JANUARY 29, 1903.
THE NEBRASKIA
NDEPENDENT.
7
$600,000 for a sit3 for their new build
ing. , This township, which has only two
small villages, has an average value
per acre of $25, or a total valuation of
$576,000. It can be readily seen that
a sixteenth part of an acre of Chica
go real estate, valued at $600,000,
would yield more revenue by the "land
value tax" than our township; and
further, by the prices paid by Mont
gomery, Ward & Co. for a building
site would put a value of $9,600,000
per acre on Chicago real estate. Tha
above value of Chicago real estate
per acre would buy 384,000 acres of
farming land at an average value of
$25- per acre; one acre of Chicago real
estate would yield in revenues $19,200;
the 384,000 acres of farm land would
yield only 5 cents per acre. The pow
er of an acre of land to produce com
forts for the human family fixes its
value; just as a site value is fixed by
the revenue it commands per year.
For example, A rents his building for
$1,000 per year; money being worth
5 per cent, his property would be
worth $20,000. It is not our intention
to enter into a discussion of the rami-
nations which produce the enormous
"site values" in our cities, as that
would be beyond the scope of this ar
ticle. Our aim has been more to call
public attention to the "land value
tax" as a cure for trusts than to en
ter into a lengthy exegesis of taxation.
We also wish to call attention to the
many untaxed privileges, which are
enjoyed by corporations of today, such
as "lake front" wharfs, or river fronts
and wharfs and docks on the seacoast.
The first of the above, which pertains
to lakes and rivers, is known as ri
parian rights; the last, as "littoral"
rights, pertains to the sea.
The "cure for trusts" must be based
on the fundamental principles which
would naturally adjust the burdens of
government, so that the holder of spe
cial privileges would pay to society a
true compensation for the enjoyment
of such privileges.
A "land value tax" assessed accord
ing to the following graduated scale
would go far towards making corpor
ations and trusts, which monopolize
the land or the source of the raw ma
terial, return to society a just compen
sation for the privileges of enjoying
such monopoly.
All citizens who own $50,000 or less
levy a "land value tax" of 2 mills
on the dollar; more than $50,000 and
less than $75,000, levy 2 1-4 mills, and
so on. Increase the levy one-fourth
of a mill for each additional $25,000
of land values, which gives $2.50 per
thousand for the first hundred thou
sand, $11,500 on the million.
We can readily see that all vacant
land, assessed by a "land value tax,"
would be brought into use; that all
lands held by any corporation, not so
much for their own' use as to prevent
others from using, would, through" the
"land value tax," become too burden
some and therefore sold to some other
party, that was able to develop and
use the product of such land, thus re
storing competition and bringing into
life a more just distribution of the
proceeds of the land.
"Land value tax" is a radical theory
of taxation. But radicalism has a vir
tue that cannot be denied. The mere
-fact that it is founded on fundamental
precepts which underlie every ques
tion of social economics, must be of it
self sufficient evidence of its potency.
PERRY D. PLAIN.
Atwater, 111.
CUT DOWN PUBLIC SALARIES.
Editor Independent: In reply to
your advertisement in The Commoner,
dated December 26, will say that salary
reform would be the best remedy for
trusts and' all other evils growing out
of politics, as the salary paid public
officials- is generally greatly in ex
cess of the compensation received in
ordinary occupations. This fact gives
cause for a great deal of bitter strife
in our primary campaigns and also
offers an inducement for the using of
large sums of money in corrupting
voters; it is by this means that the
voter is educated in craft and decep
tion and is very apt to sell in the
highest market when it comes to the
1 general tBlec tion. When a voter be
comes corrupted he has no faith in
any publje oiScial or any political par
ty. He will attach more importance
to the'pitiful compensation ho receives
for his vote than ho will to any inter
est he might have in the general wel
fare of the public.
Some men think we could not elect
competent men under a system of low
salary on account of the responsibility
they assume in filling a public office.
I cannot see where they assume any
very great responsibility in collecting
the tax and dividing it. up among them
selves. For illustration I will state
that our county auditor receives about.
$1,200 per annum; this office has been
filled for the last four years by a com
petent deputy at a salary of about $2
per day, the man elected not living
near the county seat has been relieved
of the usual annoyance of making
loans of money and indorsing notes
which tangle up and ruin most of the
men elected to office in this county.
