The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1916-12-18

elect to Office exercise dominion over
us. but the next two verses read
but it shall not be so among you,
but whoSoeVer shall be great among
you (your city council, your legislators,
your national legislators) let him be
your minister:
"'And whosoever will be chief
amongyou (your councilman, legislator,
congressman, senator and man in the
ant
And more and more this is coming
to pass"
In this connection Mr. Bigelow call
ed attention to what many of the
states are doing along the line of max
ing the officials Of the people the
ministers of the people and that North
Dakota is one of them, the speaker
undoubtedly alluding to the movement
that swept the state at the last gen.
eral election.
The Old Age Pension.
DR.. Bigelow went on to show other
legislative enactments in which the
Biblical admonitions are being writ
ten and quoted that passage Of scrip
ture which reads something like this
"Forsake me not when l am old"
He alluded to the old age pension
and told what has been done in Ohio,
where he said that there are 250,00O
people who have reached the age
where they are no longer able to
work. He said that Of the 250,000 peo-
pie there are $4,000 that are in poverty,
the large percentage Of whom have
worked hard during their lives. He
said that the new pension law Of that
state will give those who is
able to show that they have no means
Of support, and who have not been in
temperate or idle. $50 a month.
In dealing with this subject the
speaker severely arraigned the present
system Of distribution of wealth, CALL
ing it ridiculous.
ls Single Taxer.
DR.. Bigelow is a single taxer and
gave this subject considerable atten-
tion during the course of his address.
He said that in a county of Mime
sofa, of which Jackson is the county
seat, there are twenty-five square
miles of land that are held by a man
whose father was a .stockholder in one
of the railroad systems that runs
through that county. This land was
inherited by the present owner and
he will not sell an acre of 1t and 1t is
being left idle. the owner contracting
off the hay. at SO per ton. from which
he makes $4,000 per annum.
of the idle land are improving their
farms, for which improvements they
pay large tax, this mans land
| is taxed at from 10 to Is cents pei
acre. The speaker said that recently
one farmer who desired to increase
his own farm by the addition of q
| portion of this land. wrote in to find
out what could be done toward buy
ing portion adjoining his land. He
received the reply that the land was
absolutely not for sale. -.
The speaker then called attention tt
| the difference between mans justice
and Gods justice. quoting from the
| scriptures that portion where, wher
the children of Israel stood at the
threshold Of the promised land
Canaan. God told them that they
should inherit the land, 'the one the
same as the other"
fIe then compared this with the
present where one shall have million:
OF acres Of land while another is
| starving.
The Cows Hide.
Bringing out an example of the in.
Justice of taxing the products oi
| labor. the speaker took as an example
n cow and the cows hide. He said
| that there was COW owned by 9
| farmer. This cow was taxed while she
was living. making tax No. /. The COW
was killed and her hide was sold
to a tanner. The assessor came
around and counted up the hides. as.
sessing the hide of the late cow---tsa
! No. 2. The hide was tanned and sem