The record-union., 1898-10-19

sun, just as it goes to-day, until at last
the vapors and the gases that make
water got together, and as it whirled
it was converted into a globe of boiling
water, instead of fiery, gaseous yapor.
Then came the combination of other
gases that made the land, and out of
that little mass of land came, along the
shines Of the shoreless seas, little crea-
lures, smaller in size than the animal
culae that could have it's universe in a
drop of water that could tremble from
the end OF my finger. Sightless, with
out hearing, without sense, it grew and
developed until, at last, millions of
years passing, that little atom became
the giant birds that flew over the land
and made their footprints in the solid
stone. The same power created and
developed the huge animals that roam
ed at will through the tropic forests;
and at last, after ages and ages had
passed, came the simian-the little
monkey-and he grew, and grew. and
grew, and developed, until he
became the savage with his
club and with his skin about his
body, fighting the wild beast and living
upon the fruits of the earth. AT last,
by slow development, came the then
modern man of Nineveh and Nippon,
citizen Of those magnificent cities that
lay in that great delta between the
T1gris and the Euphrates in Asia Minor,
or whose splendOrs we can form but
little conception; and from there to the
literature and poetry, and science, and
sculpture OF Greece and Rome; from
there overspreading Europe-and at
last we come to have the splendid mod
ern mailman, the master of the light
ming; man, the hero of the steam; man,
whose telescope pierces the Nery heav-
ems above our heads, and weighs the
stars and tells the courses in which
they travel, and when they were born,
and when they shall die!
But the Democrats have changed all
that. Naughter) They began with
Jefferson and they end with Mcguire.
Great laughter.)
A CRAZY QUILT.
I shall not detain you with a discus
sion Of this Populist platform, upon
which Mr.. Mcguire stands, because it
has been quite sufficiently developed
by the gentleman who has preceded
me; and 1 can only say that it contains
an avalanche Of human stupidity, a
crazy-quilt QaughteT of fantastic and
preposterous notions, no one Of which
could be carried into effect without
some injury to every real interest Of the
State.
Just imagine for a moment that we
had such condition of things as Mr..
Mcguire thinks should exist. No man
owns a foot of land. If he is in pos
session of it, it is taxed-and taxed at
what? Taxed at the annual rental
value of the land, so that a man can
not afford to hold it. It is just ex-
actly as though you had a bond that
carried 3 per cent. interest, and the
tax on the bond was equal to the in
terest on the bond, and you get moth
ing for your money, and it becomes an
absolutely dead investment-and that
is the principle of the single tax. Now,
why do they do it?
Because they say that no man has
any title to land whatever. If he
owns a piece of land, and it increases
in value, the increase in value belongs
to the people and not to him. If he
has a margin of probationary that
which a man realizes from agricultural
pursuits, over the cost Of planting and
the culture Of the crop; and if 1t costs
him to live and to sow his crop, five
hundred dollars, and the crop is worth
a thousand dollars when it is reaped,
that does not belong to him. He is en-
titled to have what he ate; he is en-
titled to what 1t cost to put it in: but
the profit on it belongs to the whole
cd