If we are to change the conduct of men, we must change their conditions.
Extreme poverty and crime go hand in hand. Destitution multiplies
temptations and destroys the finer feelings. The bodies and souls of men
are apt to be clad in like garments. If the body is covered with rags,
the soul is generally in the same condition. Selfrespect is gone--the
man looks down--he has neither hope nor courage. He becomes sinister--he
envies the prosperous--hates the fortunate, and despises himself.
As long as children are raised in the tenement and gutter, the prisons
will be full. The gulf between the rich and poor will grow wider and
wider. One will depend on cunning, the other on force. It is a great
question whether those who live in luxury can afford to allow others to
exist in want. The value of property depends, not on the prosperity
of the few, but on the prosperity of a very large majority. Life and
property must be secure, or that subtle thing called "value" takes its
leave. The poverty of the many is a perpetual menace. If we expect a
prosperous and peaceful country, the citizens must have homes. The more
homes, the more patriots, the more virtue, and the more security for all
that gives worth to life.
We need not repeat the failures of the old world. To divide lands among
successful generals, or among favorites of the crown, to give vast
estates for services rendered in war, is no worse than to allow men of
great wealth to purchase and hold vast tracts of land. The result is
precisely the same--that is to say, a nation composed of a few landlords
and of many tenants--the tenants resorting from time to time to mob
violence, and the landlords depending upon a standing army. The property
of no man, however, should be taken for either private or public use
without just compensation and in accordance with law. There is in the
State what is known as the right of eminent domain. The State reserves
to itself the power to take the land of any private citizen for a public
use, paying to that private citizen a just compensation to be legally
ascertained. When a corporation wishes to build a railway, it exercises
this right of eminent domain, and where the owner of land refuses to
sell a right of way, or land for the establishment of stations or shops,
and the corporation proceeds to condemn the land to ascertain its value,
and when the amount thus ascertained is paid, the property vests in the
corporation. This power is exercised because in the estimation of the
people the construction of a railway is a public good.
I believe that this power should be exercised in another direction. It
would be well as it seems to me, for the Legislature to fix the amount
of land that a private citizen may own, that will not be subject to be
taken for the use of which I am about to speak. The amount to be thus
held will depend upon many local circumstances, to be decided by each
State for itself. Let me suppose that the amount of land that may be
held for a farmer for cultivation has been fixed at one hundred and
sixty acres--and suppose that A has several thousand acres. B wishes to
buy one hundred and sixty acres or less of this land, for the purpose
of making himself a home. A refuses to sell. Now, I believe that the law
should be so that B can invoke this right of eminent domain, and
file his petition, have the case brought before a jury, or before
commissioners, who shall hear the evidence and determine the value, and
on the payment of the amount the land shall belong to B.
I would extend the same law to lots and houses in cities and
villages--the object being to fill our country with the owners of homes,
so that every child shall have a fireside, every father and mother a
roof, provided they have the intelligence, the energy and the industry
to acquire the necessary means.
Tenements and flats and rented lands are, in my judgment, the enemies of
civilization. They make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. They put a
few in palaces, but they put many in prisons.
I would go a step further than this. I would exempt homes of a certain
value not only from levy and sale, but from every kind of taxation,
State and National--so that these poor people would feel that they were
in partnership with nature--that some of the land was absolutely theirs,
and that no one could drive them from their home--so that mothers could
feel secure. If the home increased in value, and exceeded the limit,
then taxes could be paid on the excess; and if the home were sold, I
would have the money realized exempt for a certain time in order that
the family should have the privilege of buying another home.
The home, after all, is the unit of civilization, of good government;
and to secure homes for a great majority of our citizens, would be to
lay the foundation of our Government deeper and broader and stronger
than that of any nation that has existed among men.