Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-05-19

| become as corrupt as hell under such
an influence, especially in a country
like ours, where all men are endowed
by the Almighty Dollar with a pur-
chasable right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of more dOllars-happine is
will-o'-the-wisp where natural op-
| portunities are mere subjects of barter
and speculation. Better dig money
out of the ground than try to make an
Alladin's lamp, or Bottle-Deyil, out
OF a Legislature, for the benefit of spec
ulators, by giving it the power to ex-
pand or to contract the currency at
will. Lycurgus proved iron money a
failure; and though cowry shells may
do for savages where exchange is most
ly barter, silver and gold must remain,
as they have been for ages, the money
of civilized men.
I. P. r. expresses exactly my idea
of farming when he favors small farms
well titled; but the tendency will be
exactly the opposite so long as we
mock men by compelling them to pur
chase access to land. This is why
am a single taxer. If every mans debt
and duty to the State were measured
by the rental value of the land he held,
and none were taxed and fined for be-
ing Industrious and thrifty, the study
of every farmer-and every other man
would be how to do with less and
less land by improving it more and
more. The whole tendency under the
double tax is, not only to draw, but to
drive men to get more and more land.
If have but little land | must work it
myself; and though / have it all paid
for, and, indeed, have money in bank,
the price of everything | sell must be
lessened, and the price of everything I
buy must be increased, to meet and
cover the enormous rents paid in the
towns and cities through which my
produce is marketed, and through
which my purchases come. En-
quire why the legislature failed to
lower the charges at the Kansas City
stock yards last year, or why, in Him
ois, we have never been able to pass
bill to that effect at Chicago. But if l
have much land l need not work it at
all; for the law gives me the special
privilege of putting into my own pOck-
ct, as landlord, nearly all the value
that attaches to land by reason of the
needs and growth of community, as
well as by the progress in the arts and
sciences. And as men cannot live
without the use of land, necessity,
which is sterner than lash, cOmpels
them to bid against one another for the
use of my land; and l can, through
this system of Industrial slavery, make
more out the tillers than [ could do if
/ owned them as slaves, while l can
live myself like Solomon's lilies.
l wish both Mr.. Polk and I. p. R.
would take interest enough in this
question to read Progress and Poverty.
l like the improved machinery of
to-day. l shall cradle my wheat this
year with splendid blade bought at
Whitworth & Nails, in Ironton; but,
if.there were no stumps in it | would
use a good self-binder. Where the
seasons are uncertain you can get in
between the drenches and drOuths bet
ter with machinery. OF course it
ought to be taken care of, but when
men are fined for improving land they
will never build enough. Neither are
rented farms improved as they should
be; the tenant cannot, and the land
lord will not do so.
Had l Mr.. Polk's post Office address
l would mail him a paper similar to
the one | mail with this to my old
friend Il. p. Il. VIM. CAMM.
Murrayville, Ills, May 8, 1898.