The Conservative * L
FIDELITY TO PROPERTY.
[ By Prof. John Bnscom , of Williams College. ]
"Political power , " says John
Locke , "is the right of making laws
for regulating and preserving prop
erty. " There is much harmony of
sentiment among writers on Political
Science in making the safety of prop
erty a primary purpose of govern
ment. Mr. Choate , in a recent lao-
dation of the republican party , gave a
prominent position to its "fidelity to
property. " We have no difficulty in
recognizing the value of the praise ,
but we have considerable difficulty in
seeing its applicability. Wn are
tempted to inquire , whoso property ?
That our present tariff fails to recog
nise the right of a man to his own
gains seems to be a conspicuous and
fatal defect in it as a measure of gov
ernment.
Take the case of Mr. Carnegie. We
are the more at liberty to refer to him
as ho is a public man , as his personal
character is held in the highest es
teem , and as his great liberality in
the use of his wealth inclines us to a
favorable estimate of the means by
which it has been acquired. Mr.
Cam eg5 o came to the United States ,
some fifty years ago , a poor boyT He
has secured in that time some two
hundred million dollars. That is a
very extraordinary fact. If wealth to
that amount can bo obtained from the
natural advantages of the country ,
America is a true Eldorado , or we
have boon exceedingly heedless in the
division of gains. If that sum has
been readied by a normal expenditure
of personal power , then that power is
of a marvelous order. It has been ob
tained by the ordinary prosecution of
a business favored , through a long
period , by a highly protective tariff.
It is the result of a distribution de
termined by government in favor of
! ji | a single occupation. There is no
other secret in this astonishing sue-
cess , unless it be in the fact that the
business , by the magnitude of the
means employed , tends to become a
monopoly ; and once established , least
of all forms of industry , needs ex
traneous support. Is a result of this
sort , provided for by government and
constantly dependent upon it , "fidel
ity to property ? " The thief is faith
ful to his own property , but how
about the property of others ? By
means of an authority which no man
can cast off or escape , an immense
fortune is accumulated in a brief
period with a forced contribution from
every household in the laud. Wo
hardly appreciate the largeness of the
result. A city of a hundred thousand
inhabitants might find every one of its
families provided with an inviting
homo by the gains of ono person ; gains
made possible only by law. Is this
"fidelity to property ? "
Mr. Carnegie , in a commendable
temper , feels impelled to restore to
the community the wealth gathered
from it. Wealth gained in a legiti
mate occupation , prosecuted in a
liberal temper , is sure in the process
of acquisition to benefit the com
munity. It brings wholesome pro
ductive activity to a large numberaud
multiplies commodities in the market.
Such getting of wealth cannot be
otherwise than good ; the giving of it
is a much more difficult thing. Mr.
Carnegie is wise in his choice of
methods. Suppose him to return all
his money in the form of libraries to
the people , will the result bo such
that the government would have been
justified in securing it by its own
action ? This large sum has been
taken , in small amounts , from every
industry in the land , making that in
dustry a little less rewardful. The
check has como at the very point of
growth , and has been of the nature of
a hardship. The persons who are" con
tributing to these libraries would not
have done it freely ; and in most cases
receive but a very indirect advantage
from them. Ifby a stroke of the pen ,
we could transfer money , gained in
the hard struggle of life , to libraries ,
with no voluntary participation on
the part of those thus providing the
means , would we feel it wise to do
it ?
Suppose a man to have gained a
million of dollars by an imperceptible
clipping of coin , and then to have
come under the desire to benefit the
public by this wealth. If it were
possible for him to restore each eagle
and double eagle to its original val
ue , what better use could ho make of
his money ? His wisdom would lie
in walking backward to the begin
ning. This would bo to put his gains
to their first and best use in an honest
currency , the life-blood of commerce.
Our government has put upon Mr.
Carnegie , by an authority exercised
in neglect of the rights of industry , a
task which no man cau perfectly per
form , the task of gathering money
in an injurious way and scattering it
again in a manner beneficial. Such a
process cannot be kept in harmony
with the public welfare.
Wo have been considering the in
ability of the largest liberality to
correct an inherent wrong. But this
is an unusual incident in our case ,
and not the case itself. What shall
we say of the much moro frequent
result in which no effort is made to
balance getting with giving ; in which
wealth is diverted from the processes
of economy , from the masses of men ,
and then squandered in luxury. This
is to nourish , on the life-blood of the
people , these who have lost the demo-
oratio temper of the nation to which
they belong. This is neither "fideli
ty" to property , " nor to liberty , nor
to national life.
FOREST OF CATALPA.
John P. Brown , of Couuersville ,
Ind. , secretary of the International
Society of Arboriculture , states that
he had been employed by the Illinois
Central railroad to inspect the lauds
owned by the system in Mississippi
for the purpose of selecting an area
suited to the experimental planting
of many thousands of catalpa trees.
The purpose of this experiment is to
utilize some of the unimproved lands
of the system for the purpose of rais
ing the catalpa tree for crossties , lum
ber and posts. The Illinois Central
will plant something less than 200,000 ft
catalpa trees this spring , and figures
that in the course of fifteen years it
will have a most valuable forest , in
return from which it may glean thou
sands of dollars' worth of lumber ,
crossties almost without number and
an abundance of fence posts from the
refuse.
The experiment is not a new
one , except for the Illinois
Central , as it has been tried by
several other railroads , and in
Kansas large areas have been set
out from time to time by individuals
as an investment for future profit. * * ' :
The Kansas City , Fort Scott & Mem- .Aft
phis railway planted two square miles
of these trees near Fort Scott some
twenty-two years ago , but the experi
ment was largely a failure , as the trees
were set four feet apart each way and
were not allowed sufficient area for
growth. The forest of catalpa , how
ever , is being severely thinned out , xl
the trees being used for fence posts ,
and it is thought that the remaining
plants will still matnro and reach
the growth that they were expected
originally to develop.
Advised Thinning Them Out.
Mr , Brown was in conference with
the directors at Boston last summer
and advised this thinning out , as his
experience has been that the tree
shows the best growth and quickest
development when set at intervals of V
sixteen feec each way , or planted at
eight feet intervals and every other
tree out out at the end of seven or
eight years. This plan gives an orig
inal number of 680 and a final num
ber of 170 trees to the acre.
The Big Four route has recently
planted nearly 200.000 trqes on lands
near its tracks in southern Indiana.
The Boston & Maiuo has 10,000 on
lands in Maine. The Maple Leaf ,
the Colorado & Southern and other
lines are investigating their lands and
the cost of planting with the purpose
of testing the plant. The Pennsyl
vania planted a largo number of tree
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