12 t3be Conservative *
MY COUNTRY.
For TUB COXSKIIVATIVK.
What do the lands expect of thee ;
What do the gods , and what do woY
Home new composure unforoknown ,
Where all the filaments that weave
The texture of the westworldone ,
Karth'K last of greatness shall achieve ?
What is the vessel , to the freight ?
Can woods and waters build a StateV
There grow the seed of manhood free ,
Not vaunting what the Held may be.
They who espy theo from afar ,
And find thee eraek-nerved , fitful , shrill ,
They learn but where the noises are ,
Not of the fountains deep and still.
Their glass may bring the distant near ;
Into the scent it cannot peer ,
Where breathes alone the spirit clear.
Regard not praKe of theirs or blame ,
Regard the noble things they give ;
Hi' thou not other nor the same ;
As ( ted shall lead thee , move and live.
Hut if the stem shall rise and root ,
Come pruning , that it boars much fruit !
Stern were the edges thou hast felt ,
And more abide thee to be dealt.
Not thine the nations to compel ;
Thy leading be thy living well.
True have they said , intestine war
Than all the rest is direr far :
Those are but thrusts for power and pelf ;
Thine is the strife with evil self.
Wage thus thy warfare deep within ,
Not forth on others belch thy sin !
Where thou canst reach a hand to stay ,
And succor , shrink not from the way ;
Hut know thy foremost conflict still ,
With household fiends who threat theo ill.
For license , rapine , bondage , coin ,
Thy anarch foes their numbers join ;
Some rear their battle , some lie slain ;
Thou in thy strength of right remain.
Mr. Louis P.
MO UK AltOUT
Post , who is beyond
AVATKKK1) STOCK.
yond all contro
versy the ablest advocate of the single-
tax theory in the United States , pub
lishes a weekly called The Public. It is
a very interesting and instructive jour
nal , honest and courageous in advancing
the economics which its editor has con
stantly professed.
Wo copy from The Public of February
4 , the following :
"Commenting upon the criticisms that
are made of stock watering , J. Sterling
Morton's CONSERVATIVE has a very sen
sible thing to say. It calls attention to
the fact that corporation stock is not the
only kind of property thatis 'watered. '
It has witnessed , it says , in Nebraska ,
'tho rise of raw prairie land from
one dollar and twenty-five cents to
twenty-five and fifty dollars an acre. '
And this enhancement , it adds , has
come , 'not because of any effort or
expenditure upon or about these
lands on the part of their owners. ' 'In
fact , ' it proceeds , 'Tim CONSERVATIVE
has observed lauds mortgaged to secure
cash loans for sums aggregating ten and
twelve times more than their owners
paid for those lands. ' And then it
shrewdly asks : 'Have land owners then
differed very much from the owners of
railroads in raising their values for the
purpose of borrowing money ? Have
they or have they not been watering
their stock ? '
"Of course landowners have been
'watering' their stock. The increased
land value being due to no work or ex
penditure of their own , it is to them
pure 'water. ' And the reason they can
appropriate this 'water' is precisely the
same as that which enables railroad com
panies to appropriate the 'water' of their
watered stock. Neither could appro
priate that increment truly an 'un
earned increment , ' but for a monoply
privilege. The railroads do it by means
of their monopoly of right of way ; the
landowners do it by means of their
monopoly of location. In each case the
pecuniary measure of communal growth
attaches to the earth-chance , by moans of
which alone the value can bo appropri
ated ; and the owner of that earth-
chance be it right of way , farm , mine
or city lot diverts the earnings of the
community as a whole , in contradistinc
tion to his fearnings as an individual ,
away from the community's pocket into
his own. In the one case the sums thus
diverted are called 'land values ; ' in the
other , stock 'water. ' THE CONSERVA
TIVE is right. Landowners who got en
hanced prices for their land are virtu
ally 'watering' their stock.
"There is this difference , however , be
tween the profits of the landowner and
that of the stock waterer , a difference
which THE CONSERVATIVE overlooks.
The law has not attempted to limit the
profits of landowners ; it has attempted
to limit the profits of railroads. It fixes
maximum dividends on railroad stock.
And stock watering is resorted to by
railroads for the purpose of enabling
them to pay dividends which nominally
arc within the legal limit , but actually
are .far in excess. Therefore , while in
creased land values and watered stock
are the same economically , legally the
former are innocent while the latter is
larceny by trick and device. "
The theory that the railroads shall bo
regulated by the government as to their
maximum charges for services rendered
is based largely upon the fact that the
government has secured for the railroads
the right of way by exercising the right
of eminent domain in behalf of the cor
poration. Another reason assorted as to
why railroad rates shall bo fixed by law ,
is that the general government has do
nated millions upon millions of acres of
land to the railroads in consideration of
their being constructed.
Now , by a parity of reasoning , why
should not the same government which
has donated millions upon millions of
acres of land to homesteaders also regu
late the prices of the products upon those
donated lands ? What objection can
there bo to the government fixing the
price per bushel of all cereals raised
upon lands donated to homesteaders ? If
it is right to prescribe the limit of the
income of a railroad because the gov
ernment has done so much for it , why
is it not equally proper to fix the price
of corn , wheat , oats , cattle and hogs
grown by homesteaders upon land do
nated to them by the general govern
ment ?
Colonel William
) _ . _
ASSERTIONS.Joimiugs Bryan
eloquently ad
dressed a largo concourse of people at
Ripley on August 81 , 189G , and in the
flood of his fervid oratory on that oc
casion THE CONSERVATIVE caught and
canned the following assertion :
"Proight rates have not fallen. Some
one told me that for some reason or
other freight rates have risen in this
country. And it is true there has been
no fall in freight rates commensurate
with the fall in prices in property. "
This is more savory than canned roast
beef of the Eagan-Alger-Swift brand.
The spice of the assertion is in its una
dulterated , unmitigated mendacity.
Railroad freight rates in the United
States average lower than railroad
freight rates in any other laud on the
face of the globe. Railroad rates have
fallen steadily for a quarter of a century
and they have fallen farther during that
twenty-five years more proportionately
than have rates for any other service
rendered to the human race. And in no
country on the earth are passengers , and
their luggage , carried at so low a cost
per mile and in such comfortable and
luxurious cars. That truth is alive and
ready for any assault that has been
made or may be made upon it or its
twin brother : that transportation rates
by rail , are now , and have long been ,
lower than in any other country. Canned
assertions , even when put up very warm ,
and by the most skilled elocutionist , do
not seem desirable for a mental or po
litical pabulum.
A 1MIJ2SIDKNT WITHOUT A POLICY.
It is a new thing under this American
sun to have a president without a policy.
General Grosvenor , the Ohio oracle ,
fences the present occupant of the White
House against criticism at the hands of
his own partisans by declaring in sub
stance , if not in terms , that the chief
executive of the United States has no
right to have a policy , that congress
alone must indicate what is to be done
in both war and peace , and that all the
duty of a president consists in executing
the mandates of a majority of the legisla
tive body. This is nothing if not a now
doctrine in respect to the responsibility
of the president to the people by v/hoso
full and free suffrages ho was chosen to
the highest trust in their gift. The
shade of Grant and the sturdy form of
Cleveland come up to refute it as a
weak subterfuge , an excuse for cartilage
where there should bo bone , in the
spinal column of the present beneficiary
of Hauna's bounty and democratic votes ,
in his own and other states.