The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-11-15

elsewhere. But when these ro..-
men go away leaving great ar,-ee
OF farm land in the uortba,s,e.as
states abandoned, and great 80.
swamp IN the south uprecIsir,'ss
and stump lands in the nortbvee1'
rich IN soil that are being DesfSss
REGISTERED nor cleared for agric,I
ture, then there is a sickness in ~.
inaiVldual system of the conn.,
aust as serious as a failure or
sanitation in the human body
value of Land Speculative.
All'Who have studied this mn.
ton seem to agree that tha ~,
trouble lies in the speculative 80 80
at which lands are held in -tss
country. With the DoDulati,-
me earth increasing all Of the i'm
nothing is so certain as tina, -
VIII constantly increase tn va ,i-l
BUY any piece Of productive -
ana mold it long enough and -
can sell 1t at a great advance ~.
Increment works with the force 80
regularity of law of nature A.
result, all land in this countr,. 80
IN every other country where NJ
Tree land is available. is held a..
valuation based, not on what il ~.
produce in food and other cor77o5''
ues' out on what it Will sell for a.
some future time This simpIa far
Is the whole OF the trouble
For this reason all of the rast
mass OF legislation designed 10 bein
the farmer by teaching him ~
operative marketing. and GIVING bi,,
hog cholera serum, and sh0wiDr his
WlIe now TO cook and so on. IS ~
releFant to the main issuo In
point of fact, the farmer who nvns
a piece of productive land is not =.
all badly of. He cannot make nuc5
money, but if he practices divorsi.
ned farming in an Intelligent var
he can be and often is, one Of tbs
best-fed and most comfortable mon
IN the world. City people in tbis
country often live on rations fbst
to the more substantial snrt ~
country people would look like star.
vatLon. 1t is only the farmer who
foolishly stakes his all on o1c
money crop. like cotton or tobacco
"no encounters actual want
The trouble is not that the farm
or who owns a farm is suffering
The trouble is, first. that no can
sell his farm. invest the money in
mortgages and make more witbo,7.
working, in many instances. than h.
5an make by farming his land SEE.
md, he can often rent his land IN
someone else more prOfitablvtb4n 1g
an work it himself Third. if he
las several sons. the ones that do
lot inherit the farm cannot afford
O buy one in this country. They
'lther go into other lines of work
II else 60 to some other country
Inc result is "A country i'm which
more and more Of the land passes
nto the hands of men who hold ..
die for speculative purposes. or
ent It, and in which a man who
wants to invest his money in Isnd
nd to farm it, cannot DO SO profit
bly,. Inevitably il is also a iaHi
which food prices rise steadily.
what is the remedy? Two have
cen proposed. First. for the ma
ION or the states to huv and re-
lain land and sell it to farmers 81
price based on what it will pro
uce and on long time credit Tins
Tas the essence Of Secretary Lane
cheme of land for soldiers. which
o mysteriOusly disappeared. fl is
ne basis of the California land and
Colonization plan, which has work
d well, and it has been put into
ractice in some form by several
Their states
The second method is a form Of
iXation on unimprOved land whtCa
.ould make it Improbable 10 hold
UGH land for speculative purposes.
uch a tax has always been Falj
)und by students. 4 bin providing
" such tax was introduced 10 the
-st congress by Representative NO
n and reintrOGuced i'm this con-
ress by Representative Keller.
1t has attracted as much atton-
on as a pin falling into the At
ntiC ocean.