THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
APRIL 21; 1904.
TO TT IM TTft TP TO TT W IT TM TT
V
The Philosophy of Freedom
. An Open Forum for Single Taxers -
Editor Independent: In your issue
of April 14 you say: "The taxes (on
ground values In British municipali
ties) will have to be, paid and Lie
money will have to be earned to do
it." And you ask, "Who will earn the
money?"
I predict that you will receive dozens
of replies like my own, namely: No
one will earn the money. That is, r.o
one will have to earn to pay those
taxes any money which he would not
have had to earn and to pay just the
same If no such taxes had been im
posed. The owners of the. land must
pay the taxes thereon out of their own
pockets, and it is probably safe to as
sume that practically no landlords hi
British municipalities have to earn
their money. Neither will they raise
Tents on account of the tax. Because
their rents are already and always
close up to the limit of value, and the
tax on the bare la" d will in no way
tond to make land scarcer or to check
buhding or to create any kind of con
dition v,;hlch ' would enable - landlords
to raise r2nt?, but on the contrary.
Does not the editor agree with us in
this conte. ion?
GEO. B. ROUNSEVELL.
Cuba, N. Y.
.Editor Independent. -rresident
Roosevelt's recent message to con
gress contains a sentence that de
serves analysis. Regarding immigra
tion he says that "we cannot have too
much immigration of the right kind,
and we should have none at all of t he
wrong kind." Considerable comment
has been made in the press upon this
question, Indicating fear from the in
flux of foreigners both of the "right
kind" as well as the "wrong kind."
However true the president's conclu
sions may be under present condi
tions, I could better agree with him
had he written but the first six words,
viz: "We cannot have too much immi
gration." , -
In a country as vast as are these
United States, under conditions that
would assure equal rights to the nat
ural op.porttmities-rsuch as ft. demo
cratic government should assure we
could absorb and develop into gooa
citizens the entire population of the
civilized woud. One has but to put
such an astounding proposition to a
mental analysis to prove it sound. We
all live, in the last analysis, upon the
products of land. In the United States
only one-fifth of the land is in actual
use, and little of this Is put to its
best use. This one-fifth supports 80,
000,000 of people. At this rate, the
whole country would sustain 400,000,
000. Little Japan, with an area equal
to two of our average states, supports
a population of 43,000,000. Yet in
Japan only one-fifth of the land 13 cul
tivated. If the United States weic
as thickly populated as Japan it would
sustain a population of 1,075,000,000,
or considerably more than the pop
ulation of the civilized world.
Why is it then that we seem over
populated and'thot already a vagrant
horde infests our highways, whiie
millions live crowded like cattle Li
slaughter pens within the confines of
our cities? It cannot be that the land
will not support them, for four-fifths
of it -is not yet in use; nor can it be
that there is not room enough, for 1,
708,230,000 acres lies almost uninhab
ited. The fault is not in' our size, Mr.
President, but in ourselves. Through
our amazingly unjust governmental
policy, the God-given right to free use
of the earth is denied men, and
through the subtle processes of na
ture we are paying . the penalty siie
exacts for disobedience to her law. We
have put the birthrights of all men -both
those that are, and those that
are to come up for sale, with the re
sult that four-fifths of it has prac
tically been taken from the market
by high price, and the power of mo
nopoly to withhold it from use.
This same inequitable arrangement
produces unreasonable inequalities
and the unjust distribution of wealth,
which so deeply disgraces this dem
ocracy. The remedy lies 'in free land free
dom from monopoly.- Not the few re
mote acres still possessed by the gov
ernment, which are said to be free,
but every acre of these United States
lakes and rivers, farm lands ana
city lots, mineral and timber lands,
etc. They belong equally to all men,
and to all men should be offered
equally the use of them. Their rental
values, taken yearly by the govern
ment, and expended for the equal ben
efit of all the people, would secure to
each his rights in and upon the earth.
Give me a single state, under such
a system of equity, and I could de
populate the surrounding states
merchants, laborers, foreigners, ras
cals, thieves, and all not to the detri
ment of the particular state, but of
the states from whence they came.
The criminals of England, deported
to Australia and ' given free access
to land became the aristocracy and
statesmen of Australasia. Justice be
gets freedom, and freedom begets men.
Mirabeau says:
"Everything that breathes must ob
tain its nourishment by labor. This
is the first law of nature, anterior to
all human convention; it is the con
necting bdnd of society; for every man
who finds nothing but a refusal to his
offer,to work in exchange for his sub
sistence becomes the natural and law
ful enemy of other men and has a
right of private war against society."
