than right here on Lord Sanders
estate, God pity them! Here in this beau
tiful country where everything grows in
abundance! l went round to the different
families and gathered up provisions to
keep one family from starving to death.'
"What made the people so poory" asked
the duke
Because they had to sell all they could
raise to pay the rent, that the greedy land
lords may live in ease and lzxury in some
foreign city, where he cannot see or hear
of the misery he causes. While the thrifty
farmers, like neighbor Jones, who have
their own homes, must pay their own law
full taxes and a portion for my Lord San
ders beside"
"Why man how do you make that out?"
asked the duke. "Your neighbor has i'm
proved his lands, while Lord Sanders has
not, that makes the difference
'"That is just where the injustice comes
in. If Lord Sanders had to pay taxes on
that naked land and not on the improve
ments, he would soon be willing to sell
some of his hundred thousand acres But
while he can shirk out of the taxes and re-
ceives a good rent, he will not sell any Of
his broad fields, though offered five times
their real value"
"You are rather hard on the land
owner" said the duke. eff you could
carry your theory into practice you would
make fine mess of the finances of your
country. 1t might benefit the small farm
ers, but it would be hard on the landlords
who hold large estates"
"Well sir, we would be willing they
should suffer little. They have bled the
people long enough. Beside, the lands of
this country were intended for the many,
not for the few / would like to see the
man who owns the lands live on them and
use them himself, and not have the power
to grind the life out of the unfortunate
man who has not been blessed with rich
relations, fat offices or lucky opportunities,
by which he can buy or steal titles to lands
that God made free as the air we breathe,
for all to enjoy and use, not to monopolize
and abuse"
"Then you would make null and void all
titles to lands?" asked the duke.
LAS means of wealth and speculation I
would, but not as a means of life. l be-
leve laws should be made, by which titles
to lands would be granted for use and oc-
cupation only. And that all taxes should
be levied on land values, but nothing on
improvements. Why, as it is now, there
is premium offered to the man who can
hold the most land and make the least i'm
provements. AS it is now, if you build a
house you are taxed for it. If you plant a
tree or shrub, or do anything to add beau
ty to your home, you must pay for the lux
ury in additional taxes. Lords Sanders
knows how that is. He will not even put
a coat of paint on that old shanty or dig a
we'll for fear of his taxes being heavier"
"Are there many OF your opinion in this
settlement" asked the duke.
"Yes, sir, nearly all the tenants and
farmers generally believe as do. But we
tenants are not free to vote as we please
We must follow an unprincipled agent
and vote with him or be evicted. Talk
about freedom and progress! We are not
free, but we belong to a class of serfs and
slaves. We are slaves of the foreign land
lord all because he has been allowed to in
vest his wealth in American soil. But it
will not always be so," said the man with
warmth. ''These foreign landlords he
continued, "think they are riding an ass,
but they may yet find the beast to be an
enraged tigress instead. They cannot bind
us body and soul forever. The Farmers
Alliance clubs that meet in almost every
county in this state and in the United
States are putting new thoughts into om
heads and new impulses into our hearts,
which inspire US with new hopes. If we
only unite in our efforts we via yet crush
out this great land monopoly and defeat
the foreign landlords. The Allianc" sends
good reading into the tenants homes and
children win learn that the greatest crime
of the nineteenth century is this alien
landlordism! | say God bless the Farm