The San Francisco call., 1895-07-19
BACK TO TEE LAND.
WILL S. GREEN ADVOCATES THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF PUBLIC FARMS.

no excuse for having that army of the idle.
While organized society has right to defend
Itself against the vicious and the willfully idle
oy measures sufficiently stringent Tor the &C
complishment of the end, even to the taking
OF life, it has duties to perform that must be
performed in a satisfactory manner before
claim can be laid to high civilization. BY
far the most important of these duties is to see
to 1t that no man or woman shall suffer for the
necessaries OF life for want OF an opportunity
10 earn them. Let justice be done ana there
Will be small use for charity.
The State of California is capable OF feeding
snd clothing the whole present population of
North America, and yet there are men and
women here who have no opportunity to earn
their bread. There are many who would not
earn 1t If they had the opportunity, but this is
no excuse for not giving that opportunity to
those who would work. Those who would not
should be summarily dealt with, even to the
extent of the death penalty.
10 accomplish this much-deSlred end 1t Is
not necessary to enter into the realm OF social
ism or OF paternalism in the Government.
1.-The earth and the fullness thereof was given
TO man to subsist upon, and it was not in
tended by the good giver, be that -g1yer the
personal God of the Christian or the mature"
OF the agnostic, that any one man, willing to
apply the sweat of his brow, should be de-
hand and partake of that fullness.
1t is through agriculture, through the process
OF planting the seed and watching and caring
| for the plant until 1t seed again, that SUBJ
slstence comes to all; to those not engaged in
that pursuit as well as those so engaged. Its
results are certain or can be made very nearly
SO. The spirit of chance-taking, of speculation,
That ls necessarily part of nearly every busi-
ness, except agriculture kept the world NOV
ing; but 1T has driven men from the plow; 1T
has entered the domain of agriculture and has
robbed 1t OF its better qualities; 1t has dis
placed the rural home with the great landed
estate; 1t has sought to monopoltze the earth,
the source to which every living creature must
look for life; it has made the tramp, the army
OF unemployed; IL is the handspring OF prog
ress, yet the source of great evil.
While this spirit of adventure, or, in plain
English, this gambling mania, may not, should
not, be checked all along the line of human ac-
ton, Its hand should be stayed its power
abridged, when 1t touches agriculture, or those
things upon which agriculture depends. For
thirty years l have been fighting against the
possibility OF the monopoly of so important an
adjunct to agriculture as water, and from this
fight came the district irrigation law, imper-
feet as ii is, and against which the monopoly
or gambling instinct seems to rebel.
Now then:
The people on this earth own the earth, and
collectively have right SO to control 1t as that
1t shall produce the maximum of those things
necessary to human existence. No body Of
men calling itself the government can so usurp
the functions of government as to grant the
soil TO anybody except for use; except under
an arrangement to have 1t put to its highest
use. In arguing the hydraulic mining ques-
tion have endeavored to show that California
the corporate body of the name-could not
afford to have any one acre OF land destroyed
for many times the market value Of the acre;
could not afford to have all her acres destroyed
for billions of gold, any more than man could
afford to have all the members of his body,
and finally his head, cut away for gold.
The land is the very anatomy of the State.
The same argument applies TO the practice of
allowing large bodies of land to be held from
use, or even held from their highest use. Sup
pose every acre of land in this great State put
to its highest use? How many ships, how
many railroads, would be required to handle
the commerce? How many men to do the
necessary manufacturing? We could have
here all the present population of this conti-
nent and no one need go to bed hungry.
There Is no better way of starting the stream
of human energy back into its proper and
wholesome channels than by directing the
army of the unemployed right back to the
humanity. The process is simple 1T is easy of
accomplishment, and will not only solve the
unemployed problem, but W i'll give an impetus
back toward the farm that Will be worth more
than the cost; but the cost will be small.
One acre of land can be made to feed bounti-
fully more than five adult persons. Five per-
sons working three hours day on an acre can
bring it to this production. Suppose, then,
every county in the State had a farm upon
.s~l,+
living. On 100 acres 500 persons could make
all they could eat. How many counties would
have 500 If all had a farm? How easy to get
LOO acres. The cost would be so trifing as to
amount to nothing. The land and necessary
buildings once secured, there would be no
after-cost-the thing would run itself. San
Francisco ought to have 1000 acres; the other
counties should have from 100 up to say 500,
according to population. This farm should
not in any sense be 'spoor farm" There
should be no tincture of charity connected with
it. Any man with or without money should
feel at liberty to go there while temporarily out
OF work. Let the young man who has saved
few hundred dollars feel that he can go there,
deposit his money in the safe and go to work
earning his living instead of spending his
savings. Let it be emphatically home for
those temporarily out Of work-nothing more.
Within few years these farms would be
highly improved and each year would see
added fertility to the soil. Here would be an
opportunity offered to make an independent
living-a living with no shadow of charity in
1t. After the opportunity shall thus be given,
if any man shall still insist on making q
nuisance of himself by being idle put him in
the chaingang and make him break rock on
the roads, and feed him on meal and water
but first give the opportunity. We have no
right to condemn any man-no right to call
any one tramp or any other hard name-until
we have given that man an opportunity to
earn an honest living. I know that as good
men as you or I dare be have gone hungry in
this great State of unbounded resources, end
all for the lack OF an opportunity to apply the
sweat of the brow to the problem Of life.
And after we get these farms going; after we
can say that no man in this great California is
hungry because of lack of opportunity, we
may look around ana ask why it may not be
that there shall be all opportunity for each to
earn more than bread. This inquiry may lead
in the direction of the single tax, but, for one,
am prepared to follow any thread that Will
lead out OF the dark labyrinth into which we
have drifted. WILL s. GREEN.
San Francisco, July 18, 1895.
=
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.
D, ALLISON POINTS OFT wAy tn EI rfyr cooD MEN