Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-12-09
WHO OWNS THE EARTH I?
Editor ASkov American:

COllOT ASkON fAIIleIlCdIl.
Andrew Rasmussen in last weeks
Askov American asks for an explana-
ton as to who rightfully owns the
earth. If might makes right, no
doubt Hearst and his ilk including
the clerics in Spain, Mexico and
other countries own the greatest part
of the earth on the strength of legal
deeds.
I will suggest that we hold the
idea of a Creator out of this dis
cussion lest we might be tempted
to criticize the imperfection of the
job. Nature is still molding the
earth Example, the recent mountain
slide in Los Angeles) and ask, "What
is by nature common birthright of
all?" We have made the exclusive
property of individuals; what is by
natural law the common fund from
which common wants should be met
We have given it to a few and they
lord it over their fellows and so a
few are gorged while millions go
hungry, and more is wasted than
would suffice to keep all in luxury
II your temporary guardian, gov
eminent, prince or potentate has
given away or sold your birthright,
your inheritance, he is a thief; legal
lied, it is true, but nevertheless a
thief ethically.
Any way you try to gloss it over,
what the landlord gets is tribute
and loot. For he gets something
for nothing without labor. Even
Marx admitted that what landlords
get is got for nothing, and that they
exploit both labor and capital.
1t did not take long after the
Spanish emigrants had conquered
Mexico before landlords and the
church had deed to more than 80 per
cent of the land. We might right
fully ask, by what moral or legal
right did they acquire title.
IT every time you open your pock-
etbook to buy a dollars worth of
anything, 40 cents fell out and went
into rat hole, would you have any
trouble to account for your poverty?
That rat hole represents those So
taxes that are wrapped up in every
loaf of bread, % in every pair of
shoes and so on. (Horatio). And
there are other rat holes like the
protective tariff that do not take the
loot into the public treasury to fatten
tax eaters but carries it into pri-
vate pockets to build up millionaires'
fortunes. Still another rat hole car
ries loot to the LANDED gentry" who
believe themselves to be the rightfuI
owners of the planet Earth.
The ism we labor under is land
lordism. And landlordism is re-
spectacle racketeering. The remedy
is this: Meet publicly created needs
by publicly collecting publicly created
wealth. Leave privately created
wealth in the hands of those creating
it. And what is publicly created
wealth? Publicly created wealth is
the value of the land Privately
created wealth is money earned. Only
the presence of people can give value
to land. The value appears in rent
that rises in proportion to the num-
bers of the people. Put that rent
in the public treasury. Stop taxing
the fruits of labor and of genius.
Stop taxing anything unless you want
to destroy it. A tax is a fine. Get
your public revenue from the value
publicly created.
Labor applied to land produces all
wealth; wealth is stored up labor;
capital is that part of the stored up
labor or wealth used for further pro-
duction.
The collecting of the full rent
under natural law plays its part in
freeing to all the source of all wealth.