The herald., 1895-04-07

leadership? Not the labor agitator nor
the walking delegate, but the man out of
employment. Protean in shape, the
man out of employment is here a tramp,
there a hero; here spiritless there proud !;
here revengeful, there patient; here
beggar or a thief. there a noble martyr,
suffering and sacrificing in silence.
'The man cut OF employment is the
menace of our civilization. Today the
army of the unemployed turks in the
rear; tomorrow it may be in front, bar
ring the way. and more terrible than an
army with banners. Once mustered in
to this army, the man out of employment
never musters out unless he furnishes
substitute from the army of workingmen
and every day there are new recruits.
why are men unemrloyed? Yesterday
society answered: Because they wish to
be. Today society answers: We do not
know. What will you do with the un
employed? Yesterday society answered:
'Wenio not care. 'Sroday society echoes:
'Whas will we do2' And yet men hold
millions of acres OF this earth unused aud
without recompense to society, and So
clety confirms them in the practice. Yes
terday we shut the man off from the
earth, and then Knocked him for being out
of mployment-today we still shut him
from the earth, but we do not mock him
we fear him. Tomorrow we will say to
L y
us each year for the privilege you hold
1t is our right. And then the owner
will call for workers for his land, and the
bees of industry will swarm on all the
flowers of earth, and the gaunt, hungry
army of the unemployed will be only
specter of the past.
Ralph L. Hoyt had something to say
concerning real estate booms, especially
the boom that ragged i'll Los Angeles Jew
years ago. He INDUCED in a few rather
breezy "reminiscences of that inflated pc
riod, and among other things he said:
The real estate boom is sort OF busi-
ness freak. Did any of you ever witness
real rousing, roaring, all-powerful boom
ing real estatep Doubtless most OF you
have. If so, you have not forgotten how
1t looked ana felt. Some OF us went
through the Los Angeles boom OF six or
seven years ago. We certainly remember
how the dirt market turned itself loose.
planted corn fed. Prices of real estate
rapidly went skyward, SO to speak; Rents
were up; board was up--especially the
real estate sign board, bearing the words
For Sale Everybody seemed to be nearly
crazy in the matter of investments i'll
realty. Nor did the people stop to con-
ider the fact that sooner or later the big
bubble must inevitably burst. Real es-
tate offices were as numerous as alligators
in Florida-and abou as eager to swallow
people.
MANY moderate sized store room on
the ground floor was cut up into dozeI
or more little real estate pens, whose oc-
cupants paid enormous rents Tor them.
Such real estate agents realized that for
money-makig purposes, at least, the pen
was mightier than the sword. Many OF
the more prominent and enterprlslng
agencies threw out graphing irons in
the persons of sub-agents or runners,
whose business it was to see that no |
guilty tenderfoot escaped without first |
having bought piece of property at a |
boom price. Each of those eagle eyed
like a ship-wrecked sailor |
floating on hen coop in m d-ocean, was |
constantly and anxlously looking. for
one differently spelled from
that longed for by the sailor. Thus the
force and recklessness, while brass bands,
tin horns, flaming posters and glib
tongued auctioneers combined to drive
people into realms of temporary insanity.
People thought. or seemed to think, that
advancing prices and turning over real
estate for purely speculative purposes
meant increasing. the aggregate wealth OF
the community, but they were mistaken.
They overlooked the important fact that
all wealth is produced by labor applied
either directly or indirectly to land-and
in no other way. Ere long the bubble
broke, the boom collapsed, and every
thing based upon the boom went down
with it. And for about four years there
after many of the inhabitants of this
bursted boom town were out of job
and compelled to subsist principally on
faith, bope and climate. Now, all the
time during the life of that boom we were
simply speculating in futures; running
huge lottery scheme in which there
were very few prizes and plentyof blanks.
Real estate booms make some people
rich and Others poor but they never Gre
ate wealth, nor add to the sum of human
happiness. l blame nobody for speculat
ing in land, by straightforward, legiti-
mate methods since our laws make pro-
vision and hold out inducements for peo-
pie to do so. But such business can never
make a community wealthy and prosper
Gus. Whenever prices of land are pushed
up to point beyond where labor and
capital can afford to use the land there
must inevitably come a reaction, which
means financial disaster and business de-
preston. The single tax shows US how
to avoid unnatural conditions and insure
permanent prosperity in all departments
of industry.