The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-02-07
CHINESE COOLIES OR FRlE LAND?

The land question cannotb be eyaded in this country any long
er. Journals pretending to cover the field OF liberal thinking with
relation to economies can 10 longer shut their eyes to it, nor dis
miss it with vague SUGGESTIONS looking to government purchase and
tural district in the country the farmers are facing a labor short
age during the coming simmer so serious that the production of
food in sufficient quantities and the performance Of our part in
the war are placed in jeopardy. The relief proposals advanced by
politicians for meeting this shortage show how desperate is the
ture to authorize the CONSUMPTION of labor, and in California the
committee on farm labor of the State Council of Defense has
brought in a report urging the importation of Chinese coolies.
Careful surveys made by the Department of Labor and the
American Federation of Labor show that there is no actual labor
Among the populations Of our cities are millions Of Americans
brought up g2, on AT f1am F farms rurai and Gis ftHsr % of Turo 9t 'r %Regr fr
generations they and their fathers have titled the soil There is
pa pansi H1i following the Civil War; When young men by the hundreds
converted It into fertile acres. Along with this human material
VI 9?7e the ass1S1y sp nat a 1a Of A aerss TT ssf hsa i ans~e saeG i 5{ IN their 5asS;
official bulletin. So have men as competent to speak as Mr. T, Her,
Without WITH means has been driven from the fairfield by the exist
less, insecure, vagabond. occupation: Where farm labor once led
9sssy 4 B, and q sss!y se to 5sE%1oT IN tns 3ss snd o 3n Sss%s's9msnt t. pres Is
ceding the war, land owners succeeded in obtaining labor because
wretches driven to following the harvests because nothing better
offered. Today these men are more prodtably employed. And
, MS af th p'yy east ' des| Rt;SS o. of a oc esnqe'sonse '0a' mas MADE OF '''"
,ator Land or tb y"l 1ib navs p 1ssGms at So a ,nfe u ena ean 9n AFFORD tde to sp par-
chase a farm. Almost all sales are speculative, and in instances
futiIeiy a against ms bar bankruptcy toy He has bought land that was huge
ly ovelcapitalized, and to earn interest on its purchase price is
remedy. That is to tax the water out Of our idle farm lands by
raising all local revenues, at least, from the taxation of land values,
at the same time relieving the struggling farmers by exempting
his improvements from taxation. 1t is the remedy adopted by
Australia and New Zealand, and adopted with success in western
Canada: Even the conservative Sidney Bulletin, published in the
Australian metropolis, exposes the futlity of state purchase and
cd would lay a crushing method on the State, which would be
called upon to recognize inflated land values in making it's pur-
chases. Sooner or later the land of this country must be opened
to the people. To oppose the taxation method is, wherether con-
sciously or not, to bring nearer the method resorted to by the
Russian Bolsheviki.
Labor cannot remain Indifferent to this issue. Quite apart
from it's paramount interest i'm procuring an extension of oppor-
tunity for the common man, and thereby relieving the pressure
for jobs in industry, labor must find a solution of the farm problem
or submit to the importation of Chinese labor. Coolies ance ad-
mitted for farm labor would not remain on the farm. They would
become competitors in industry as we'll This must not be permit
ted; But mere opposition is not enough. It is a choice between
coolies and some method of drawing free, independent American
citizens of the soil-The Public.