E. O. BAILEY.
1LU 11 IN 1LM ULJ iik XI V V 11 1 J
Farmers wanted as agents.
AUGUST POST, Moulron. Iowa.
Theatre-Going
Cincinnati, April 17, 1904. At the
Vine Street Congregational churcu,
the pastor, Herbert S. Blgelow,
preached on "The Sermon in the
Bells." Mr. Bigelow spoke of the no
ble use to which the theatre might
be rut and cited Sir Henry Irving's
f annus piay as an example. He said
in part: -
The ccrvictlons of one age become
the superstitions of the next and old
customs melt away like snow drifts
iu early spring. With grim theology
and severe manners our Puritan fore-
Wiers sought the wilds of America,
no that they might establish religious-
neeuom, but that they might be free
to fcice their own gloomy views ot
aie upon their neighbors.
Theatre-going was one of the vices
Vanguard of Populism.
APPLICATION BLANK.
Charles Q. De France, Lincoln, Neb.
, Please enter my name in the Vanguard enrollment,
and send me blanks and other Vanguard printed mat
ter. 1 shall do what I can to help out in the work
Grand Enrollment Doy,
' (April 30, 1001.)
Name ,
P. O.
State,
Precinct,
Countv
ICnt thl wit. itf Kmi tn.t Mrm. tnt ! hi ( Q, I . I In. X, K
flu. ..! Ilmu4 fcirttlr to the r.!l, Ue rttultf litu rill ft.."rt en
Urteut 1 unUntul tey-iprU a l lrk h yowf j uiM Mt Ut Uul It
Wall Paper and Paint
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Orders from out of town receive the same careful attention as in the
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D. W; BOWER,
Aut. Phone 3571, 1446 O St., LINCOLN, NEB.
which ,very naturally fell under the
ban of the Puritan conscience. One
of the shortest cuts to hell was sup
posed to be through the pit of the
piay-house. But all this is passing
away. Life is not a penal institution.
A man may be reverent without being
mournful. The highest rectitude does
not consist. in mortifying the flesh by
arbitrary and artificial rules. The
Son of Man came eating and drinking.
No conduct is wrong or unholy or ir
religious which does not destroy one's
own powers or invade the sanctity of
another life. No joy is blameworthy
which is not wrung from the sorrow
or shame of another. Vice is high
treason against the law of human
brotherhood. Sanity in religion is a
ood thing. Men should not be asked
to shun as wicked what is no sin.
Thus the feeling grows that dis
criminate theatre-going may be, not
only innocent, but helptui.. Plays like
"The Bells" contribute much to this
end. What preacher could hope to
depict in a single sermon, the piti
less vengeance . of an accusing con
science as graphically as Irving dots
in the play that made him famous?
A man committed a murder, it was
on a winter night and the sleigh bells
were ringing. He hid all trace of his
crime and with his ill-gotten gain he
bought his way to honor and influ
ence. But there was that black secret
in his heart. He never forgot How
his soul would start at the sound ot
those bells!" .A man with a guilty
conscience is the most abject slave in
the world. Finally he had a dream.
It was on the night of the marriage ul
his daughter.' He had tried to say to
himself that now he had triumphed
and that his conscience was at rest.
In his dream he thought that the hid
eous secret was out, that the law had
him in its toils and that the death
sentence had been pronounced.
In the morning they found him dy
ing and in his death agony grasping
convulsively at the Imaginary rope
about his neck. The man's conscience
had become his hang-man. The story
suggests how real may be the suffer
ing of the unpunished criminal. One
thinks how mild is the gibbet com
pared with this reign of terror within
the soul. This drama is a portrayal cf
that august fact of human nature
the fact that man is unable to shake
off the presentment that the deeds
done in the body are frought with
eternal consequences and that his life
is spent in the presence of the All
Seeing. But think of the time when tLe
conscience of man shall be sufficiently
educated to recoil at the thought of
war as men now recoil at the thought
of single-handed murder. Today our
statesmen talk of policies which in
volve wholesale murder as , complac
ently as they discuss the digging of a
ditch. They have not yet learned tho
enormity of doing through the agency
of the government, deeds for which in
dividuals would be hung. The blood
that Is spilt by the soldier Is upon
each man's band. The moral law
cannot be repealed by act or con
gress. If it ia murder for one man to
take a life, it Is a thousand times
more murderous for a thousand nun
to take It. We shall begin to be civil
ized when our conscience tells u
these things.
