Denver labor bulletin., 1916-09-02


1 shots heard round the world be-
cause they were defending a
E land that was theirs. Men must
~ have a stake in their country to
love it. and fight for it, and work for
it, as they love and fight and work for
their homes.
You will find the name of William
Whipple of New Hampshire among the
signers of the Declaration OF 1ndepend-
ence. Aside from signing the Declara-
ton there is one other glorious incident
in the career of William Whipple. When
the American Revolution was on Will
liam Whipple put a gun in the hands of
slave and told him to fight for his
country The man replied, But Mr..
Whipple, | am slave" and William
Whipple, believer in freedom and liberty
as he was, freed this bondsman and
made him free man with himself, an
embattled farmer defending his country
patriotically becausee it was his coun-
try. because he was free and because he
had something worth defending and
fighting for.
Preparedness for war is only symbol
OF that infinitely greater thing, prepar-
edness for peace built on justice and So
cial welfare. The great foe of industrial
Justice and social welfare is monopoly
monopoly of land, monopoly of natural
resources, monopoly of the power to con-
trol other mems lives. The great evil
in the monopoly of land is shown in the
sinister increase OF tenant farmers and
landless men in the cities, who would
he farmers if they could. The monopoly
OF natural resources other than of land
is shown in The brutally low wages paid
.bo in hn of
the mine for the enrichment of those
who take the profit at the top Of the
mine 1t is shown in the concentration
OF farming lands, OF mineral lands, OF
oil lands and of water powers in the
lands of giant corporations, and in the
hands OF an exploiting class OF specula-
tors. bankers and concession grabbers.
Monopoly of the Land.
The investigation OF the United States
Commission on Industrial Relations
proved, and the report so stated, that
chief source OF unemployment is "the
denial of access to land and natural re-
sources. even when they are unused and
unproductive, except at a price and un-
der conditions which are practically pro-
hibitive."
Every man who is denied access to
| land that is hi sown, and that means
every tenant farmer, is an actual or pos
| sible competitor for the job of every me-
chanic, of eevry clerical man; he swells
| the numbers of those who have given the
exploiters of labor the tremendous ad.
vantage OF having at their gates and at
their docks two men for every job.
Thruout the United States there is
scarcely more than one half OF the large
Iy cultivable land that is cultivated, yet
nearly all of it is held in great and
growing estates. Even in such states as
Missouri 20,OOO,OO0 acres of the total OF
As. 900 900 acres is held out OF use, held
for advance in price and without giving
any man who wants to work it a chance
to work it.
Men Who Are Eager to Work.
1t is only a little over quarter of
a century ago that the state of Okla
homa was opeend to settlement, yet in
that new state OF virgin resources, with
almost limitless possibilities of food and
wealth production. the evils of our mod
ern system of monopoly and poverty
have brought this condition, that 5S per
cent of all the farms IN that state are
WorRe by tenant farmers, men who nave
no stake in the land. men who if guns
were placed in their hands would be
"embattled' to protect somebody else's
"altars and fircs'-would fight, in short,
as they now must work, for the benefit
of others who exploit them and master
them In that state of Oklahoma, where
still there are Indians almost in excess
of any other numbers of the population.
men who recall the primitive. communal
condition of all the land-in that state
there are now many many thousands OF
white men and women and children eager
to work, yet having less stake in the
country, less chance to get a decent liv-
ing for themselves from that rich and
bounteous land than the red Indians
had who had no beenfits and implements
OF civilization.
This land will not be prepared, will
not he founded on the solid national rock
of prosperity and patriotism, until every
man who is willing and capable can have
two alternatives: First, the alternative
of working at a job or working on the
land and second, the alternative of loaf
ing or working on the land. If police
man should find man habitually loaf
ing on bench in Washington Square,
say, and this man might 90 out and work
twenty acres of land, then a police sys
tenn which would put that man under
some restriction for vagrancy might be
a good system, it might-but ] am not
sure that the right to loaf, ii one finds
his happiness in loafing, is not an in
alienable right but say a system that
puts a man in jail as a vagrant and
loafer when he can't get to the land to
work, and when he can't get a job, is
an outrage on any conception of fair and
sane social order.
Defining a "Vagrant."
A good deal is being said now about
enforcement OF vagrancy laws. The first
thing to be done is to define "vagrant"
and "vagabond." Under present defini
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