Iron County register., 1893-12-14
The Interpretation.

| longed to another; it WIS the Lawful
| owner of the horse. and he did no.
| show you the stock of revolver, but {
writ of replevin. Nor did he return the
| purchase price even in counterfeit
money; he gave you nothing. Yor
had bought something to which the
(, seller had no title, and when the rea
| owner came you were compelled ts
yield up the property to him. Thus
| far there was nothing remarha BILE il
| your dream. The same, thing happens
every day. as many a luckless buyer o1
| stolen goods can tell you In actual
| experience instances, far more unfor
| tunate may be cited For example, il
You had dreamed you bought farm,
and that in consequences of some funda.
| mental flaw which YOU had overlooked
| the title proved defective. and that the
| farm with all your new Improvements
| was taken from you without compensa-
| ton, and that you were forced to pay
over all the profits you had made dur.
ing your occupancy. the dream would
| not have been in the slightest degree
! fanciful.
Your repert Of the interview with
your Uncle Sam is singularly defective.
! 1lC SlIA lot odN YOU x AVG up yOuI
title to the farm; he told you he was
going to take all taxes off your i'm.
provements and crops and put them on
| the value OF land in it's natural condi-
ton. And it was in that connection
that he told you the improvements were
the fruits of your own labor.
1t was at this point you mumbled
something about other people who get
land for nothing having the same adj
vaatages under single tax while you
were out of pocket what you paid for
your land. To use your own expression.
which is correct, you said: 80 an
other man, without paying one cent to
YOU can take his money and improve
the leased land and he is taxed no more
than | am
But you blushed in your dream, when
Uncle Sam told you that this other
man might be your own son, who,
without this change of policy, would,
when he came of age, have to pay a
great deal more than you did for a
piece of land, OR else move long dis
tance away, Or be somebody else's
aired man.
The dream might have ended here,
had You not tried the old mans patience
by shouting something to the effect
that honest men We're opposed to the
plan
Honest men, your Uncle Sam cried.
81 have world of patience and long
suffering, but when you talk about the
opposition of honest men you make me
mad. Honest men, who own millions
OF acres which they are holding until
~ L. ~
them by selling or,renting it, to live
on the labor of others! Honest men,
who fence. in thousands of building
lots in cities and crowd the poor into
squalid tenements. neither building
nor letting others build, merely for
their own enrichment at the expense
of the thrifty and Industrious. Hon.
est men, who encourage the with
drawal from use of the greater part of
the surface of the country, so as to in
crease the number of the unemployed,
and by making a competition among
worhingmen, press wages down to the
lowest point! Honest men, who put
private tax on coal, ore, gold and silver
deposits and oil wells, and when they
want to raise the tax, lock them up!
Honest men, who to perpetuate plum
dering, appeal to the avar!ce of fools
like you! Honest men, indeed!
'Why. you eternal idiot. if these beg
gars We're hribed to stop their piracy,
who would have to pay the bribe? You
and the rest of the donkeys, wouldn't
you? And if you got back what you
paid me for this pesky little farm of
yours, how much of it would you have
left after paying the fellows that are
trying to fool you?
Here you've got 100 acres of ground.
There amt neighbor within two
miles of you. When you want to go to
the store or the blacksmith shop you
must travel twenty miles. Once year
the assessor comes around and taxes
you on every thing you've got, and the
harder you work, the more you pro-
duce, the higher he taxes you. And all
around you is just as good land as
yours, vh::ch nobody uses because some
dog-in-t the mangcr owns it and wants
big price for it. Now. come around
and propose to tax land values instead
OF other things. SO as to bring all this
land in use and give You plenty OF
neigh bors. and bring your store and
blacksmith shop twenty miles nearer,
and give you goods for one price, and
nuke the assessor confine his taxes to
the value of the land you use, regard
less of whether you work hard Or not;
or produce little or much, and open up
land free for your son when he comes
of age and wants a farm, instead OF
forcing him to work for some one else
for mere living-and you haven't any
more gratitude than to whine about
two hunire dollars you paid me, and
talk about honesty: Was there ever
such a fool?
''Why, you talk about taxing the
value of your land: what do you sup
pose your land is worth, anyhow? You
say it's worth $500. So it is now, be-
cause all this other land is taken up
and kept out of use. and people would
rather pay 500 for piece OF land like
this than not have any land. But
when / take taxes off other things and
Your land Ice worth then? It won't be
worsh anything, for there amt any
fools to buy land when they can get
just as good for nothing. And if your
land amt worth anything you won't
pay any taxes at all when all taxes are
put on land values, will you? Now,
my dear boy, just chasge that 5000 to
profit and loss. and fifth your wages
Ind capital freed frdAa all taxes, and
ysur land free, too, a til populatfon
grows SO thick nrpnn