The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-06-29


with states and municipalities, of
great constructive works, such as
road building, irrigation and refor-
estation, which would materially in
crease the efficiency and welfare of
the nation.
Unemployment and Denial of Oppor-
tunity to Earn a Living
The workers in our great basic in
dustries are unemployed for an av-
erage of at least one-fifth Of the
year, and at all times there is an
army of men, who can be numbered
only by hundreds of thousands, who
are unable to find work or who have
so far degenerated that they cannot
or will not work (p. 3D.
This unemployment arises from
two great causes, although many 9TH
ers are contributory.
First, the inequality Of the distribu-
ton of income, which leaves the
great masses of the people unable to
purchase the products Of the industry
which they create, while few have
such superfluity that it cannot
be normally consumed but must be
invested in new machinery for pro-
duction or in the further monopoliza-
ton of land and natural resources.
Second, the denial of access to
land and natural resources even when
they are unused and unproductive,
except at a price and under conditions
which are practically prohibltive.
This situation, while bound up with
the land and taxation policies of our
states and nation, also rests funda-
mentally upon the unjust distribution
of wealth Land or natural resources
in the hands of persons of average
income must and will be used either
by their original owners or by some
more enterprising person. Only in
the hands of large OWnerS-free from
economic pressure, able to evade or
minimize the the effects of taxation,
or to await the ripening of the
fruits of unearned increase In value
can land be held out of use if its
products are needed (p. 34).
There can be no more complete evil
dence of the truth of this statement
than the condition of the farms of
900 acres and over, which, valued at
two and one-third billion dollars,
comprise 10 per cent of all the farm
land of the country and are held
by less than ! per cent of the farm
owners The United States census
returns show that in these 1000
acre farms only 10 per cent of the
land is cultivated, as compared with
1 90 to 70 per cent in farms of 30
to 499 acres.
More than four-fifths of the area
of the large holdings is being kept
out of active use by their $4,000 own
ers, while 2,25O,000 farmers are
struggling for a bare existence on
farms of less than fifty acres, and
an untold number who would will
lingly work these lands are swelling
the armies of the unemployed in the
cities and towns (p. 35).
The interests of the producing
farmer and of the wage-earner are
identical. The land must be open to
all upon fair terms.
A basic theory Of our government,
which found expression in the home
stead acts, was that every man should
have opportunity to secure enough
land to support family. If this
theory had been carried out and
homesteads had gone to those who
would use them productivity, or had
remained in the hands of the gov
eminent, we sould not yet have
problem of this character. But these
acts were evaded; land was stolen
outright by wholesale, and fraudu-
lent entries were consolidated into
enormous tracts, which are now held
by wealthy individuals and corpora
tions Up. 35).
1t is recommended:
/. Vigorous and unrelenting pros
ecution to regain all land, water
power and mineral rights secured
from the government by fraud.
2. A revision of our land laws so
as to apply to all future land grants
the doctrine of superior use" as in
the case of water rights in Califor-
MIA, and provision for forfeiture in
case of non-use.
3. The forcing of all unused land
into use by making the tax on non
productive land the same as on pro-
ductive land of the same kind, and
exempting all improvements Up. 30.
A. The establishment of ma
tional employment system under the
&c 18th aIart1o+a