The Climax, 
 
 }. HOMffiOPATHIG DOSE OF TROTH, 
 
 WHICH, IF TAKEN ACCORDING TO DIRECTIONS, WILL OURE 
 THE WORST CASE OF POVERTY. 
 
 BY CHARLES SIDNEY, 
 
 ^<r^ 
 
 Printed for the Author. 
 
 1SS5. 
 
Copyrighted, li 
 
Pre^face. 
 
 "Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie; 
 Truth is the speech of inward purity." 
 
 In writing these pages, I have endeavored to 
 adhere strictly to the truth, and deal with nothing 
 btit what appeared to me to be self-evident facts, 
 regardless of the opinions of any school of phil- 
 osophy, religious sect, or political party. 
 
 Though many may honestly differ with me, 
 yet, if any are offended, I think it is their 
 fault. If a small dose of truth causes irritation, 
 it only shows that it does not agree with their 
 usual diet. 
 
 Charles Sidney. 
 
 Brooklyn, August, 1885. 
 
HE Blimax. 
 
 ** / a VI not mad^ most noble Fes t us, but speak 
 forth the words of truth a?id soberness." 
 
 We are on the ragged edge of ruin ; the brink 
 
 of Hell. We cannot turn back ; our momentum 
 
 is carrying us onward. Inactivity is death; 
 
 shall we give a grand leap and clear the chasm, 
 
 or go down to the bottomless pit ? 
 
 " We are slaves ; the bright sun rises to its 
 course and lights a race of slaves ; it sets, and 
 its last beam falls upon a slave." 
 
 We cannot go on preaching liberty and hold- 
 ing men in bondage — preaching Christianity and 
 practising robbery. Bribery, injustice and licen- 
 tiousness fill the land ; violence and fraud are 
 openly practised; our legislative halls are cen- 
 tres of corruption. Our judges are modern Jeff- 
 ries, ready to sell out to the highest bidder. 
 The fact that different judges render different 
 decisions, on nearly every lawsuit that goes the 
 rounds of the courts, proves that they are frauds 
 or fools. The presumption is that they care 
 more for their pockets than they do for the law. 
 The red flag of the Commune, that means 
 anarchy and destruction, is already flying in 
 this " Land of the brave and home of the 
 
6 
 
 free," at the head of hordes of emigrants, brought 
 here under contract, and driven to madness by 
 the oppression of our millionaire monopolists — 
 the advocates of high tariff for the '' protection 
 of American labor," in order to reduce the wages 
 of American laborers to the starvation point. 
 The struggle for existence is more and more in- 
 tense ; wages are diminishing, and the difficulty 
 in finding employment is increasing. Like the 
 distant roar of Niagara, the moans and groans 
 of human beings driven to the verge of insanity 
 by enforced idleness fill the air. 
 
 T. DeWitt Talmage, in recent sermons de- 
 livered at the Tabernacle in Brooklyn, said: " In 
 this country the middle classes, who have held 
 the balance of power, and upon whom the nation 
 has depended as mediators between the two ex- 
 tremes, are diminishing, and at the same ratio 
 we will soon have no middle class ; for all the 
 people will be very rich or very poor, and the 
 country be divided into princes and paupers, 
 palaces and hovels. The two great antagonistic 
 forces are closing in upon each other. The 
 movements on the part of strikers and dynamiters 
 are only skirmishes before the general engage- 
 ment. You may prophesy that this trouble, like 
 an angry child, will cry itself to sleep ; but that 
 cannot suppress the fact that it is the mightiest, 
 darkest, most terrific threat of this century. The 
 laboring classes will soon have exhausted what 
 little prosperity they had accumulated under a 
 
better state of things, and then all the enact- 
 ments of legislatures, all the constabularies of 
 the cities, and all the army and navy of the 
 United States^ cannot keep them quiet. There 
 are 65,000 working girls in New York and 
 Brooklyn, and across the sunlight comes the 
 shadow of their death groan. It is not such a 
 cry as comes from those who are suddenly hurled 
 out of life, but a slow, grinding, horrible wast- 
 ing away. Gather them before you and look 
 into their faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger stricken. 
 See that premature stoop in the shoulders ! 
 Hear that dry, hacking^ merciless cough! Many 
 of them have had no breakfast, except the crumbs 
 that were left over from the night before. * * * 
 You want to see how Latimer and Ridley appeared 
 in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a 
 more horrible martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more 
 agonizing death." 
 
