The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-06-04
THE RIGHT TO I F
-. n.o;., ;s . Menace to Modern Civil
acknowledging Can Possibly
be Right in Law Which Is
Wrong in Morals.

when once we nave SA"O S"AG
+ior Of law. We have too much con
adonco in constitutions and man-made
Laws too much respect for the special
DriviIeees authorized by them and the
moral wrongs enshrined in them, and
too little respect for the rights of indi,
vidual men, their right relation to each
other. and for these common rights
upon the exactly equal exercise OF
which depends the prosperity and hap.
piness of a peopIe-the entire ace
the community of mankind.
The first right of man, a right which
neither the constitutions nor statutes
can rightfully ALLEVIATE, is a right to
Ice. The right to live, involves and
includes the right to possession and
use of the natural means Of LUing-
for without that possession, life is i'm
possible and there remains to man but
onepossibility, one choice, an extremity
which he least desires and chooses only
when all things else and hope too is
gone-dedth.
Subjects of the law of heredity, we
are heirs of the traits and tendencies
as we'll as of the physical characteris-
tics of a long line of ancestry. We
are not in our physical mol intellectual
powers created equal; but we are crea
ted equal as to u rights to the use of
the home which our Father has pro
vided for His children-to the source
of life, which Nature has made ready
for us in the bosom of our Mother-the
earth-and from which by a little
effort of our own, we may draw abun,
dant n-ourishment for life, growth and
all possibilities of our highest happi-
ness.
For a moment consider, earth, air,
water. Imagine a nan denied any
one of these by a human statute and
then, Knocked with the irony of another
declaration of human law, that he has
a fright to life" Imagine the world
of fishes in the great free waters of the
ocean depths uttering a Declaration
of independence" free from tyrrany of
force, declaring inalienable equal rights
for all, and then Immediately proceed
ing, by the force or the cunning of
some of the strongest, wisest or most
unscrupulous-to drive most of their
number into the shoals along shore,
until the stagnant pools have become
feted with their Crowded presence I'M
til receding tides have left many high
and dry upon the land, where, dispos
sessed of the element necessary to their
life, they ftp about in their agony of
life, or die, while aUise ca fish read to
such victims of fish law, this declara-
ton, ''Al (men) fish are created free
and equal and are endowed with
certain ~inalienable rights, among
which are life, etc, ETC."
A million citizens of this free coun-
try" are walking over 1.-The land of the
free" seeking an opportunity to draw
from the bosom of the earth the natural
provisions for their existence. Many
of them are hungry; some of them
are starving; others have have died of
their material, intellectual and moral
poverty, which is but the inevitable
consequences of their unsatief1ed need
for the use of the idle earth over which
they are tramping.
A problem is before the world which
the fates will answer if neither the
morals nor the intelligence of men will
rise to answer it. Consider these facts:
''The population of the United States
is a little less than 70, OOO, 900. The
census of 1890 shows that the land of
this country is owned by about 10 per
cent. u people. Three quarters of
that 10 per cent. own but their homes,
upon which there is a mortgage indebt-
edness of sac billion dollars. The
present crisis will bring about the fore
closure Of thousands of these mort.
cages and will still further reduce the
number of land owners of this
country.
Qu the above irrefutable fects we
discover THAT very much more than
three quarters of the population of
the United States, do not own their
homes, o any least bit of 1.-The land
of their country" and have been Coy
human laws) alienated from their right
to live. They may live and do naiserG-
bly, live, some of them, by purchasing
the privilege of using the only means
Of HUimg from some other person who
(as our true and famous declaration
statee) r exactly with them equal
(and no more entitled to a right and
opportunity to live.