People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1895-11-01

road bonds in England long before
the civil war. The circular gave
glowing descriptions of the country,
its rapid development and future
p 'ssibilities. 1t was in the year 1850
that he bought his first slice OF
American land. He was then scarce
ly thirty years old. His first pur-
chase was modest one-he bought
government land for $1.25 an acre,
Now he gns from $4,000 to 100,-
600. acres in Illinois. He is the pos
SCISSOR Of whole counties. In Logan
county his holdings are nearly So
900 acres. Large tracts were OBJ
tanned at fifty cents to one dollar all
acre through the use of soldiers land
warrants. He owns more than a
whole county IN Kansas, large por
tons Of counties in Nebraska, slices
of Missouri counties and sections in
other states.
"The present value of this proper
ty is great, but its value in the i'm
mediate future is beyond computa-
ton. He has not acquired this
immense acreage for speculative pur-
poses, but to hold and to rent. He
is king, foreign king, the arbiter
of the fate of hundreds and hundreds
of families. And still he has not
enough-he wants to acquire more,
and that is the chief reason he has
taken out naturalization papers. He
has ruled his tenantry with rod of
iron; he has founded land system
so enacting that it is paralleled only
in Ireland, and he has awed his ten.
ants that few could be induced to
tell the story of their wrongs, justly
fearing that it would involve them
in ruin. Distracted and rack-rented
Ireland could not give him the 49,,
100000 or 100000 worth of prop
erty which Amerie has given him;
there was nothing in England to
yield him the princely revenue he
draws from the United States.
"Here he gets more tractable lot
of tenantry to succeed the Irish.
They were mostly stolid, plodding,
and with but little ambition above
the conditions Of vasalage imposed
upon them. Their appathy gave
him greater boldness. Drains, ditch
es, wells and other improvements
made by the tenants labor, which
are immovoble and add to the value
of the property, were made the basis
of an advance in rents. He or his
agents never took the risk of .buhd-
ing or keeping in repair houses,
fences, barns, cribs and so on. The
only thing rented was the bare
ground, and an incoming tenant was
forced to pay the outgoing one for
all the necessary fixtures. What
wonder, then, that all over the Soul
ly estates the buildings were little
better than the mud cabins of Ire
land or the old time shanties of Har-
lem2
"Only once in three Or four years
would he leave his home in England
to visit his estates here, and his stay
was brief. He had no interest in
America beyond the land which he
bought for tribute, and for tribute
only. He very early recognized the
fact that all taxes levied for public
improvements, although they might
increase the value OF his holdings,
would be a burden to him. In this
emergency he devised his ironclad
lease, the principal condition of
which is, that the lessee Or tenant
shall pay all taxes assessed and lev
led against the property. Naturally
10 his section of the country roads
are rare and schoolhouses do not
flourish. His oppressive contract
served two-fold purpose for him.
Ii its legality was open to doubt, it
would at least restrain the ignorant
tenantry of his two townships from
voting tax upon themselves. If, on
the other han /, its legality could be
established, the more taxes and. i'm