The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-05-26
Settlers View
EDITOR THE TIMES:

In answer 10 the man WHO was
afraid to sign his name in con-
nection with his views on the
lands to be taken for the army
post, who, afraid Of his position,
most likely ono that is held under
the county or city at the taxpay-
ers' expense, / wish to speak.
This man makes the bald state
ment that we at American Lake
hold lands that could not sell for
|$25 an acre, which the govern
ment could take at the price once
sold to settlers at $1.25.
In other words, IL Uncle Sam
would only be the dead-beat this
man thinks he is, the army post
could be wrested for a song from
those who now hold them.
We notice that the man who
talks loudest of patriotism is
either too old and decrepit to
fight, too young to be taken or
too comfortable to be disturbed,
and he who talks loudest about
what we who hold army post lands
should give them up for has none
to give up.
When you talk about people
giving up their homes, did 1t ever
occur to you that something is to
be considered besides the boards
that have been used to build the
house and tn rocks that Ii about
on the lands lessening their value?
Did 1t ever occur to you that
when we came out here to Ameri-
can Lake and walked day after
day through timber and across
prairie to get car and fought
our way back through the dark II
we went out at night, that the
home we were building could not
be counted out in the few dollars
lit took to get the timbers for our
home?
Did 1t occur to you that as citi-
zens of the United States we have
rights to our home that cannot
Ibe wiped away at the within OF
any body of people? Do you not
know that it Is our first right as
! citizens to put our own valuation
on our home? II we held these
lands for speculation, 1t would be
a different matter; but when they
are our homes, our rights date
back to the highest law In the
LAND, the constitution of the Unit
ed States, that protects us In our
rights to hold our home against
the schemes of any body Of men.
We went out on this land OF
ours, for which, by the way, we
paid 1925 an acre, and dug the
holes for about 1000 posts with
which to fence and crOss-fence.
We worked days and days In the
rain and often in the dark with
a lantern SO that neighboring
herds of cows would not spoil our
garden.
We fortified that garden at a
cost of over 500, not counting the
days of labor, even II 1t is only
100 by 385 feet. We built our hen
houses, our barn and our partly
finished house with the labor OF
, our hands. Surely our work
lcounts for something!
Will anyone dare to say we
shall move from this home that
has meant four years of sacrifice
and hardship for less than the
actual outlay of dollars spent in
Its making? The kaiser could do
no worse than that! That would
take from us our foundation OF
belief in our rights as citizens TO
buy and build our homes, for what
can be done once can be lone
again.
How do we know but what in
THE future, after the war is over,
another spasm should shake this
part of the country and covetous
eyes should propose through the
public that we give again for some
public benefit.
Some of the people out here on
these prairie lands have their
dairy ranches, where they have
made a living for years and years.
Their lands are probably only
good as grazing lands, but for
them a living. Shall they be up
rooted after 20 or 80 years of
hardship and forced to sell their
herds at the lowest beef prices
and their lands at a valuation put
there by men who compare these
acres to lands closer to Tacoma?
Shall a jury say that these people
shall have less for their lands
than than they paid for them? II
means something to lose an es-
tablished business and take few
dollars and strike out into new
fields to start over again.
Let those who have the lands
have something to say about theid
valuation and the sacrifices that
shall be made in the name of pa.
triotism.
People who have had to DE-
without shoes and meat and
clothes to get their homes pait