Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-09-17

Su9eSu Will Ills OppOI luulIlCS, SuDJGC-
ted as he is to present unjust condi-
tions, but that the human family is
ever hungry for free home upon the
soil is proved by the scenes enacted
at the opening of every Indian reser-
walton to white settlement. Indeed,
scarcely an incident of late years has
so tragically shown the deprivation of
man, as the opening of the Oklahoma
and the Cherokee strip, when thous-
ands stood in line and at the crack of
a pistol rushed forward hoping to OBJ
tain that which it was clearly the in
tention of Providence to freely pro-
vide for all.
And yet in spite of the plain lessons
of past and present times men are so
blinded to their own interests and
that of those committed to their care
that they fail to note, or even to know
that they are deprived of a natural
and God-given right.
Not long since, in the city just re-
ferred to, steady and Industrious
workingman who had succeeded by
the most unremtting toll in bringing
up family to that time when the
older children we're anxiously and
vainly seeking an opportunity to be-
gin for themselves the work of life,
said to me: "Rights! why l already
have all the rights want; what other
right should | have which | do not
now possess?" Poor man, he had been
so closely employed, his mind SO heavi-
ly taxed by the necessities of his po-
sition that he did not know that he
was deprived of that most important
and most inalienable right of man:
the right to the soil. He did not stop
to think that though he himself might
not wish to apply his labor to land, if
the unemployed laborers in his own
line we're able to do this that the GER
tain and absolutely inevitable result
would be the raising of the rate OF
wages received by himself, and that
free access to land benefits not only
the laborer on the land but the
city mechanic as well.
For if only the unemployed are in
this way disposed of and made into
wealth producers and wealth consu.
mers business of every legitimate kline
would at once mount to the sky line.
Expenditure and demand are thus
increased and prices legitimately rise.
For the moment, too, he had forgot
ten that the unnatural and dependent
position which he occupied as labor
er for hire was also a most hazardous
and precarious one. If at any time
he had failed to be able to work, his
family would necessarily suffer, and
if this condition had become perma.
nent his carefully reared and intelli-
gent children would have been an i'm.
possibility. He did not stop to think
that the reason of the comparative
freedom and prosperity of the people
of these states in the past has been
the fact that land has been measur.
ably free; and now that his children
are vainly looking for an opening in
life this man did not know that the
reason why they they could not find a
place in the world was simply because
land is being gathered into fewer and
sill fawar hands Iayinn navar
thought on this subject he denied the
possibility of such cause and such an
effect. His boys did not want land;
why then should the question of land
trouble them? And yet he had some
educational advantages; he went reg
ularly to church and probablybelieved
all the preacher told him about affairs
"way down in Judee'-to the exclu-
sion of much of interest vastly nearer
home
The United States homestead law
has in the past provided many fami-
lies with substantially the same con-
ditions now prevailing upon the In
uldH iCSGl NNlOu iNlNllNu w. IOl a
possible seven years people have been
able to occupy free homes upon the
soil: they were not taxed and the home
thus gained could not be taken for
debt. The effect of this law has been
good, and good too, entirely unconnec-
ed with evil. Why not, then, perpet-
uate it and enlarge its scope? If re-
suits are good why contine them to
seven years of occupancy and use?
Why not extend the time from seven
years to that of the life of the in
dividual benefited? And by another
change in the laws why not give every
family an opportunity to avail itself
of free home? Why not protect
mans natural right to the soil by ex-
empting from all taxation home of
moderate valuation to every family
and prohibit its sale for debt? 1t can
be done, this great and most righteous