Frostburg mining journal., 1895-08-03

We know that old slave-owners before
the war, who felt that way, freed their
slaves. We know that every man
! who knows that he owns ANYTHING
! that he considers sinfnl, makes haste
to get rid of it when he wants to be
| relieved of his sin and show the world
| his consistency. The results, pro or
con, from a temporal point of view, are
not to be considered in getting rid of
| the incubus. His cry is-'O that my
| load of sin were gone - The thief
who refuses to return the stolen coat
| because he might take cold without
one, argues the same as the single
taXer does who wants to hold on to his
stolen land. Such inconsistency as
this makes the would laugh. Such
neglect of duty as this has made of
single tax exactly what we see it to be
"A vast monument of idle profession.
C.-We single takers may be cranks
! hope we are-but we are not fools.
L.-Christian reformers have been
what they call ''fools for Christ's
sake" and single takers will have to
be fools for their taX's sake, and give
up theft land, if they ever expect to so
much as begin making a practical
impression.
C-If the State were to help the
poor to buy land, how high would the
price of land 60? Where would the
State get the money to pay for that
land
L.-Where does the State now get
money to support its paupers and the
poor of its cities Where does it get
millions OF dollars to eXpend upon i'm
| practical education that is supposed to
make useful citizens, and that does
not. From the same sources that the
State gets money for these purposes it
will also get it for State farms. 1t will
need no extra money. 1t will simply
need the money that is now useesslv
spent diverted into the useful State
farm channel. When Washington re-
Gently adopted farm reform it said
$32, 900 would cover the expense and
that would be less than the figure pre-
vlously spent upon the poor.
o. Mr.. Livescy praises Pingree AS
the prince of Mayors; so do we
L.-Not so fast, brother Since
single takers have seen how beautifully
Pingree's plan is putting poor people
into the notion of O,onang homes Of their
omn in the country and Me,eJy taooring
ta'm retorm, they have raised another
howl. One of such howls reads
"nei1her Livesey nor Pingrce know
what a radical method is - Pingrec
got his city to appropriate Sc 900 this
year for his plan. This is another
contradiction to single tax. The
Chicago He1uld, of June l6, gave
eight columns descriptive of Pingree
and his plan and not a word through
the whole relating to single tax.
C.-Pingree has proven that what
most people want is opportunity to
apply their labor to the source of
production.
L.--Yes, the potato patch is giving
them the temporary opportunity and
farm reform IS giving it to them per-
manently, while the man is yet to be
born to whom single tax has given
anything in the same line, either TEN
porarlly or permanently. Some hun
dred Of Detroit's poor who worked on
last years potato patches, are this
year established on bought or rented
farms of their own, making that many
more OF what single tax calls cursed
land owners. Yes, Plngree is an
elegant single taxer (O. He has, in
deed, proven that what most people
want is opportunity, etc.
C.-But Mr.. Livesey forgets to
tell that Mr., Pingree is an uncom-
promising single taxer.
L.-Not at all. | have published
Mr.. Pingree's letter to me on that sub
ject all over the country. 1t was in
the MINING JOURNAL of May 1. He is
more and more compromising single
tax, however. He has done so in both
his actions and his words. He has
said of single takers:
Their method is slow one, however, and
my plan is practical and Immediately ben
| eiCial.
If he were "uncompromisingn he
would wait with all the rest for another
fifteen years of contradiction and in
consistent propaganda. He would not
so belittle Henry George as to intro
duce a plan that would work dia-
metrlcalIy opposite results, sweep all
the leading cities of the country and
place the name of Pingree on a
pedestal upon which the eyes Of the
nation reverently gaze. Unless cause
can be shown to the contrary, | pro-
pose Mayor Hazon S. Plngree, of
Detroit, for the next President of the
United States. The country needs
fearless, practical and original men of
his type. His city has become,
through his herculean efforts, the
model city Of the land, and our coun-
try could become, under his manipula-
tion, the model country of the earth,
practically, as it now is theoretically.
"Educate the people to till the soil and
give them opportunity to do So"
THIS is Mayor Pingree's motto for the
obllteratlon Of pauperlsm and 1t is
also mine. a few years of potato
patches will give all people to see that
something permanent is needed, and
that State aid to getting the masses
back to the land permanently will be
more beneficial to them and to the
country than is the mere outing they
derive from potato patches, while still
being the denizens of city slums.
C.-1es, sir, Mr.. L. is either a
single taXer, or the breeziest "blather-
sklte" that ever put pencil to paper.
Did you ever hear the song
Thou art so near and yet so far ?"
know it is very exasperating to see
me getting thousands "access to the
land.' and otherwise practically car
rylng out the very notices that are
emblazoned on their banners, without
being one Of them. But so 1t is. If
they have stolen a sheepskin to cover
their wolf, all | am doing is to give
] Al