The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1911-12-14

tful''l fN'nlUH llpTHll=H
sec by the Chicago papers that III
tho city Of Chicago thcro are 5000
fhm!'i"s on the list NJ receiving heir
IRON the county; that all the munlcl
psi lodging houses are fun 10 .he
''nt The iHllB are oycrcrowdod too
You know that those who have M
other place to 20. go TO Jail. Bad hs
" IN, II lB better than TO freeze and
starye on the street, 80, In order TO be
run In great many try TO break
INTO bake shops or stores. The num-
bor Of unemployed are said To be
90 per cent greater this year that at
the same time last year, and. of
course, tho scarcity OF work Ia the
cause OF most Of the suffering from
cold and hunger All OF this In one OF
tho richest cities In the world. This
misery Is not caused by the people
being lazy and refusing to work.
Tho other day there was some co.
cayatlng work to be done. There
were twenty men needed for the fob
The fact that this work was TO be
started had not been advertised. hut
when the foreman appeared on the
place shortly before I o'clock there
were 400 men In waltIng--all clamor-
ing for n job. The foreman looked
about him In disgust. lie had Just
shoyels enough for twenty men. and
as he could think Of no better way 10
gc, the strongest and hblest men be
opened the tos' box and said:
Those OF YOU who ret the shovcls
eau have the Jobs" In the scramble
that followed several wer' hurt Some
oven had 10 be taken to the hospital.
This was typical case OF the sur
yiyal Of the strongest for those who
had starved tho longest were. Of
course. thr weakest. and lost out In
the fight for the shovcls.
Such conditions In one OF our In
dustrlal ccnters should make all those
whose hearts beat In sympathy with
their fellow men set up and think. and
try TO find n remedy for such dcplor-
able conditions In this---the richest
land In the world. There are In this
country millions upon millions Of
acres OF land which ls lying unused.
Much of this land is owned by indl-
vlduai landlords. Among those
American landlords might be mem
toned Henry Miller. who owns H..
100 900 acres OF rich and fertile land
-22.500 square milcs--eQunl Ia
round numbers to the aggregate area
II Massachuse Connecticut. New
'iampshirc and Rhode Island. Mrs.
virginia Ann King OF Greenville. Tex.
owns 80 much land In one great
ranch that II Is a drive OF nearly nifty
miles from the porch Of her ranch
house to the front gate OF her door.
yard.
In the Sacramento Valley alone arc
IL. 200 600 acres which are owned by
100 individuals. Most Of this last
mentioned Is rich farming land. capn.
BILE OF producing anything from wheat
to oranges, but great part OF II 10
held out OF use because the owners
don't care to work Il, and II 10 con-
slantly advancing In value. A lot Of
Il IL leased TO gun clubs. and come IL
used for grazing stock In winscr.
Now, then, the question suggests
itself: Is there no way thAt those un-
employed but willing hands can BE-
put to work on those lands and make
q living for themselves. For my part.
see no way that this can be done
successfully SO long as We have prl-
vatc ownership OF the land and other
means OF production. The single
takers point ia. remedy. They say.
tax the land value In place Of the I'm
provcments. This they claim would
make the big land owners either work
the land themselves or else give II up
to someone else,
This remedy does not appeal very
strongly TO me. At any rate. Il would
be very little help for those who have
only their empty hands to start with.
They would still be dependent upon
some master to employ them. II q
man wants to be reasonably sure to
make good on farm he should have
at least $1,000 to start with. even II
the land was free. II We should take
a trip through tho klamath basin or
any other farming community. and IN.
vestigate we should and that the av-
orage equipment on the farms will
even exceed that figure. II 10 we'll
known fact that the working class
nowadays Is only few weeks ahead
of starvation at the best, 90 It In sate
to say that very few workers could