The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-08-17

SOHeLHlHg SO clearly IOIeSeSU JldL
it can hardly be considered "proph-
ecy."
Radical opinion on what is to hap
pen after this war found expression
recently at a Land Values Conference
held at Leeds, England. The Joseph
Fels International Commission is in
receipt of copies Of the addresses
made by prominent land reformers,
labor leaders and members of Par
lament who addressed the conference,
all expressing the conviction that
revolutionary economic changes are
assured as a result Of the war. The
audience consisted chiefly of dele
gates from labor organizations in the
great Yorkshire manufacturing dis
tricts.
R. L. Cultivate, a member of Par
Lament who came from London to
address the conference, was frequent
ly cheered while making the follow
ing address, which is typical of the
rest:
81 believe that with the coming
Of peace will come the greatest in
dustrial and social conflict this world
and this land has ever seen. be-
Heve the Russian revolution is only
just the opening Of a great revolu-
tionary period I used to argue in
he past upon the taxation Of land
values as a remedial measure. We
had on one side great numbers of
killed workers, organized to secure
andard conditions, but down below
greater welter, great struggling
mass Of poverty, and a struggle for
existence by millions who felt power
ty conditions. We found men in
their multitudes seeking the labor
market to sell their flesh and blood
and there was q superfluity over the
demand. The system was driving
people in their millions from the
NOUllCl ySlQG " OllC lOMIlS.
"But my attachment to this cause
Of land value taxation today is that
I see a far different condition of
affairs prevailing in this country in
the near future
at is because l believe in this
cause as the only way to prevent
revolutionary conditions getting driv-
en- into more anarchy, for this rea-
son | desire to promote the cause of
land value taxation. You may not
accept my views of the future. l
know that today for those who are
left here there is, through the de-
mand of war conditions, better en-
ployment than ever existed before.
Wages are nominally higher and un-
employment does not exist, and for
this reason I know many people
think that the future is going to be
better But it will not be of long
duration when war ceases, for you
will have millions Of men discharged
from the army, and millions of men
and women discharged from the fac
tories where they have been engaged
in the provision of munitions of war.
You will have millions of people dis
charged from the auxiliary occupa-
tions or employments of today, and
you will have, l think, spirit
amongst those people which privilege
and monopoly will have to reckon
with.
'Men who have been to the
trenches and endured the horrors and
agonies of modern warfare are not
coming back to be the hewers of wood
and drawers of water which they were
before they went. They are told they
are going to save their country and
I cannot see that they are coming
back to submit to conditions Of slav-
cry in the country they went to save.
But that is the condition which will
be enforced upon them, without strife
to remedy it, Obviously that is so.
Look what has happened in one re-
spect to those men while they are
away making the sacrifice of all
that is most precious to them as to
every man-life and limb-giving it
for a shilling and sixpence a day,
while we at home, to the shame of
democracy in this country, are shoul-
dering upon the people war debt Of
$4,000, 100000.
There was no conscription Of
wealth when they said they wanted
wealth. They did not go to the
city saying we demand credit and
money. Quite the opposite took place
with the money-lenders and profiteers.
When the chancellor went to the
city to get credit he could not get it
at 312 per cent interest as formerly
upon State security. 1t became 4,
- ~ a.