 Poverty, and the fear of poverty, are the prin- 
 cipal causes of crime. The holding of land as 
 private property is the principal cause of poverty 
 in every civilized community. No sane man 
 can maintain an idea so absurd and unjust, as 
 that one of the human family has a better right 
 to land than another. 
 
 Herbert Spencer says (Social Statics, chapter 
 IX.) : "Passing from the consideration of the 
 possible to that of the actual, we find yet further 
 reason to deny the rectitude of property in 
 land. It can never be pretended that the ex- 
 isting titles to such property are legitimate. 
 
8 
 
 Should any one think so, let him look in the 
 
 chronicles. Violence, fraud, the prerogative of 
 
 force, the claims of superior cunning ; these are 
 
 the sources to which those titles may be traced. 
 
 The original deeds were written with the sword 
 
 rather than with the pen ; not lawyers, but 
 
 soldiers, were the conveyancers ; blows were the 
 
 current coin given in payment; and for seals, 
 
 blood was used in preference to wax. Could 
 
 valid claims be thus constituted ? Hardly ; and 
 
 if not, what becomes of the pretensions of all 
 
 subsequent holders of estates so obtained ?" 
 ***** 
 
 '* We have nothing to do with considerations 
 of conventional privilege, or legislative conve- 
 nience. We have simply to inquire, what is the 
 verdict given by pure equity in the matter? 
 And this verdict enjoins a protest against every 
 existing pretension to the individual possession 
 of the soil ; and dictates the assertion that the 
 right of mankind at large to the earth's surface 
 is still valid ; all deeds, customs and laws not- 
 withstanding." 
 
 But landlords say that it would not be ex- 
 pedient to change the custom of robbery to a 
 system of justice. Before our forefathers strug- 
 gled for independence, England said it was not 
 expedient to deal justly with her American 
 colonies ; but after wasting millions of treasure, 
 and oceans of blood, she found it was expedient 
 to grant them their independence. George Wash- 
 ington and others, after gaining their own lib- 
 
erty, said it was not expedient to emancipate 
 their slaves, but their descendants, after the 
 slaughter of six hundred thousand soldiers, de- 
 stroying their wealth, and filling the land with 
 widows and orphans, reduced to extreme want 
 and wretchedness, found it was expedient to al- 
 low their slaves their freedom. 
 
 Before the French revolution the rulers of 
 France said that justice was not expedient ; but 
 they soon found that it was expedient to have 
 their heads rolling from the scaffold, and their 
 streets drenched with blood. 
 
 When the monopolists find themselves sur- 
 rounded by an insane mob of men, transformed 
 by oppression and hunger into bloodthirsty 
 wretches, loaded with dynamite, and breathing 
 destruction and death, changing palaces into 
 slaughter houses, and filling the land with rivers 
 of blood, they will then see that justice would 
 have been expedient, as they can now see that 
 only the methods that have been in accordance 
 with justice have been expedient. 
 
 There is no time to waste ; the air is vibrating 
 with the dirge of death. 
 
 It is only by the false hope of better times 
 — that is no longer entertained — and the in- 
 fluence of the most conservative of the laboring 
 classes, that the storm has been stayed. 
 
10 
 
 To-day, any smart, unscrupulous monster can 
 enlist in the United States a million of deluded 
 men to engage in a war for plunder, that would 
 end in extermination. 
 
 A single spark may light the flame that will 
 destroy the nations of to-day, and cause the sun 
 to go down in blood. 
 
 It is a question of importance for society to 
 decide what course to pursue in order that all 
 may have an equal right to the use of land. 
 "The greatest of them all," Henry George, sug- 
 gests the abolition of all other taxes, and to tax 
 land its full rent value. Undoubtedly this is the 
 most simple and easy method ; would cause the 
 least disturbance, and would be very nearly in 
 accordance with justice. 
 
 Though no one can dispute the wisdom and 
 logic of Henry George, yet I think his great 
 heart and the fear of causing some one incon- 
 venience, sometimes leads him to be too conser- 
 vative. 
 
 I think the land question should be settled 
 strictly according to equity. The landlords are 
 not entitled to any more consideration than 
 others, and if they are allowed to keep all their 
 portable property, and have an equal chance with 
 others to lease land from the Government, they 
 ought to be satisfied. 
 
II 
 
 I think the best melhod for society to resume 
 its natural right to the use of land, would be to 
 lease all land in city and country for a year, or 
 a term of years, in quantities to suit, to the 
 highest bidders, regardless of buildings or other 
 improvements ; and if any one should hire land 
 upon which there were improvements, he should 
 pay the owner of the same a fair price or rent for 
 his outlay. 
 
