Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1922-04-12
"a CsHA.R Z LETTER. :.


Acl4ARY, s.LET Il
Winifred,5 Mont, 3s-255-22.
Editor WillmarS T ribuq g: 5ss''sss
81 I happened to see Me first Install
ment Of the Bosch frey- Jorgenson
bout in Tribune OF Jan: 4th: It.yyiss evi.
dent that Bosch came out a full length
ahead in the first round and Sif there
was & later skirmish I9:Would like to-
read it.. H Il s4's
The Single Takers and FreesLand-
ers are pressing their cause wherever.
possible and it is high time the farm
ers were sticking the stiletto .of truth
into their economic bubble. Isl
When Inject 'free.lander" I mere
" take time to sinf form him there are
several million acres of vacant land
much Of it good land rating and
begging for takers and that if he is
anxious to try his hand at improving
and farming free land, all he has to
do is pay less than the actual cost of
surveying, get on the land and i'm
prove use it long as he pleases y
then leave it or sell it together with
his improvements. have never known
one Of them to take the job Such fell
lows as a rule want some body@ else to
open up the country and give it to
them. III IL @-,as
The moral fact is that when a man
goes on a piece Of untitled land and
invests it with a reasonable amount of
his annual labor he forms a divine par
tnership with the Creator Of the land,
that he actually and substantially i'm
proves for "a home and family sup
port, and no one by any principle of
right has reason to dispossess him.
The. labor investment constitutes his
title of ownership against all claim
ants whatsoever. It all goes back to
the principle: In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread. Each one of
you.
| The only seemingly feasible argu-
ment the "Single Takers" have is the
doctrine of Increment value' in land
This argument is fallacious because
all value, except intrinsic divine worth
is increment value. 49, a%
| Practically all that the race has and
owns is the increment value of all the
centuries past, physically, morally, in
tellectually and financially. These
values are all in the increment of past
ages and past effort. They are also
the social Misunderstanding the
thot and action of all the people.
Figure out if you can the multitudes
of minds and hands that finally pro
duced the watch in your pocket, the
pen with which you write, the thots
in the books you read, the tools with
which you work in the field and the
scientific plans by which you SOW and
reap. Certainly, it is increment val
ue. If we are going to support the
government with increment value, why
shove all the taxes off on the over
burdened farmer because there is in
crement value in his farm? #
AS a matter of fact the building Of
spublic roads IAN dssether socialistic i'm
4 provements in a community not only
increases the value of the lots, on
which are located banks. hotels, stor-
es, shops, ETC., but also the buildings
thereon and the business conducted
therein, as well as increasing the val
ue of farm land. Why tax the land
and not the buildings and the bust
nesses conducted therein, since incre.
ment value inheres in all these?
We spend hundred thousand dol
lars of socialistic money to improve
the business and increase the profits
of town by good bridges and good
roads, and then tax the farmers to
pay for the job, according to the "Sin-
gle Takers" and hence it is no won
der the merchants and shop keepers
and bankers are many of them out in
the open in favor of "Single Tax
But the worst feature of the Keller
bill and the "single takers is the
fact that the bill and it's doctrine is
class legislation pure and simple
being in substance an effort to con
fiscate by legislation large. landed es-
tates, and as Mr.. Bosch so we'll shows,
; force into cultivation if possible much
idle land, SO as to flood the market
with an over supply of produce and
hence reduce prices and keep. farmers
working at starvation wages. What is
the sense of more farms when thou
sands already are being, abandoned
because taxes and interest are so high
for those who till the soil and prices
are so low that, they go in debt every
year to help feed hungry world Lei
some of these Single Takers 'and
'..Free-landers:" get out on some of the
vacated farms, pay for the improve