Dishonest men seek public office for
the money that is to be made out of
it; honest men would accept it at a
low salary for the honor in it and
for the benefit of the public. If the
voters were not corrupted in the local
primaries they would not sell out in
the state and national election; then
we might be able to elect statesmen
on their merits who would legislate in
behalf of the people and enforce the
law against tfle' bloated corporations.
Where men are elected to office by
corrupt methods they are certain to
show a cowardly weakness when they
have the opportunity to defend justice.
There are very few men that ever
realize any permanent benefit from a
high salary while every one is in
jured by the evil that is born of it.
I hope that able and intelligent men
may some day investigate this ques
tion and bring it before the public in
a proper way, as my occupation is that
of a hayseed and my supply of intelli
gence is very limited. I am quite un
able to present this question in a way
that it might be properly understood.
II. C. GUYNN.
Lexington, Ind.
14-
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP.
Editor Independent: Let us do
something for the trusts if not ad
minister a remedy, give them poison
or rope enough to hang themselves
anything to enliven this do-nothing
age.
We should organize a progressive
socialist party, not to enforce the so
cialist program in a lump, but to take
up the most popular measures and
force them one at a time. We cannot
reach good government at a single
jump. That is not usually the course
of nature. The negroes were freed
in a moment but are still in bondage
to their ignorance.
The sorest place with western farm
ers is the transportation monopoly.
We feel that if the tariff is the mother
of the trusts, transportation is their
father.
Let us begin by government owner
ship of railroads, and perhaps govern
ment operation of some of its coal
fields not by confiscation, but by de
velopment of coal banks on the pub
lic domain.
Tariff seems to me to be wrong in
principle, but it is. not the greatest
evil. The government can buy the
roads at what it will cost to build
new. If not, build new. It won't hurt
the railroad magnates as they can get
employment on the grade of the new
government roads if they cannot com
pete with the United States. Their
troubles should never be mentioned,
for if a relief for one-half the pres
ent, poverty could be got, it would
mor than pay for the lives of all the
railroad men. No nobler sacrifice in
all history will ever be recorded than
the one that leads us out of the sick
ening, dazzling light of American mil
lionaires. If man is God's noblest work and is
no"- at the highest point yet reached
in his development, the American mil
lionaire is the most fiendish form yet
permitted to Pluto.
E. F. CAMPBELL.
Cisco, Utah.
DEPORT THE NEGRO.
Editor Independent: The trust
problem can be solved in only one
way. That way is to maintain the
equilibrium of the world. Rightly
balance every country, and the world
will balance itself. There is but one
legislative act that will do this. Our
country can easily do its part of the
balancing. Send the negro away from
the south is the way. Gradually send
them away, so as to injure no land
holder. Send one million a year, for
ten years, to Africa. In that country
they will civilize about thirty mil
lion savages. That will open up a new
market for our produce.
This enactment will balance the
three vocations agricultural, Indus
trial, commercial. No country can
have compact strength unless these
are balanced. Agriculture is the
blood, commerce the flesh, industry the
bones. A nation of people is anal
ogous to the human body. To increase
Uncle Sam's strength we must make
his bones grow. They must grow in
Mississippi as well as in Ohio. There
is only one thing that will promote
such growth. Negro muscle must go
out, and white-man brains come in.
There is one difference between free
trade and protection as trust-breeders.
Protection makes many little ones;
free trade a few big ones. -
! STEWARD B. PIPKIN,
Candidate for governor of Mississippi.
Gatewodd. Miss.. Jan. 5. 1903.
Nebraska Real Estate and Exchange Agc'y.
100 Choice Bargains in Nebraska Farm Land. ??J$Tice'
Fifty Stock Ranches in Nebraska. Jtir&rptaff.
location. .
READ THIS LIST:
No. 510. 1100-acre ranch, one mile from the county seat of Sherman
county. It will pay stockmen to investigate this.
Np. 541, This i a great ranch proposition, controlling a range ten by
twelve miles square. ; Goes at a bargain. Located in Thomas county."
No. 542. G10 acres in Frontier county, all deeded. 100 acres in fall wheat.
Good farm with 200 acres under cultivation. Price $7.50 per acre.
Write us what you want in ranch property and we will submit full de
scriptions of our bargains for you to choose from.
No. 558. 40 acres one mile north of Seward. This is one of the most beau
tiful homes in Nebraska. Improvements worth over $5,000. This
pretty place to trade for a larger farm and pay cash difference.
No. 559. Stock of general merchandise in county seat town worth $8,000.
Average annual business $52,000. It takes cash to handle this, but a
better business opening cannot bo found in Nebraska.