In the great drama of human life,
the eyes of man open wider and wid
er; conscience growa more and mote
sensitive to wrung; the glory of one
as; become the shame of the next
anj each suerfedlw: century M a
runs In the ladder that lead from
earth to heaven.
W. W. Conover, of lltioterdm emm
ty, N. J., wo one of the Uirker d'.r.
tri t eliH turn In 11M, lie ha re
cently enrolled a a member of tl.e
(H I Guard f Iotullm. ending a ul
Jar to help the work along. He Le
llevee there are a gix many iuiuia
jet In hi tounijr, but tae lack of or
sanitation rvndera It duUeult tu ktn
all of them. He uya, l would I rUl
to altrmi tne Hirini,rkJ4 ronventiou
ALFALFA
and other forage plant seed. We
have a specially choice lot of extra
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Choice Alfalfa, perbu. (60 lbs) sacked
. J.25 '
Turkestan per bu. (60 lbs) $10.00
Cane Seed per bu. (50 lbs) , 75c
-r 10 bu. lots per bu ...70c
50 bu. lots per bu ,.65c
German Millet per bu (50 lbs)...... ..80c
10 bu. lots per bu . . . . .75c
50 bu lots per bu .70c
Siberian Millet per bu. (50 lbs) 75c
10 bu. lots per bu ,. 70c
B0 bu lots per bu ......65c
White Kaffir Corn per bu. (50 lbs) 75c
10 bu. lots ; ....70c
2 bu. grain bags for Cane Millet
and Kaffir Corn each extra 20c. '
Sed Corn (no butt or tip kernels)
Cattle King, la. Sliver Mine, Neb. Ycl
low Prize, shelled and sacked, per bu.
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149 8e. lOth fit..
......
Lincoln, Neb.
n
3C
I. II. Hatfield -Attorney :
DISTRICT COURT, LANCASTER COUNTY,
NEBRASKA
In the matter of the estate of Charles II. Harri
son: -
This cause rame on to be hard upon the peti
tion of T. P. Harrison, administrator of the es
tate of Charles II. Harrison, deceased, praying
lor license to sell lot No. 20 in Yates & Thomp
son's sub-division of lot 17, In the northwest
quarter of section 30, town 10, range 6, in Lan
caster county, Nebraska, lor the payment of
debts against said estate and the costs of ad
ministration .,
It is therefore ordered that all persons inter
ested in said estate appear before me at the dis
trict court. Lincoln, Nebraska, on rhe 81si dar
ot May, 1904, at 10 o'clock a. m. to Bhow causa
why a license should not be granted to said ad
ministrator to sell said real estate to pay debta
and expenses.
April 15. 1904. E. P. HOLME.-,
Judge District Court.
if my age and health would permit."
Mr. Conover is 75 years of age, but Las
lost none of his interest in the causa
of populism. It is to be hoped that
his health will be such that he can b
at Springfield July 4.
James G. Young, Monroe county, W,
Va.: "I am a populist In principle,
but we are dead here, I fear, as most
of my populist friends went over to
the republicans last election just as
far away Xrom our principles as thty
could get. However, I see one of theai
has enrolled in the Old Guard."
Capt. G. W. Floyd, Westchester
county, N. Y.: "All aboard for Spring
field, III., July 4, 1904! To every word
of Ilro. A. C. Van Tine, respond with a
16 to 1 hurrah! hurrah! All aboaid!"
T. A. Burman Greer county, Okie.:
"Ago and feeble health prevent ma
from taking an active part In to
work. My heart Is with you. Suo.cs
to populism."
C. W. ft! ward. Greer county, Okla.;
"I am pleased to the OKI Guard
Mains up bo rapidly. Give it to tne
plutea ied hot. '
I. W. Urown, Carroll county, (,a.:
i am very much plenaed with Tie
Independent."
M II. l.nnj?.hani, Arkansai county,
Ark.: "1 nm with you. Count me tu
yt'nr !tt of reformer for all tltnr. I
am In the mu from prn l(lo an.!
not fur offlie,"
W'm. U. Slngli'trm, ArkiitiM coun
ty , Ten., nn f th plonker rrfrmfi
of the l.nne Mar nt&te, write; "l
like The lndrif ndrnt, rVtt.t it utUI
the rrmtlt of the elrvHon In known."
C Uljr, Cermark. Ky., - like tie
Independent. It ttatwU for Justltt,-