Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-09-29
"BAYONET" POINTS.

Labor organizations, like almost all
other organizations. are very frequent
ly narrow and unjust but this 1ur-
nishes no excuse for opposing them.
| That injustice and narrowness are not
properties peculiar to them a study OF
all mankind bears evidence. The la
Dor organization grows out OF the in
stinct of self-preservation and no man
who has given their work careful con-
sideration can deny that they have In
terposed barrier to the iron pressure
of the law of rent. which says that the
wages of labor must be determined by
the average return to the laborer from
free land, or il there is no free land
worth working, by the average return
to the laborer after deducting rent. IL
| is a pity however, that the vast ener-
gies Of labor organizations and the
vast sums of money they have expend-
ed have not been devoted to secure the
removal OF the cancer, instead of for
palliatives, which are rendered largely
Intellectual by the laws OF nature.
High wages and free lands go togeth-
err; low wages and no free lands go to-
gether. The way, therefore. to get
high wages is to get free land, and the
way to get free land is by unlocking
the door to the millions upon millions
of acres of land in this country, held
out of use by spectators who have In
these vast natural opportunities the
basis of fortunes beyond even the
dreams of the lords Of England.
II 1t were not for the fact that in
Michigan majority Of the legislators
elected must vote for measure before
it becomes a law, the right to raise
necessary revenues from single tax
on land values would now be extended
to every municipality within its bor-
ders. A measure providing this only
| failed by one vote of becoming law
and had a majority OF seven out OF
| the total number of members actually
voting. This vote in Michigan Is an
| indication of the remarkably rapid
| growth of the single tax movement,
which, though only twenty years old,
has already been partially successful
in New Zealand and New South Wales,
is the leading internal issue in the
| politics of England outside of her for
| eign affairs, and has propaganda
established in all the countries of Eu-
rope, and in Japan and China.
Land values are highest where pop
ulation is thickest. They are created
by all the community, but they are APP
propriated by very small percentage
of the community. Farmers, while
holding large quantities of land, own
very little land value. A lot was sold
at the rate of $1O,OOO,OOo an acre. This
was for the land alone, as the build
ing which stood upon it was subse-
| quently torn down. How many farms
are there in Kansas which, stripped OF
house, barns, fences and other i'm
provements are worth $40 an acre?
The value of that one acre Of ground
of which that lot forms portion is
equal to that of 10000 quarter sections
of the richest unimproyed land to be
found in the West, and yet there are
farmers who imagine that tax on
land values would compel them to bear
the burden of taxation.
It Is about time to reaffirm the Dec
laration of Independence.
We call this our country, but more
than half of us have no right to a
square inch of its soil.
Even In Kansas. where there are no
large cities, the assessed values OF
town lots are considerably more than