The opening of these forfeited lands would be the salvation of that
pitiable creature, the victim of the 8 per cent. grind. The homeless
wanderer can get shade and shelter from the burning sun and driving
storm, and with these is content, for he has long since resigned
ambition to those who are willing to continue the hopeless struggle; but
the man, on the 8 per cent. treadmill, who has not yet acknowledged
defeat, has no way of escape from the glare of the master's eye, except
by self-murder or the pauper's grave. There is nothing that excites our
hatred against the infamous laws of our times as much as does the sight
of this brave man struggling against the fate that is crushing him, and
whose patriotism will soon be kindred to that of the Russian serfs, if
it does not go to the other extreme and make him a nihilist or some
other brand of the political desperado. It was from this quarter, forget
it not, that the old flint locks came, "whose report was heard around
the world," and the serf will never be his model, for the old spirit has
still enough of life left for another blaze, as these new oppressors
will find to their awful cost.
The burdens which these people are staggering under can be easily
imagined when it is known that they have been paying interest on
mortgages for years that the places would not now sell for, even after
they were improved by years of labor and the outlay of much money. In
the San Joaquin valley, for instance, there are homesteads by the
thousands that will not sell for what they are mortgaged for, and the
extraordinary spectacle was witnessed in the city of San Francisco last
year of a bank having to close because it could not sell out the valley
farmers for the mortgages due it. Of course these farmers obtained money
from the bank, and the justice of the bank's claim is not what we are
now trying to get at, but to show that if we had the laws that belong to
a republic the people would not be the victims of bankers or any one
else. Had they been allowed in the first place to take possession of all
unimproved land without having to give up the savings of years to some
land grabber, whose theft was authorized and sustained by law, and then
loaded down with interest obligations, they would have had no more
trouble in keeping their land than they would in keeping an arm or a
leg.
With every one limited to 160 acres there would be so much thrown open
to settlement that it would practically wipe out all mortgages on land,
for the occupant of mortgaged premises, could give his owner the option
of accepting what would be a fair price under the new conditions, and if
it were refused then the occupant could simply back his wagon up, put
his portables on and drive to some of the Government land nearest to
him.
And it should not be so difficult to get the fencing and the lumber for
the few small buildings that would answer till he could get better, and,
once started, his condition would be a steady improvement, the interest
he now pays remaining on the premises where it is made. At present there
are the usual fences and buildings put up when the land is bought (part
down, the rest at 8 per cent.), and these are the only improvements,
outside of vine and tree growth, that can be made; the wear of time even
cannot be repaired, for the occupant has nothing to spare for repairs or
improvements, and even the necessaries of life are a tug, and as to
decent clothing for himself and wife and other dependants that is not to
be thought of while he is loaded down with that bane of modern life,
interest obligations.
The cost of moderately sized buildings would of course depend on
circumstances, but it should not exceed a few hundred dollars; and as it
would be a more profitable investment for a county to help a settler,
that is already on the ground, to get a start, than to spend the money
trying to get him there, as is the practice now, there can be no serious
reason why the voters should not authorize their local Government to
extend the necessary aid, and make it optional with the borrower whether
he shall pay in money or work; the length of time and other details to
be governed by circumstances, but no interest to be charged. If this
last causes some apparent loss, let it be charged to the old pumpkin
fund.
There are people of small means who have taken mortgages on land, and
these must be protected, as we have already done in the case of like
investors in paper-represented property. But if these small lenders are
already owners of one hundred and sixty acres they must make the best
terms they can with their debtors, for it is a cardinal idea of this
needed readjustment that no one shall own more than 160 acres. But if
the lender does not own that amount of land, he can get and hold title
as at present.
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The result of the proposed change being to keep the income of the whole
country within its own borders, it follows that every section must find
itself with an abundance of capital such as was never known to them
before, giving them the means to carry on improvements that are entirely
beyond them now. At the present time, too, if a laborer, through errors
of judgment, should lose the savings of his years of youth and strength,
he can rarely recover the ground lost, and finds that paying his way
from day to day thereafter is all he can do, and when his work days are
gone for good he must either go to the poor-house or be cared for by his
relations, whose own load is about all they can bear up under. With the
income kept where it is made all this is would be changed, for then,
instead of having work only a part of the time, and poor wages besides,
the laborer, when his work for private parties gave out, could get work
from the local Government, which always has it to give, and the money to
pay for it. And should a laborer here and there through some unforeseen
cause, be forced by poverty and age to accept food and shelter that he
cannot pay for, his relations can provide for him, for the getting of
the mere food and clothing will not be the momentous question that it is
now. And this power of the local Government to give work will save many
a one from a fate that should never overtake the honest and willing.
Pauperism and crime can never be eliminated from society, any more than
the susceptibility to sickness and disease can be eliminated from flesh
and blood, but as civilization grows older its accumulating wisdom
should be more than a match for poverty, the parent germ of both
pauperism and crime; but the discouraging fact is that these two
diseases of civilized society are advancing faster than civilization
itself, and we build larger poor houses and jails, and then sit down and
nurse the hideous disorders, as if they were the incurable rot of
leprosy instead of being the result of economic laws that allow the able
to rob the weak.
There is not a county or State but what has plenty of work had it the
money to do it. The question of good roads is becoming prominent, but if
they are ever built under our present system of economics they will be
built by slave labor pure and simple. It is absolutely out of the
question for the people to raise the money for running the Government;
pay interest on bonds; pay for the bonds themselves; pay pensions; carry
on the costly work of giving the whole country macadamized roads, and
care for the millionaire, and remain free at the same time.
Government expenses.
Pensions.
Interest on bonds.
Matured bonds.
Macadamized roads.
Care of millionaire.
To think of carrying such a load and remain free is madness.
We are contending that the country is already crushed with debt; that
she is saddled with such a tremendous load, that, like the mortgaged
farm, improvement and progress is utterly out of the question. We have
the resources for any and every improvement that the country needs, but
they are wasted and squandered paying interest to foreign capitalists,
and supporting our mushroom growth of millionaire parasites, who are the
cause of our poverty of capital, and the foreigners' ability to lend us
money.
Do away with interest paying and the millionaire, and the required roads
could be commenced at once, and as for the Nicaragua canal, we would
make as light of it as does the farmer in hoeing a hill of beans.