Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-09-30

among men. 4 -, W. ~. ,>s41s
: But 1t is hardly worth my while
to ask an American audience what
the word "home" means, because in
no place on earth does ft,or should
it mean more than it does under our
flag, and in no country has the free
home contributed more largely to the
welfare of civil institutions, or been
more inviting to foreigners than 1t
has been in America, and this Is
largely due to our generous home
stead laws. Nearly sixty years ago,
congress in it's wisdom, conceived
the idea that such law would not
only make the vast and idle wastes
west of the Mississippi add to the
public good by becoming the gran
airy of the world, but it would con-
tribute far more to the welfare Of
our country by making many of our
homeless people home owners.
= Every country finds it best an
chorage, it's greatest and surest
strength in its citizens who are free
men, and it is fundamental that the
man who owns self supporting I'M
incumbered home, is nearer free
man than any other man on earth.
Even the English law has declared
that a mans home is his castle; that
not even the king may enter it un-
hidden, as long as the homesteader
violates no law. When you enter
your homes no one but the taxgath-
erer, or the sheriff can follow you
unlimited, and they must first have
the laws sanction to do so.
The Farmers the Sheet Anchor Of
Our Liberties.
If you do not own home you are
some other mans tenant, and must
wait on the pleasure or the caprice
Of that man before you can find a
sheltering roof for your wife and
children. To that extent you are
dominated by some other man, and
are not a free man.
n Why is it that agricultural people,
farmers, are considered the world
over, and justly so considered, the
sheet anchor of the liberties of any
country, and especially so with those
of them who own their own farms?
1t is not that they are by nature bet
ter than any other man, or truer, or
more loyal to their government than
other men, but it is because they are
freer and less controlled than other
men.
Although 1 came from family of
farmers and am by breeding, birth
and instinct farmer myself, al
though all my brothers are farmers,
and I can trace my lienage back for
two hundred years through ances-
tors, every one of whom was a farm
err, and was twenty-five years old
myself when I let go the plow han
dies, / am too candid man to tell
this audience of farmers that farmers
are instinctively more loyal or more
honest and trustworthy than men Of
other vocations. The difference be-
tween you and other men lies solely
in the fact that you are tfreer, and
less dominated than other men,. and
have fewer temptations to dishones-
ty
What It Means to Own 1850 Acres
- OF Land.
If you own 100 acres of fruitful
land and keep out of debt, you can
look every man square-eyed in the
face and tell him to go to- as long
as the rain falls, the sun shines, and
you work and pay your taxes; and
the owner is the only man who can
do that. The tenant must ask some
other man for a shelter for his wife
and little ones, the wage Garner
must forget himself, and bury his
own individuality, his own freedom
from action in the interest or pleas
ure of his employer before he can
carry bread to his own table, and
the business man must cater to the
public. The farm owner can act as
he pleases, think as he pleases and
vote as he thinks best, but the fac.
tory hand must consult his employ
er, and abide either the pleasure or
the caprice Of the boss. One is a
free man, and the other is made a
very slave by the chains which needs
Of his. family have bound him tc
some other man.
Home of the Real American Freeman
Statistics will tell you that less
than four men out of every hundred
living in one Of our great cities own
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