No. 5G0. 40 acres in Custer county, five miles from Oconto, for $000. Good
running stream on this land.
No. 557. 80 acres 0 miles south of Lincoln. First-class improvements.
Half mile from school. Fine road to city. 2 acres alfalfa. No batter
land in Lancaster county. Price $55 per acre.
No. 533. ISO acres 8 miles from Lexington, Dawson county. Improve
ments worth $2,500. 25 acres in alfalfa, 25 under irrigation ditch, GO
in pasture, all fenced, one-half mile from school. Price 121 per acre.
No. 558. 400 acre stock farm in Otoe county, two miles from town, highly
improved. This goes at a bargain.
No. 556. 100 of alfalfa land in Dawson county for $3,000. A rare bargain
indeed.
No. 551. $0,500 stock of hardware in one of the best towns in Nebraska, to
trade for land.
No. 552. $3,000 stock of merchandise, $550 cash balance unimproved land.
These goods in St. Joe, Missouri, and can be shipped anywhere.
No. 550. $2,000 residence in good town, for eastern Nebraska farm land.
No. 551. Good paying laundry in town of 5,000. This goes at $2,500 cash.
Several business properties to trade for good land.
If you have farms, ranches or city property to sell or trade' list it with
us. We will dispose of it quickly. If you want to buy property of any
description we can suit you in price, terms and location. We have exten
sive facilities for getting business propositions before prospective buyers.
Nothing is too large, too small or too far away for us to handle success
fully. Write for full information.
Weber & Farris,
1328 O STREET.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA.
-tin
-iaa
Ef
S2C
The Central Nebra
Real Estate Co.
Located at Omaha, Lincoln and Thedford
Are you ready to sell your Farm or City Property, or if you want to
exchange for cheap lands or ranches, we make a specialty of this line.and have
an extensive list of most desirable lands that are rich and productive that
we can furnish to our customers at astonishing low prices. The price of
lands is advancing rapidly. Now is the time to take advantage of these
bargains.
If you list-your property with us for sale, we will sell it.
Our means of securing purchasers and furnishing the fine lists of prop
erty, that we have for sale is on account of the number of agents that are
giving their entire time pushing the business of this hustling real estate
company. For further information correspond with
The Central Nebraska Real Estate Go.
Lincoln, Nebraska.
J. H. Edmisten, Pres. E. D. Johnson, Sec.
1 ii r f n i if i - 1-il-r.Tr'iMiiirwn-ifi'--''
Jl
De Leoniies vs. "Kangaroos"
The fight between the DeLeon so
cialists and the "kangaroos," as the
Wilshire-Wayland faction is dubbel
by the other, grows more bitter all
the time. Even in the palmy days of
Dclemdeaver, the populist contest be
tween mid-roaders and fusionists was
not more intense. Some time ago
Father McGrady, of Bellevue, Ky.,
wrote an article for publication in
Wilshire's Magazine, in which he in
dorsed the writings of such men as
Darwin, Zola, and Renano. His bish
op "called him down," and the result
was Father McGrady was "martyred."
Wilshire's and the Appeal to Reason
are, of course, making the most of it.
"We are coming, Father McGrady, a
million strong," sings the Appeal, as it
booms its populist edition. But this
angers the Weekly People (DeLeon
socialist), and in a column report of
one of Father McGrady's meetings at
Louisville it says:
"To size up McGrady, he is a tall
and well-fed, powerful fellow with a
tremendous voice, who, like Debs and
Herron, will now tour the country as
a new freak in the kangaroo menag
erie, relying on his temporary notor
iety to draw large crowds for the
freak party. .
"The crowd itself was a study.
There were philosophical anarchists,
labor fakirs, A. P. A.'s hoping to hear
a 'sensational expose,' democratic poli
ticians of Catholic extraction out of
curiosity, initiative and referendum
cranks, "sick and death benefit bene
ficiaries," "Atte Gehossen" of ,the
Atheist type, and last, but not least,
several expelled S. L. P. members and
such as fell by the wayside hopeless
and inactive. Truly a veritable crazy
quilt, all bent on hearing asounding
things from the mouth of a resigned
priest.
"The crowd numbered fully CO peo
ple wtich is about the largest crowd
ever seen in Louisville at a meeting
called in the name of socialism. He
came, he saw and got the "plunks."
Exit McGrady!"
Readers of The Independent should
examine the advertisements In its col
umns. It will pay you to read them
and take advantage of the bargains of
fered. Always mention The Independent