PAGE l
clothes, unkempt hair, broken shoes, he was act
ually an outcast.
In the entire distance covered by hls.fcx
perlment, he found only two individuals who did
not treat him with indifference or worse one
was a waitress in a restaurant and the other a
dog. Gleeson got home at last, but with a shaken
faith. He stands ready to argue the "man and
the clothes" question with any and all comers.
PAGE 2
SO
it j j Try Tff Tk I -
Letters prom ine ireonie f
0 - &
U3 Nobrasko. Indopondont
The Independent solicits from its readers,
brief letters on current topics and practical re
forms. Such letters should not contain more than
500 words. There are many subscribers to The
Independent who can give in simple language
helpful views as to the ways and means of improv
ing social, political and economic conditions in
this country. Letters must be typewritten or
written legibly in ink and only one side ol the
paper must be used. The Independent cannot un
dertake to return manuscripts. Ed.
Proposes New Legal Tender
, Ackley, Iowa. Sept. 2. To the Editor of The
Independent: If the government would own all
land and rent it to the people for a tax to pay
the public expenses, the result would be that they
would try to make all they could out of the
land to lay up for a rainy day, without paying
much attention to the improvements on the land;
because improvements would naturally add to the
value of land and would consequently raise their
tax. We all know that land has no value in
itself. Our government is glad to give you 160
acres if you will make it your home, but you say,
"No." Why? "Because homestead land is too far
out of civilization and I would rather pay for
my comforts than spend my days in idleness on
one-fourth of a section in the wild west." Oh
yes, it is the comfort of life that is to be con
sidered, not land or property.". . -.,
Money is a creation of law to measure all
value and will buy all the comforts of life,
created bj vman' ' If money is' the medium by
which, to obtain ail happiness of this world, why
then tax' only for the public expenses? Single
taxers tell me that God made the land for all
his people. This may be very true, but I fail
to see the difference in a thousand dollar farm
and a. thousand dollars in cash. One is equal to
the other as far, as I can see. . The trouble is
that all have not the farm or the, money to buy
it vm : v - '
' In order to reap the full benefit of this world
we musf-Tecognize.iall men as equal before the
law. Tax all property according, to its value for
the support of. all. public expenses and employ
all idle laborers to build railroads and pay , them
in certificates in .-exchange fop their ; labor, these
certificates to be.: a. legal temden for all debts
public and private. ; To my mind no better.money
could be had., Thus, the government could build
railroads with their own money without bonds
or national debts, and operate ttiem for the bene
fit of all the people. As the railroads, so the
postoffice, the telegraph, and all other systems
ol transpiftation should be supported by a direct
tar. It would shift the burden to those who are
most able to bear it, but the laboring classes
would exchange their skill ; for money to buy
land and make them a home of their own, to
escape interest and rent.
This is my doctrine: Let those have the land,
the gold, the intrinsic value, but let me have a
legal tender redeemed by honest labor and I can
buy them air. ; , . A. LUTTERMAN..
The March of a New Idea
It is announced that Victoria, the last of the
Australian states to grant full suffrage to women,
has at length accorded it. This Is a fresh illus
tration of the tendency' of a new idea to run
through a series of neighboring communities, as
the measles will run through a whole family when
one child catches it.
New Zealand led off by giving women the
full ballot in 1893 South Australia did so in
1895, West Australia in 1900, and .. New South
Wales in 1902. In- 1903 Tasmania and Queens
land followed, like: sheep over ar wall, and the
last remaining Australian state; .Victoria, has now
fallen into line. - ;rh; . ; ?r
A similar series has been observable with
municipal suffrage in Great Britain. In .1869 that
right was granted to the women of England; in
1881 of Scotland, and in 1898, with practically,
no opposition, the women of Ireland were given
a vote for all officers except members of par
liament. The course of events in our own country has
been much the same. The first American state
to grant full . suffrage to women was Wyoming,
in 1869, and the three other states that have
since followed the example all lie close to Wyom
ing, in a solid block, and all bordering upon one
another.
Equal suffrage evidently does not lead to the
dreadful results prophesied by its opponents, or
we should not find that the communities nearest
to those where it prevails are the ones which
successively adopt it.
ALICE STONE BLACKWELL.
Origin Of The Single Tax
Los Angeles, Cal., Aug. 30. To the Editor
of The Independent: Occasionally the inquiry
comes to me: "Was the single tax invented by
Henry George?" Of course, the answer is no.
Henry George had no more to do with making
the conditions that embody the single tax propo
sition than had Adam with creating the world,
or Christopher Columbus with manufacturing the
moon.
Henry George was one of the first to dis
cover the natural law that underlies . the theory,
and the first man to publicly present the prac
ticability of raising all public revenue by taxing
land values, and nothing else. . .
It is often asked: What right has the public
to take economic rent from every person owning
land that yields it? The answer to that question
is: "The community has a moral right to take,
for public purposes, that which rightfully belongs
to it. We defy anyone to refute this proposition.
RALPH HOYT.
Asks Brother Hoyt a Question
Holdenville, I. T., Sept. 1. To the Editor of
The Independent: I want to ask Brother Hoyt of
California a question, he being a single taxer.
Say that A runs a factory located on ten acres
of land for which he pays $500 as rent. A sells to
B, a wholesale merchant. B's rent is $250. B"
sells to C, a retail merchant. C's rent is $100.
