The herald., 1896-06-29
LANDLESS and MONEYLESS
BY JAMES q. CLARK

tnaC nave the courage ana harness 10
admit to it's columns arguments on the
other side, 1 wish to trespass briefly
upon your space. I object to single
metallic standard-especially one based
upon so rare material as gold-because
the inevitable tendency is contraction,
not only of money but of lands and
homes by putting these all into the hands
and control of the few while the many
are legally robbed.
1t is a matter of public record that
within three years after the single gold
standard was adopted in England-be-
tween 1876 and 1S19-four- r-fifths of the
English farmers were swindled out of
lands and homes by the usurers.
How is it in this country today? The
poor cannot buy lands, even in Califor-
MIA, except on terms that sooner or later
permit the original owner, so called, to
take them back again with all the i'm
provements made and principal and IN
terest paid by the purchaser. And 1t Is
all done under what Mr.. James Semple
calls 1.-The sacred (?) law Of contract"
when, if accomplished outside OF that
law, it would subject the offender to
public scorn, if not suit of tar and
feathers and free transportation on
rail to foreign parts.
The law of contract means, particu-
the enriching of the usurer at the ex-
pense of the moneyless and landless,
and the latter, when evicted, are ordered
to get "off the grass" and to move on
or be arrested and put in the chain gang.
Next in the line of pathos to the crush
ing and killing of 5000 people, while they
were pressing forward after free lunch
at the coronation of the new Russian
czar, is the crush in front of United
States land offices whenever new par
eel of public land is offered up for entry
under the homestead act, where men
and women will stand in line forty
eight hours without food or sleep in or
der to secure a piece of land for the
soles of their feet while countless mil
lions of acres Of the richest soil on the
globe are being held in idleness by rich
robbers and rascals like Baldwin, Mills,
Lux and others-many of them foreign
mobiles and lords-who have no more
moral right to corner them than they
have to corner sunshine and air at the
expense of the public.
A few days since L called on a party
in your city who Is trying to interest
the homeless and landless in some gov
ernment lands on the north side of the
Sierra Madre mountain range in San
Bernardino county, this state-lands
that sooner or later will be sought by
thousands of people who are now in
blissful ignorance of their existence
The party, who has maps and all the
necessary data touching these govern
ment lands, handed me letter from an
intelligent but landless man in River
side, asking information for himself
land million others who want to find
standing room on Gods soil'
These were the words of only one man,
but that one man represents millions
of others" who have been patiently petit
tioning for years for different order of
things. They will begin soon to demand
new deal. When they press that de-
mand and the demand goes unheeded,
it is possible something may drop.
predict that the first thing to drop will
be the single gold standard idea which
is already driving the people into ruin
and desperation. When Whitney said
few days since that the ''gold standard
has been IN operation in this country
ever since 1873" he forgot to say that
since then the effect had been greatly
modified by special law compelling the
coming of $2,000,000 in silver per month
and that this law was bulldozed and
coaxed out of existence on the pretext
that when repealed it should be at once
followed by legislation favorable to sill
vera promise made, like every other
wall street promise, to be broken.
Mr. Whitney forgot about that, Just
as our Republican fools and knaves for
got at st. Louis recently how in 1883 the
AeSP pldllOrIn denounced
tne democrats for denouncing silver"
and are now indorsing the policy openly
and boldly. Not long since, L saw an
editorial in some daily paper stating
that there is plenty of money to be had
at the banks if people only have some
tning IN the way of values to buy money
W1th-that the banks are fairly con.
gested with money that they are glad
to loan on good security at 8 per cent.
The editor who made that astounding
statement was either fool or laboring
under the impression that his non-ex-
pert readers Were-very likely the lat
ter.
He gave his case completely awav and
admitted precisely what the mass of
people are complaining of.
lt is now in order for him and his en-
ployers to explain by what process the
money has all gone to the banks while
the people have nothing with which to
buy it.
The answer is: "Contractions involved
IN the single gold standard, through
which money has doubled it's value at
the expense of everything which money
represents" l lately heard the presi-
dent of one of the best paying railroad
corporations and another man of the
same class discussing the causes of the
financial depression, and the latter
summed up the situation and at the
oeiiIo tiHic, do Hc supposed, solved 1T, by
saying:
THE fact is, the 1aboring man must
learn economy and cease trying to imi-
tate millionaires."
The other side of the question had not
occurred to this adviser of ECONOMY"
He had not conceived of the idea that
labor creates millionaires, and that la
boring men If not fools-are beginning
to not only advise but to demand that
economy shall begin at the other end
of the line where few rich manufactur-
ers and pawnbrokers are living in ele-
gance and uneXampled extravagance
and supporting private parks and yachts
and building and endowing colleges and
universities-yes, and in buying and run
| ming the government and supreme court
on the product of labor. But this sort of
economy Is just what the most humane
and intelligent of all classes are think
ing about, and this is just what is in the
air and gathering for final elimination
| and explosion.
! And when the explosion comes there
| will be an extensive reversing and
| swapping" of situations.
~, noe