Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-08
LAND HUNGER

| IN HE unemployed in Britain are
| elamoring for land, and they have
II marched on the royr' preserves
with demand that some of the acres
now reserved for glass houses and or
chids be restored to the open sunshine
| and rain and used for the cultivation
of 'murphies" and cabbages. Imagine
| the feelings of King Edward, who, ac-
| cording to the most reliable and be-
lievable gossip, was thoroughly dis
| gusted with his job when it was forced
upon him. The good humored little fat
man, the most unkinglike person in
Europe, was intensely bored when he
found that he would not be allowed tc
surrender the throne with its vast
amount of folderol and its considerable
responsibility. to his son. But George,
the erstwhile gallant MILDLY and sailor
prince, shows no. inclination for 1.-THE
king business" and is thanking his
stars that his papa's royal gardens
and not his are the scene of the en-
campment and demonstration of the
protesting unemployed.
English-speaking civilization on both
sides of the Atlantic seems to be in a
pretty pickle. The two richest coun-
tries in the world, the two countries
that could literally buy, for spot cash.
all the other countries on earth if
they were put up for sale in one NAM
moth job lot, cannot take care of the
plain people of their own population.
The appeal to Caesar is generally re-
garded as a last resort. If Caesar is
unresponsive the multitude will believe
that it is at liberty to remedy its own
grievances in it's own way. The econ
profess to be puzzled by the situation.
1t is not puzzling when it is analysed,
for analysis discloses the fact that
neither nation is su ,ering from evapo-
ration Of wealth or resources, but that
both are suffering from boarding, in the
shape of mammoth bank accounts, be-
wilderingly big private fortunes which
are concentrated in small compass,
huge bank reserves and a system of
artificial increment which makes money
earn money at such a dizzy rate of
speed, when one begins to calculate up
in the millions and billions, that for
spendthrift Millionaire to "go broke
unless he decided away his entire for
tune would be as impossible as it would
be to bankrupt the seashore of its
drifted sand by removing it in barrow
loads
IA do
sooner or later, by which famine shall
be impossible among the masses in
fat years of prosperity. Henry George.
who was a shrewd and far-seeing rea-
soner, argued that the progress of pow
erty would scatter the city swarms
and drive men back to the land, which
would be put within their reach by
governmental intervention. In Eng
land one of Georges followers suggest
ed that three acres would be enough
for a family if a COW were kept; hence
the immortal expression, three acres
and a cow" To make an arbitrary
division of wealth is a suggestion that
is alluring to fanaticism but that is
repellant to good judgment and sound
sense. 1t proposes an impossibility.
But to restore the people TO the land
is the task that looms, gigantic and UNI
avoidable. before the governments of
the English-speaking countries.
In France an undertaking of this
kind is unnecessary, because there the
people own the land This accounts for
the unfailing prosperity in France and
for the cheerful contentment of her
peasant population. Paris, with its
riots, excitements and revolutions, its
gayeties and ghastlinesses, must not be
mistaken for France. II Paris were the
nation it's days would be numbered.
But there is not the faintest sugges-
tion of la vie Parisienne about Jacques
Bonhomme of the provinces. sabotted
and songful, always the monarch of
his own domain, THE king of Yvetot,'
as Beranger, the French Burns calls
him, little known to fame" but happy
as the day is long. Great and glorious
is the English-speaking civilization. Its
argosies ride over all seas. Its armed
men march through all lands. Its mil
lionaires and magnates mock the mem
DRY of Croesus; and no day passes
without yielding to some one golden
fleece, shorn from financial lamb that
has gamboled with joyous bleat into
Lombard street or Wall street. Kings
of commerce, kings of finance. kings
of business there are a plenty. but
where are its kings of Yvetot? "And
a bold peasantry, its country's pride,
when once destroyed, can NEVER be
supplied"