Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-03-15
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
If Alive Now He Would BE Terme,
Cranky, Calamity HoUlfn0 poDuItst

If Alive Now He Would BE Termed a
Cranky. Calamity Howling Populist.
The property of this country is abso-
lutely concentrated in a very few hands,
having revenues of from half million
OF gulneas a year downward These
employ the flower of the country as
servants They employ also a great
number of manufacturers and trades
men, and, lastly, the class of laboring
husbandmen; but after all these come
the most numerous of all classes-that
is, the poor who cannot find work
asked myself what could be the reason
that so many should be permitted to
beg who are willing to work in the
country where there is a very consider
able portion of uncultivated lands.
These lands are kept idle, mostly for
the sake of game. 1t should seem,
then, that it must be because of the
enormous wealth of the proprietors,
which places them above attention to
the increase of their revenues by per-
mitting these lands to be labored
am conscious that an equal divis-
ion of property is impracticable;
but the consequences of this enor-
nous inequality is producing SO much
misery to the bulk of mankind, legisla-
lures cannot invent too many devices
for subdividing property, only taking
care to let their subdivisions go hand in .
hand with the natural affections of the
mind. The descent of property of every
kind, therefore, to all the children, or to
all the brothers and sisters and other
relations, in equal degree, is a polite
measure, and practicable one. An
other means of silently lessening the
inequality of property is to except all
from taxation below a certain point,
and to tax the higher portions of prop
erty in geometrical progression as they
rise. Wherever there are in any coun-
try uncultivated lands and unemployed
poor, it is clear that the laws of
property have been so far extended
as to violate natural right The
earth is given as a common stock
for men to labor on; if, for the en-
couragement of industry, we allow it
to be appropriated we must take care
that other employment be furnished to
those excluded from the appropriation.
If we do not, the fundamental right to
la Dor on the earth returns to the un-
employed 1t is too soon yet in our
country to say that every man who can
not find uncultivated land, shall be at
liberty to cultivate it paying a moder-
ate rent; but it is not too soon to pro-
vide by every possible means that as
few rs possible shall be without a little
portion of land The small landhold-
ers are the most precious part of
state"
The above is an extract from letter
written from France by jefferson, when
in that country. We clip it from the
Knights of Labor Journal. It was
copied by John Davis, congressman
from Kansas, and sent to the Journal.
1t can be found in Bancrofts History
OF the Constitution, pages 46s, 4e4 and
1876.
From its perusal we are justified in
believing that Jefferson believed that
the state should furnish remunerativc
employment to all citizens, or else
abolish the private ownership of un-
used lands, making use and occupancy
the only legal claim to land He also
favored graduated tax upon all prop
erty above certain set and stipulated
exemption.