The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-05-14
PAGE TWO

literature that will deal with the con-
ditions and the future looks promis-
ing for large growth, not only IN
Texas but in Oklahoma and Arkansas,
where preliminary work Is now being
done, The executive officers are in
correspondence with the most active
spirits among the agricultural workers
of the south They are reaching into
the entire sixteen southern states,
and feel confident that before manv
years have passed that the vast ma
jority of the renters OF the south will
be brought within the sphere OF In
fluence of this great industrial union.
.sThe convention ordered and the
constitution provides for the follow
ing important features of the pro-
gram:
mo land owner who rents land
shall be eligible to membership.
"The organization shall be strictly
non.partisan and non-sectarian.
"They demand tax shall be placed
upon all land held out of cultivation
for speculative purposes.
while strictly maintaining their
non-partisan attitude, they demand
that all political parties shall be-.
through regular committees appoint
ed by the union, placed upon record
on the question of whether they stand
for confiscatory tax upon all land
held out of cultivation for speculative
purposes. And they pledge themselves
to use all honorable methods to de-
stroy every political party, be 1t the
republican, democrat, prohibition or
socialists. that refuses to go upon
record In support Of the Land valued
tax.
They declare that use and occu-
pancy shall be the title to land and
are arranging to struggle for the
necessary constitutional amendments
that win make this title possible.
"The union does not bar bonafide
workers who operate their own land
by themselves and family without ex-
ploitation OF agricultural laborers.
q THAT there is a tremendous field of
activity, spreading out before this
union. can be seen from the following
facts:
There are two hundred and nine
teen thousand land tenants in the
state of Texas alone, with their grown
sons and daughters, conservatively,
We may state, as one million adults.
directly interested In this movement.
There are one hundred and forty
six million acres Of land In Texas
fenced in that has never felt the car
essing touch OF plow. Dividing the
two hundred and nineteen thousand
tenants into one hundred million
acres and allowing for forty-six mil
lion acres of mountainous and timber
ed land, good for stock and grazing
purposes, we find that every tenant in
the state of Texas could have farm
equal to four hundred and thirty-six
acres-were land speculation stopped,
and the land thrown open for the
bonafide users thereof. OF course the
land renters union Is not proposing
any dividing up polfcy'-the above
illustration is simply used to show the
amazing amount of land that is held
out of cultivation and shows the cor
rectness of the socialists position,
that declares for use and occupancy
as the title to the land.
Finally. may say, that the social
ist party in Texas keeps It's hands
strictly off the renters union, in nc
way interferes with its internal af
fairs: we simply wish them good lucl
in their work, and stand ready t.
back them to the utmost limit wher
called upon
Despite the fact that the industria
unionists headed by VIM. D. Hay
wood. We're defeated in their attemp
to get control of the committees G
the party, it was stated by big Bill
and his chief lieutenants that the
had no ill feelings" and that the
would work hand and glove for tn
party.
Already the "impossibilities, q
the industrial unionists are characte
lied by the intellectual element tn;
is in control of the convention, ha,
agreed to abide by the rulings of I'll
convention for the present" The
admitted today that they could not e
pect to amend the party platform al
that 1t would be replica of that
four years ago.
Afternoon Session.
ToMLINSoN HALL, INDIANAP
LIS, May 14-Bitter denunciation
President Madero of Mexico W
voiced on the floor Of the socialist I
tional convention this afternoon
Francisco de Lara, of Los Angel
the noted Mexican agitator.
"Madero," declared De Lara, "sa
he is for the people. He is a liar.
and his family are among the bigg,
landlords in Mexico. He has betray