The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1912-06-29
SMALL LAND HOLDINGS

Z It shall come to pass that man
shall nourish a young COW and two
sheep; and it sail come to pass, for
the abundance of milk they shall
give he shall eat butter; for butter
and honey shall everyone eat that Is
left in the land.-Isaiah.
Z It is g. common idea that the rich
fed the poor; but the peculiar sig
nificance of this passage lies in the
fact that when the king of Assyria
carried away into captivity all the
rich capitalists and landlords, and
left in the land only those who were
so poor as not to be worth carrying
off, there was no poverty left in the
land! All land 1aws-legahzed
monopoly-vanishing, the smallest
man." even the poorest of the poor,
could live on the best that heaven
sends-no starvation. no adultera-
ton, no margarine, but butter and
honey shall everyone eat that IS
left in the land'-when landlord
ism is abolished.
We are told that the king Of Assy-
ria carried into captivity the people
of Israel because of the sins they
committed in their inherited land,
but I have never yet heard 1t told
what the sin really was. But Isaiah
tells us. and with all his might. too,
in too many fine passages for quo
tation to be attempted here; to the
effect that the leaders were greedy
dogs who could never have enough;
monopolizing land and wealth for
the qualification of their own love
Of luxury and glory and thus keep
ing the mass of the people from
proper use of the land-the only
source of real strength and charact-
er of the nation-and thus inevitably
bringing about their own downfall.
The land had "become briars and
thorns.' The whole is vivid pic
ture of the sins which England to-
day is committing on more gigantic
scale.
The giant Antaeus kept or lost his
strength as his feet rested on or
We're lifted off the earth; and a ma
ton can only be strong in so far as
its sons take their strengthen JUS
tice and freedom; not in serfdom-
from the soil. But, when nation
clings thus closely to the bosom Of
the Mother of all the living, no adj
versity can shake it, no power over
throw. It is in small holdings that we
must look for the root Of prosperity
and salvation Of the nation-this Is
the message of Isaiah. And on all
hills that shall be digged with the
mattock, there shall not come thither
the fear of briars and thorns; but it
shall be for the sendig forth Of oxen.
and for the treading Of lesser cattle. r"
But the lesson taught by Isaiah is
also taught by the greater civiliza-
lions. It was the small holdings Of
Assyria and Babylonia that gave
their kings the power to subdue Is
rael. All the rich alluvial tracts Of
the lower Tigris and Euphrates were
closely intersected with irrigation
canals, and covered with orchards
and gardens: and =: cattle of all
kinds were raised, and priced as
stock, which was fed on grass or
grain or oilcake."-(Prof. FLINDERS
Petrie)-more than 5000 B. c.
Egypt. however, affords the most
striking example of nation of small
holders. There everything con-
nected with intensive culture was re-
garded as sacred, so that the Hyksos
or usurping shepherd kings, who at
tempted to replace intensive culture
by pasturage, were halted and driven
out. But the great kings of the early
dynasties, who were deemed dem1-
gods by their people, were more than
the patrons, they were priests Of the
sacred and primal occupations Of
man-agriculture. One Of the great
~ ic 6aniNfod
with mattock the bank of an ir-
rigation canal. Here Is symbolism
of the deepest significance-the d.
vine king as priest of agriculture,
teaching by example the sacredness
of the occupation; and the irrigation
canal and mattock typical of the in
tensest cultivation.
On this solid basis of intensive cul-
tivation of the soil. rested the Won
derful civilization of ancient Egypt
ent of the civilizations Of Greece and
western civilizations of the present
day. And when Rome had degener-
ated from a nation of small holders
into an empire consisting Of vast
standing army few landlords hold
and numerous rabble of. unem-
ployed citizens, Egypt was not only
feeding her own population-the
densest that ever existed-but also
the idle population of Rome, and ex-
porting foodstuffs to many other
countries besides.
When Rome was a smallholder's
community she had no unemployed,
and no need Of imported corn. Meth
er had she need Of a standing army,
for every citizen was a soldier, and
took the greatest, even a religious
pride, in keeping himself in the high
est training, to be prepared, when
necessity arose, to defend to the
death the country in which he had a
vital stake
1t was the smallholder, Cincinna-
tus, leaving his plough and team of
oxen, and heading his fellow small
holders, who drove back an invad-
ing army Of Germans or kindred
SCOOP THE c,