The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-11-01
C|le0DLOllS b Workers
P|Og|lIl o. Lelgue
Campaign Committee OF Home
stead Loan and Land League
Urges Support Of Its Program
in Open Statement.

lu6 TtCtuL dCtlOu VI OoCiOIaiy Va
State John l.. Sullivan in giving the
numbers and 8 respectively to the
Homestead Loan measure and the so
| called Single Tax amendment gives
| official certainty that these measures
will be before the voters of Missouri
at the November election. Forty thou
sand signatures were secured to place
these amendments on the ballot.
| A statement issued by the campaign
committee of the Homestead Loan
and Land League, with headquarters
at Kansas City, has the following to
say about the two measures:
Cheap Loans to Workers.
THE Loan Measure provides that
there shall be established as a depart
ment of the state treasury admins
tration, loan fund which shall lend
money to farmers and working men
to secure homes or to improve homes
or retire mortgages; that this money
shall be loaned to our people on
twenty-one years time at three per
cent annual interest and shall be paid
back in twenty equal payments begin
ming at the end of the second year.
About seventy per cent of our peo-
pie in the cities are tenants; large
per cent of the remainder are mort
gagged; twothirds of the farmers of
this state are either tenants or mort
gagged, and this fund is designed to
afford relief to these classes OF our
people from high rates of interest on
comparatively short time loans, and
enable them to secure loans at rate
of interest they can pay and thus be-
come home owners. 1t is not an ex-
pertinent. The same plan has been
worked by the Canadian.Pacific Rail
road Company successfully for num-
Der of years, only at higher rate OF
interest. If a private corporation can
do this successfully the state of Mis-
souri, can
To Tax Land Monopoly.
The Tax Measure will secure the
money for this and other necessary
government purposes by change in
the present taxing system. Instead
of taxing the products Of labor and
thus penalizing industry, tax on land
{ only according to its unimproved
; value, not according to its area. In
other words, we propose to tax land
: values only and to exempt improve
l ments. To make plain the difference
: and distinction between tax on land
area, which we do not advocate, and
J tax on land values, which we do pro-
! pose, consider that two thousand
Al re
City, not counting improvements on
| it, is worth more than all of the farm
: land exclusive of improvements in Au-
e DRAIN Andrew, Bates, Charlton,
2 Greene, Henry, Knox, Mississippi,
t Montgomery and Howard Counties;
: ten of the best agricultural counties
I in the state combined and that this
D two thousand acres, therefore, will
:. pay, under our proposal, more taxes
= than all the farmers in the ten coun-
p ties named.
To Win the War.
Food will win the war! But we
cannot have food produced without
r land. Missouri has fourteen million
r acres of good tillable land held idle
. | OF DOOTly IlupIONCu loi opSSuioeAoh,
y while tens of thousands OF our own
y people own no homes and food pro-
e duction lags. DR.. F. B. Mumford. of
the University of Missouri, now Food
Administrator for Missouri, has said
. that IL the idle acres Of Missouri were
: put to work the yield Of wheat, oats,
L corn and staple crops would be in
e VT cont IN
nothing of the increased yield OF other
o products such as fruits, vegetables,
D live stock, dairy products, etc. The
IS government says there shall be no
: idle workers. Why should we permit
idle acres? The supply of food is
scarce and our own and the people
of the world are clamoring for some
J. thing to eat. The best friends of
\ kaiserism and autocracy in the world
! are the land Spectator and the land
# lord who hold their land idle or who
# oppose those who want to make it
l. possible for every man to have a
IS home of his own. Tax land values
% and force them to let go Of their
J. holdings or use them properly, so
that people who may desire to use
land may do SO on Just and equitable
7 terms, and the production of food
10 may be increased.
To untax Labor.
Instead of many taxes, would you
5, not rather pay one taxa single tax?
IL VINO would not rather pay single
= tax on land values than many taxes
Il Il til l. 4.