The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1915-05-14
A SUGGESTED PRIZE CONTEST

1t is customary for many papers and
magazines to print some of the more
obscure poems and sayings of we'll
known writer's and statesmen and Of
fer prizes to readers who correctly
guess their authorship. 1t is usually
difficult task for even the best in
formed 1t would be a good idea for
any reactionary publication to offer
prizes to readers who can correctly
name the authors of the following
quotations, the contest to be limited,
however, to those readers who ap-
prove the papers editorial position:
% Whenever there is in any
country uncuItivated lands and unem-
pIoyed poor, it is clear that the laws
of property have been so far extended
as to violate natural rights. The
earth is given as common stock for
man to labor and live on"
(2) 1.-THE land therefore of every
country is the common property of the
people of that country"
~ Resolved that all men have a
natural right to portion of the soil;
and that as the use of the soil is in
dispensable to life, the right of all
men to the soil is as sacred as their
right to life itself"
(4) al am satisfied that all human
beings are entitled to the essentials
of life, that is to say, to water, to air
and to land"
~ He who has no clear inherent
right to live somewhere has no right
to live at ALL"
(6) at seems to me that the man
who tils the land and makes it useful
has better right to it than he who
has merely inherited it,"
~ whilst another man has no
land, my title to mine, your title to
others is at once vitiated."
~ 1.-THE land question means hun
ger, thirst, nakedness, notice to quit,
labor spent in vain, the toll of years
seized upon. the despair and
wiIdness which springs up in the
hearts of the poor, when legal force,
like sharp harrow, goes over the
most sensitive and vital right of man.
kind"
10y 81 believe that all persons have
an equal right to the soil. The Maker
of the earth has provided one home,
not two homes, for each person, not
two farms, but one farm for each
farmer"
| (1O) "Man did not make the earth,
and though he had natural right to
occupy it, he had no right to locate
as his property in perpetuity any
part of it,"
Those who swear by the policy of
the Seattle Times, Philadelphia
Ledger, Cincinnati Times-Star, Wash
ington Post, Leslie's Weekly or sim
liar publications would feel sure that
all of these quotations are from writ
ers like Henry George, Karl Marx, or,
perhaps, even Emma Goldman or
other writer's about whom they have
heard much but know little. Any one
of these papers could safely offer the
most valuable prizes to the faithful
believer in their policies who can cor
rectly name the authors. There would
| be no occasion to award it as long as
no radical could qualify to compete.
The authors are as follows:
% Thomas jefferson.
~ Bishop NuIty of Meath, Ireland.
(3)The National Convention of the
Free Soil Party of 1852.
~ Robert G. Ingersoll.
(5) Horace Greeley.
(6) James Russell Lowell.
! ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(s)Cardina Manning.
~ Gerrit Smith.
(1o) Thomas Paine.
1t would surely help some of the I'M
| fortunates who let Tory editors do
their thinking for them if they learned
what 'incendiary'' doctrines were
preached by some of those held up
in conventional circles as examples to
be initiated.