Here we have $850 in rent. Now I want to
know what or how could we keep A from landing
his rent on B and B on C and C. on the producer.
Brother Hoyt, please condense your reply and
make it plain. Yours for reform.
G. LIGAN.
WHEN A MAN IS DOWN ON HIS LUCK
An Experiment That Taught Something About
the "Rarity of Human Charity"
' Mr. Gleason, of Torrington, Conn., is not only
a prosperous undertaker, but, what is more, he
is a director in a toial abstinence union. All
through his life he was taught by Sunday school
teachers and others thai it is not the clothes
a man wears, but the man himself that counts
in this gray old world. Once that all sounded
good to Mr. Gleeson. He swallowed it as a great
truth, but since a recent experience it does not
sit well on his stomach, total abstainer though
he is. . It all came about somewhat after this
fashion: .
Returning to Torrington from . Wilkesbarre,
Pa., where he was a delegate, to the National
Temperance convention, he determined to. test
the charity of the -world, and incidentally of his
friends. Disguising himself so that he would pass
anywhere for a tramp, he walked from New York
to Torrington, depending on charity and his wits
to carry him through. He, believed that if he
really became needy while carrying . out "his ex
periment, he could call on his friends along his
journey. . '
He started out bravely enough. -The weather
was perfect, and it was a delight to tramp along
the roads. By the afternoon of the .first, day
he- was exhausted .by the unaccustomed : exertion
and determined to try his luck on a trolley car.
He thought that if he told the conductor just
how it was, he would give him a helping hand.
But after listening to the proposal, the conductor
told the would-be beneficiary that he had "an
other .think coming "And. so , It went.. Gleeson
not qnly had to,Mejv;ia. fields. And. fence .corners,
but he couldn't' get enough to eat. With tattered
HEN IS THE GREAT WEALTH PRODUCER
Annual Egg and Poultry Earnings of the Country
. ..Amount to $280,000,000
' - With the strength born of government sta
tistics Franklin Forbes contends in the current
Success Magazine that the mother of the Ameri
can chicken is at once the most productive as
she is the most reliable of all of our industrial
money-makers. The last census of poultry of the
United States showed that the total number of
chickens was 233,598,085; turkeys, .6,599,367;
geese, 5,676,863, and ducks, 4,807,358. Eighty
nine and one-eighth per cent of the farms. of this
country had poultry as an asset. At least 250.
000,000 chickens, to say nothing of other kinds
of poultry, are consumed each year. According
to the government authorities "egg and poultry
earnings" for, one recent year amounted to $280,
000,000. The total value of the gold, silver, wool
and sheep produced in America during the year
in question was $272,434,315. The sugar produc-,
tion of the country the same year was but $20,
000,000. That part of the wheat crop used at
home, which many consider the most valuable
of all our agricultural products, was worth $229,
000,000. The great American hog, as consumed
at home and abroad, brought $186,529,035. The
value of the oat crop was $78,984,900. Potatoes
grown in the United States were valued at nearly
as large a sum as were the oats. The product
of tobacco plantations was estimated to be worth
$35,579,225. Cotton, the dethroned king of staples,
could show only 259,161,640, as against the mag
nifiicant earnings of its feathered rival. The
crops of flax, timothy, clover, millet and cane
seeds, broom corn, castor beans, hay straw, and
so forth, couldn't, all told, come within a measure
able distance of many millions of the poultry
earnings. The hens' eggs produced in this coun
try annually would fill 43,127,000 crates, each
of the latter holding 360 eggs; also, a train of
refrigerator cars to carry these , eggs , would be
nearly .900 miles . olng; furthermore, it would
take 107,818 such cars to make up the train. The
ideal hen, Mr. Forbes discovers through the
scientists, should lay about two hundred eggs-a
year. There are many gifted creatures of this
sort, and millions would be added to the national
wealth if all chickens could be persuaded to
make such performances their ambition.
PRESIDENT MUST SEND ANOTHER MAN
Martin Miller, Stationed at Aix-la-Chapelle, Per-
sona Non Grata to Germany
Washington, Sept. 5. President Roosevelt
has now before him the case of J. Martin Miller,
the United States consul at Alx-la-Chapelle, who
is persona non grata to the German government,
and who will be in another berth in the consular
service unless the president decides to retire him.
When an officer is objectionable to a govern
ment to which he is accredited, there is' no alter
native for the government he represents but to
send another person who is acceptable.
Miller, during his service as a newspaper cor
respondent, procured an Interview with Admiral
Dewey, who criticised the German navy unfavor
ably. In 1898 Miller visited Samoa when Ger
many, Great Britain and the United States were
in difficulties over these islands. He wrote an
article in which he told how the German govern
raen had deported King Maataafa and declared it
was behind the scheme to place young . Maliteao
on the throne. ....
The natives rebelled against .this scheme.
During the Boxer trouble in China Miller also
offended the German government by writing an
account of the difficulty between Field Marshal
Count von Waldersee and General Chaffee over
the division of rations of the forces. This article
reflected on General von Waldersee.
Harvester Trust to Invade New Zealand ,
London, Sept. 7. The Times correspondent
at Wellington, New Zealand, says: . ..
"The operations of the American Harvester
trust are ' seriously, menacing the prosperity of
New Zealand implement makers. The manufac
turers recognize that even a protective tariff of
20 per cent would be unavailing. A deputation
today asked the government to prevent the trust
from doing business. The premier intimated that
the government; would proceed with the monopo
lies prevention bill. '