People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-02-03
} exhaust the supply Of land

1t will be noticed that in the forego-
ing table l have assumed that in each
and every case the fathers died by the
time the sons became of age. Starting
with one hundred men, in a country
about twenty miles square, l assumed
that at the end of every thirty years the
demand for land was doubled and
figured the increase in the value of
land at five per cent compounded every
thirty years At the end of five gener-
ations of thirty years each, lone hun
dred and fifty years there is but seventy
eight acres of land for each man and
the value of the land is S4SS.33 per acre.
If we start with one thousand men in
the same county, we shall find that at
the expiration Of sixty years there is
but sixty-twO and one-half acres of land
each, worth S91. 25per acre. Now apply
these figures and assumptions not to a
theory but the condition that confronts
US.
Take the state of Texas, with its no.
O99, 200 acres of land. Reliable statistics
inform us that foreign corporations
own One-fOurth of all these acres, while
domestic corporations have a title to
one-half, leaving every fourth acre in
the hands of the people of the state
who are bona fide residents upon the
land Now, assume that the land in
the state averages at the present time
value Of s. per acre. In sixty years,
without the aid of immigration, every
acre of the land will be occupied by an
owner or tenant. If by owners, then
the corporations now owning it will
have realized profit of 50, $50, 6S7, 500.
If the land is occupied by tenants, then
the corporations who own it will be re-
ceiving from such tenants the enormous
annual tribute of Sl99, 3S5, 900 as rent.
Figuratively speaking men sometimes
''eat dirt" A man is said to eat dirt
when forced to retract statements he
has made But in practice man eats
no dirt except that certain quantity
which it is said to be the lot of all men
to eat with their daily food. An individ.
ual occupying home does not live by
consuming the land upon which it is
located and when he moves he cannot
take the land with him. He simply oc-
cupies and uses it. The Inauguration
then of a system under which use and
occupancy was the only valid title to
land, would rob no one of the right or
opportunity of acquiring and holding
home, but would simply prevent him
or her from selling the land when
changing locations But under such a
system no one could hold, out of use,
land they did not occupy as a home or
for business purposes, and thus become
wealthy by the absorption of an un-
earned increment arising from the ad-
vance in the selling price of land. The
man who really occupied and used land
would have no hardship entailed upon
him, but the land Spectator would be
destroyed from the face of the earth.
The present uprising of the people is
simply the manifestation of a social
evolution, which will never cease until
humanity stands upon a higher and
better plane. Society finds itself con-
fronted by the question asked by Cain:
Am | my brothers keeper" and, ut
terly unable to avoid the issue. will
evolve civilization which will demand
from all, services according to their
ability and render to all, ministra.ions
according to their need. Christianity
cannot much longer preach the father
hood of God without giving practical
recognition to the universal brother
hood of man. The conditions which
breed millionaires and paupers must
give way to the ideal Christian com
mune where, as it is written, HE that
had gathered much had nothing over;
and ne that had gathered little had no
lack" Civilization is failure so long
as the masses of humanity must cease
lessly toll and drudge, in order that a
few may live in luxurious idleness. In
terest, accursed of God and the curse
OF humanity, must be destroyed, and
the earth, mans heritage, must be re-
stored to a common humanity, to whom
the Lord freely gave it
GEORGE c. WARD.