The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1897-01-29

from all fines ana restrictions, we
shall be encouraging the production of
wealth and discouraging the h"lding
of idle land. Thereby making it much
easier for men to get homes, and final
ly abolishing our accursed system of
tenants at will.
The cattle, horses and hogs; the
breaking up of the land; the tilling and
draining and planting of trees; the
building of dwellings,, s,ore buildings,
manufactures and the thousand other
improvements that have turned the
barren pralries into Il blooming para
dise-these forms of wealth are the
ple who live III and have made Kansas
what it is.
Why fne them 10y taxation for doing
those things we all want .lem to do?
Nearly one-halt Of our public reve-
hue is thus raised by fine on indus-
try. Yet eighty per cent of our land
IS uncultivated. A large per cent Of
this uncultivated land is owned by
people who live in large cities to the
east of us, or III Europe.
How many dollars tax do they pay
on personal property OF improvements?
Not penny. Yet they receive the
benefit of increased land values caused
by increase of population.
BY exempting Improvements on land
and other products OF labor from tax
alton, we would be Tightening the bur
dens of our own citizens, and asking
only Of the people who live outside of
the state to pay their just share of
public revenue, according to the value
of the land they owned. Is there any
injustice in that? 1t would not force
man to pay any more for using land.
than if he held it in idleness. In rats
ing public revenue in this simple but
just manner, we would save our own
people who produce ealth i'll The state
| some 20 million dollars annually.
AS state, Ne cannot vote silver up
or down. AS Il state, We caruot raise
lower or abol-i, the tariff. And we
cannot make a people rich by giving
them cheap money any more than we
can make them prosperous by increas-
ing HE tariff taxes. One proposition
is as fallaciUus as the other. AS a
state we can O. but little in reducing
the rail- DAD freight. And even il we
could reduce the freight on corn from
20 cents to cents per buShel from
Kansas to Galves ton, Tex, the bene-
| tit would ultimately accrue to the own
ers of land. That is, land values
would rise higher than they are now,
resulting in increase of rent and men
would he compelled to give more for
the use Of land, the producer getting
as now, bMo living. The law of
| rent is as iTcontrnvertable as the law
of gravtation. Bat as state we are
sovereign in the manner OF raising our
own revenue.
A home rule local option bill on tax
alton will he presented for the con-
sideration of the legislature. We hope
it will not he ignored. We are not
asking for spol's of Office, but we ask
fT something for the men who walk
behind the plow handles and never ex-
pect office; we are asking for some
thing that will benefit every man in
the state that has labor to sell. and We
hope our request Will not be pigeon
hOled' We simply demand equal
freedom, equal justice, equal rights
for every man woman ahd child in the
state. Do we ask in vain?
Keep in view this self-evitent truth:
That all taxes are paid from wealth:
that ali weal,h is ptoducsd hy labor
alvsis, it is the users of land that ulti-
mately pay all taxes. Let the specu-
lator, pay his just share or get out of
the way for some one who will pay and
use the land, There are over $50 900
teuants-landless mali-in our state.
and SO million acres OF uncnltlvated
land.
! If you intend to do anything for the
people. make it easier for people to
get land. The only thing God ever
gave man was land and the power To
labor. Man made laws have stol en-
Gods heritage from his children.
LegiSate to restore it.
All other proposed legislation is
triflin2 compared tO it.
@s,.s.s.-...sss--.
| 1t is said that there Will be no sugar
bounty in the new tariff bill, but that
a stiff duty will be- imposed on sugar.