The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-01-30

one nation. to another are all tied
up in this handful Of mOnopolles, all
there.
How serious are the problems?
The monopoly in natural resources,
what does it involve?
Monopoly in Natural Resources
Why, the ground rents in this
country are something like $4,000
600, 900 to $40, O00,000,000 a year.
Who creates those values? All
the people. Who gets them? Less
than one hundred thousand families
get them, in such a way that they
Iare the benefiCiaries and all the rest
Of us are the victims.
The only way you can live on
earth is to live on it. The only way
YOU can live on the ground is as a
renter, an owner or a trespasser. If
you own the land you have simply
paid your rent in advance. You
get that, don't you? A real estate
man will figure up the rent in adj
vance, capitalize and discount it for
cash. If you don't own it and pay
your rent in advance, why YOU pay
it in installments; and if you don't
do either you are a trespasser IF
YOU don't pay rent and are tres
passer, they will send you to jail If
y
you to the poor house, and you can
take your choice.
The longer a community has been
inhabited by human beings, the
more inhuman conditions become.
The longer more human beings oC-
cupy any given territory. the higher
the rents go UP until in all the old
settled countries OF the world the
newborn child is utterly without
the possibility of becoming the
owner of his own occupation or the
owner of his own home. Every
day that passes, as the lands are
settled up. great tracts of land are
held out of use and the prices paid
for lands in use mount higher and
higher and higher. What Is it we
do about it? Why. the farmers
over in North Dakota said, THAT is
"a difficulty that must be solved"
They found that out of every 10
acres in the state, were held by
people who didn't live in the State.
They lived in New York and San
Francisco and Los Angeles and Mex
leo City and some of them in eli
mate so hot that If the tax gatherer
ever goes there he never gets back.
Mostly it was true with regard to
those lands that there We're no
houses. no barns or fences or or
.chards, or Improvements of any
sort. Then they weren't worth any
thing? Oh, yes, they were Then
they didn't have any price? Oh,
yes, they did. You just try how high
they We're. What made them Valu-
able? Not anything on the land.
What does make land valuable?
First the houses and fences and
barns and orchards that have been
put on it; second, the roads and
bridges and school houses and
churches and markets that have
been built around it. That makes
it valuable. Values that a man
creates by his own industry. attach
ed to his land, are his own creation
/ think he ought to have them. The
values created by the community
that lies around the land, those val
ues were created by the community,
not by the individual. Where | lived
in Berkeley. when we went up there
we had to carry the water half a
mile in pipe. Same with gas and
electric light. When we finished
building our cottage the man who
owned the lots next door explained
he was very glad we had brought all
these Improvements right past his
lot. 1t had doubled the selling price.
Before we built our taxes were SIG
and his were SIG. Now we have
built, our taxes are $67, and his are
still SIG. They compelled me TO
pay the price of doubling the cost
of his lot and left his tax where it
was.
or every 10 acres i'm North Da-
kota, there We're owned by people
not living in the State The people
who had lived in the State had Gre
AfaR the N-n 81
by the people who did not live
there. Any man that has got ewes
clear enough to see that has got in
telligence enough to Join the Nom
partisan League. II she can't under
stand II he has got brains enough 10
Join the Associated Industries and
fight the Triple Alliance. He doesn't
nave to have any brains to do that
The farmers over there said. I'VE