The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-02-18
HERBERT b|GEL0W
l|hc0Lh's hEssl
"This Generation RasSethS
Away, Another Cometa1 but
the Earth Endureth
Forever. .
Questions Land Owners (o).
Right to Deed Property TO
Others after Death.

Vtue1S d. GeI 0o11ta1. s & -
Cincinnati, Ohio. Feb. 1s.-Herbert s. .
Street Congregational church, last Sum.
day, chose text from Lincoln's mes
sage to- Congress December ], 1867.
"One generation passeth. away an
another generation cometh, but the
earth abideth forever. It is OF the
first Importance to duly consider and
estimate this ever-enduring part
1t is plain that men have not esti-
mated this ever-enduring part. These
words of Lincoln and the words from
the book of Ecclesiastes which no
quotes, hint at truth which the great
thinkers of all ages have dinily per-
ceived, but the Importance OF which
has not been clearly seen until recent
years.
Humanity is a procession. "A few
years from now the present populations
win be extinct. But fresh millions VIII {
have followed. The faces are yers
changing. But in one respect they arc
alike. Each generation is dependent
upon the earth. If the earth shoul6@
pass away with the generation that
now inhabits it, what would become oE
the children of the future?
It is of the first Importance to duly
consider and estimate this ever-endur-
ing part, the earth. s *
Let us. imagine a beginning. The
first generation arises on the earth.
The earth Is free. All must live. All
must live on the earth. One has tho
same right as another to fish In the
streams, hunt in the forests, or till the
SOIL. In respect to the earth, all are
equal.
How is it now? The present genera
tion dies. The new one arises. This
last generation is just as dependent an
the first upon the free use Of theseartll.
The same earth is here to receive Il.
But something has happened: Human
laws have been passed. The makers oe
these laws did not duly consider and
estimate this ever-enduring part tho
earth. According to these Jaws. about
ten per cent of the deceased generattos
were the acknowledged owners.of tA1@
earth. These owners mad 8
These ills read as follow &
IN
:l1eQneeS that seertai n Few d1# tie next
genera tion: shall own the earth ana
that they shall inherit from us the
right to live upon the fees which they
are hereby empowered to collect from
all the rest.
The Dutch, when they arrived on
Manhattan Island, did not find it free.
The Indians were there before them.
With a few strings Of beads, however,
they purchased the right to live upon
the earth.
In 1925 Jacob Astor arrived. The men
who bought out the Indians sold him
farm about Fifth Avenue and Twenty
first Street. To-day that farm is worth
thirty-flve million dollars. In the next
few years, hundred thousand babies
will be born on Manhattan Island A
dozen of them will be the heirs Of this
Astor. When the hundred thousand
arrive, they will all of them be little
land animals unable to live without the
use Of land Yet they will discover
that laws passed by dead men have or
dained a few to be the owners Of this
land which is the necessity Of all, and
that all the rest are virtually born in-#
to slavery. &. *E5sE
Though the sovereign people of the
oIoIS VI A>S~ AOAA ySOASOAls S314U k1SusZ5
ry George, Ito the landed possessions
of the Astors, the puniest infant that
comes wailing into the world in the
squalidest room of the most miserable
tenement house becomes at that mo-
ment seized Of an equal right with the
millionaires. And it Is robbed IL the
right is denied
The value Of the bare earth is the
common inheritance OF each new gem !.
Grafton. Justice requires that each in-
dividual should be secure in. the pos
session of his share of it. This can be i
accomplished by requiring that each
individual shall pay to the state, and
not to- the Astors, the rent Of the
ground which he is permitted to occu-
py. Until ground rents are by this
methed made common property. the {
right of private property cannot DO
fundamental. Lincoln was right. We
must duly consider the peculiar char
acter of the earth and our relation 70 /,