Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-10-25
Sets Up a Working Mode1'
Mr.. Knapp Replies MIR. Osborn's Questions Anent
the Single Tax.

says Mr.. Fowldes. 49, 900 men walk
the streets of London unemployed"
announced the press dispatches a few
weeks ago. Note again,-the English
people want to give the single tax a
foothold, but the house of lords says
nay.
The lords fear that their estates may
be turned into profitable farms, where
on these $4,000 men may be able to
live comfortably. There are five es-
tates in England which comprise 1885,
eco acres together. These are used as
private parks and deer runs, and the
owners, all members of the house OF
lords pay practically no taxes, as they
are assessed at a valuation made in
the time of William the Conqueror
To say nothing of the numerous small,
Ter estates, we see here $4,000 acres
of land held for the pleasure of few
lords while thousands of children are
annually born in the Sums of London
who will never be able to call their
lish soil. $4,000 men walk London's
streets unemployed and their labor
wastes. Can any but land monopo-
list sum up courage enough in the face
of these facts, to say that the scarcity
of bread is natural and not artificial:
and that the scarcity of opportunity IS
natural and not artificial? Lord Clan
ricard, who is member of the house
of lords and who looms up before the
Irish people as living curse. recentl@
said that England and ireland contain
ed 10,000000 people more than the
country could support The truth is
that if the monstrouS land monopoly
were done away with, England and Ire
land could support easily. twice that
many more in addition to the present
population. Henry George spoke truly
when he said, At is not the Almighty,
bat we who are. responsible for the
vice and misery thar tester amid our
civilization The Creator showers up
on us his gifts-morc than enough 70"
all. But like swine scrambling for fool
we tread them in the mire-tread them
| in the mire. while we tear and reni
each other"
We see that when the land values
tax was adopted in New Zealand. as
! Mr.. Fowldes says, at so stimulated
building that employers began paying
court had fixed upon in order to get
men to work for them" Henry George
once said, "the United States neei
! fear no foreign enemy, until the blight
Of great estates has brought failure to
our crop of men," Methinks that we
will not have to wait very long TO find
out that in this. as in all else that he
said, he was right See the great es
tates in this country which are con
| tinually growing. A lumber king oh
tains by various and sundry methods
an estate greater than the combined
area of several states, and handful
! of persons own the land wherein are
built great cities. whilst millions OF
others can have no claim upon a
square foot of the land of their birth
and children yet unborn are robbed b.
the parasites who came before, and got
in on the ground floor Do we wonder
at the growth of socialism? What have
these parasites who own our land and
who own you and |, body and soul
ever done to give the land its value
Who are they. that you and | must pay
them for the privilege of living? Wha,
warrant have they, which shows thai
our Creator gave them the right t.
charge us almost all that our labor viii
produce for the privilege of using the
earth,-God's gift to all men-for the
satisfaction of our wants Do not oul
great estates correspond to those o
Great Britain? The lords of England
were granted their lands by kings Blu
, how came our great estates into be
r ing? Was it not largely through
J fraud? That ten millions of people il
the United States are Condemned I,
! poverty, and millions more to the fea
Of poverty, is the greatest crime in his
. tory. And it exists only because w
) support laws which deny the poin
like hypocrites to a constitution which
} says that all men are free and equal.
: OF the great storehouse of natur
: we make private property,-co fields
. mineral deposits, timber lands, ric1
plains and richer valleys. We give II