The record-union., 1897-06-03
THE LIVING TRUTH
Comment Upon Mr.. Mills Article on
Beet Sugar.
Held to be the Exact Views of the
Advanced Thinkers of
the Day.
(From the Stockton Mail.l

Even the most bitter enemy of ". h
Mills will admit that he is man or
ability-and ability of no common or
der. He is a student, a thinker, and he
is skilled in debate. By temperament
conservative, his natural bent has
been strongly emphasized by the en-
yironment of years. Mr.. Mills believes
steadfastly in the rights of capital. He,
perhaps, allows those rights to stand
in a measure between his vision and
other rights which many wise and good
men esteem higher and more sacred.
We premise this much because it IS
Well to bear it in mind While reading
the able argument of Mr.. Mills, which
is printed in other columns of this pa
per. The article is alike remarkable
for its thorough information and for
the vigor and force of argument.
Mr.. Mills is opposed to the plan
of colonizing unemployed men on
lands owned by other men, to whom
the colonists would of necessity have
to pay tribute. In other words, Mf.
Mills thinks that no man ought to be
compelled to pay another man for the
natural privilege of earning living
by hard work. 1t is the proposal OF
Claus Spreckels to colonize his sugar
| beet lands with men out of work that
furnishes the peg upon which Mr. Mills
hangs his argument, but the applica-
ton is broader than any single case.
Mr. Mills declare> that he looks upon
this plan of colonization as fraught
with great danger to society. He de-
clares it to be the incipiency of a move
1 i hn n
| dependence of labor We think Mr..
Mills is absolutely correct in his conclu-
/ sion.
| We confess that it gives US great
pleasure to read this article in question.
| The little cheap writers, wise with the
wisdom of a cross roads school, full or
the fruits of an immense experience
gained by the prayerful and long con-
temptation of the state of the weather
and kindred topics of backwoods de-
bate, are wont to set up a, bray OF an
archist.'' Socialist communist"
whenever one of their intellectual bet
ters attempts, in all kindness, to unload
something of the burdens under which
these pack-asses of ignorance toilsomely
sweat 1t will afford us no small amuse-
| ment to see the absurd aStoniShment
with which they will prick up their tall
ears when they find a man so conserva-
| tive, so well-informed, so friendly to
capital as Mr.. Mills unquestionably is,
laying down as indisputable maxims the
very contentious at which these ridicu-
lous little fellows have SHE'D whenever
they were met, as though they were the
teachings of the great Bugaboo of So
/
''The earth is the source of all wealth.
It's monopolization is the source of
nearly all the woe that affiicts the
common life. For many years I have
been in a position affording extensive
observation of the operation of the
land system of this and other coun-
tries. l have come in personal contact
with thousands of cultivators of the
| soil. and have been familiarized with
their hardships.
|
Even the security of great wealth
rests upon the prosperity of the COM
mon life. Great wealth may supervene
upon general prosperity, but it is un-
stable and ephemerous when it has a
foundation of poverty, discomfort and
a constant tendency toward the pau
perization Of the common life. Colos-
sal fortunes as an incident of universal
| prosperity and as the natural evolu-
tionary result of that prosperity are
not endangered by social disorder, by
! political revolution, or the menace OF
popular discomfort; but vast wealth
possessed by the few on the one hand
in nation where adversely and hard
ship is the fate of the common life
cannot long endure, because it is
wanting in every element which gives
repose to any system.
|
1.-The land system of this country, as
of other countries, is hopelessly and
| inhumanly wrong, and this wrong viii
not find ultimate remedy through any
plan which has for it's underlying mo-
| tive the augmentation of the fortunes
of millionaires by merely proposing
temporary relief for the sufferings OF
the poor. If honest toll was the only
title to the earth = the sole source o1
| wealth-then honest toll would have
| within it's own control the creation OF
its own fortunes, the alleviation of its
own misery. Under that condition ev'
cry attribute of slavery would disap-
| pear. Industry alone would hold the
key to fortune and mendicancy could
exist only when self-imposed.
These are the exact views of the ad
vanced thinkers of the day. They are
| the living truth. A man can escape
from these conclusions in two ways
He may be unable to think straight
or he may be unable to think at all
| Instances are not wanting of men who
| brood over a nestful of facts and in.
| cubate nothing but words. But to hin
whom nature has gifted with that sure
sight which looks from premise tt
conclusion, undimmed by obstacles
| the truth, the absolute truth Of these
remarkable statements of a most con.
seryative writer and thinker is as clear
as sunlight
We congratulate that numerically
small but intellectually powerful body
of economic thinkers who have, with.
out hope of other reward than the
abuse of coarse men. and the hopeless
misunderstanding of little minds, la
bored in season and out Of season fol
the advancement of human rights, the
widening of human opportunities and
| the. upbuilding of society upon broad
| CT dtfA SAFER lOuiudlioiio SAdh IN "
support it, upon the accession to theil
ranks of William H. Mills.
We earnestly urge every ready OF
| the Mali to carefully digest the able
| article which has called forth thi:
| comment. 1t is, indeed, as the voice o.
one crying in the wilderness, Make
straight the path of the Lord!"
| ADJUSTMENTS.