 After paying the expense of the Government 
 out of the money raised for the use of land, the 
 surplus should be divided equally between every 
 native, or naturalized man, woman and child in 
 the community ; this would be exact justice. 
 Those that occupied land would pay only the 
 market value, and those that occupied none 
 would receive their share of the market price for 
 the use of it. This is the usual business method 
 that is, and always has been pursued between 
 partners owning equal interests in land or other 
 property. For example : 
 
 Two partners own equal interests in an estate, 
 and if by mutual consent one occupies the whole, 
 he must pay the other for the use of his share. 
 If each occupies an equal share there is nothing 
 to pay, unless they employ an agent to take care 
 of their interests, as the people employ an agent 
 — the Government to take care of their interests. 
 
12 
 
 Then ihey must pay an equal share of the tax to 
 the agent for his services. So if the land was 
 equally divided between all the people, the tax 
 should be equal ; but as an equal division of land 
 would not be desirable, or feasible, each should 
 be taxed in proportion to the value of the land 
 each occupied. This method of taxation would 
 accord with the principle expressed in these 
 words : *' Render unto Caesar the things that 
 are Csesar's ; and unto God the things that are 
 God's." 
 
 Taking a superficial glance at the question 
 of taxation, a person might ask, why not tax the 
 land just enough to pay the expense of the 
 Government ? The answer is : only those oc- 
 cupying the land would derive any benefit from 
 ii; ; as in the case I have just cited of the two 
 partners. If the one that occupied the estate 
 was taxed just enough to pay the agent, the 
 other would receive nothing ; so if the land was 
 taxed just enough to pay the expense of the 
 Government, capitalists would be enabled to be- 
 come monopolists, by hiring nearly all the land, 
 and charging enormous rent, thus robbing, or 
 depriving others of its use. On the other hand, 
 if land was taxed its full rent value no one could 
 afford to pay the tax, unless he used the land. 
 If city land, he must build on it. If country 
 
13 
 
 land, he must employ labor to cultivate it, and 
 the demand for labor would furnish employment 
 for all, and force wages up to their real vahie. 
 Even this wonld be the result if one man hired 
 all the land, for then the laborers would receive, 
 in addition to their wages, their share of the 
 surplus derived from the land tax. 
 
 The objection is often raised, that land would 
 not be improved by the erection of buildings, if 
 the land could only be hired from the Govern- 
 ment. This objection can be answered by ask- 
 ing this question : What difference can it make 
 to any man, as far as security for improvement 
 is concerned, whether he hires land from an in- 
 dividual landlord or from the Government ? 
 
 Nearly all the land in Europe, and much in 
 this country, is improved by men wlio lease it 
 from landlords, and many of the finest buildings 
 in all large cities have been built on leased land, 
 at the expense of parties who never expected to 
 own the land on which they built. 
 
 The result, on a small scale, of holding land 
 as private property can be illustrated as follows : 
 A. and B. are the only inhabitants of an island, 
 the right of each to the land being equal. 13. 
 sells out his interest to A. ; then A. says to B. : "All 
 this land belongs to me and you have no right 
 here except by my permission ; if you remain here 
 
H 
 
 you must pay my price for the use of standing 
 room, but as I am a just man, I will let you have 
 the use of land enough to stand upon until 
 morning for the money I have just paid you 
 for your share of the land." B. sees the jus- 
 tice of the offer ; pays the price, and remains 
 until morning. As his lease has then expired 
 he goes to A. and asks for work. A. says : " Go 
 to work, cultivate the soil, and I will give you 
 enough to eat, and no more. If you live on 
 my land, you must consider me as your mas- 
 ter, and hereafter when we meet you must take 
 off your hat, make a bow, and address me as 
 My Lord." Now B. is an abject slave, and all 
 laborers in all thickly populated countries are in 
 the same condition. Though B. might have had 
 the right to sell his inheritance and become a 
 slave, should he have had children he could have 
 no right to sell their natural inheritance — an 
 equal right to the land, as the inheritance of 
 future generations. If he be allowed that right, 
 then Alexander the Great, or any other one of 
 the conquerors of the earth might have sold or 
 given away the whole world to one man, and 
 he and his descendants would have a right to hold 
 all the rest of the people in bondage until the 
 end of time. 
 
The Result, Under British Rule, of Hold- 
 ing Lands as Private Property. 
 
 IMacaulay says : " Enormous fortunes were 
 rapidly accumulated at Calcutta, while millions 
 of human beings were reduced to the extremity 
 of wretchedness. They had been accustomed 
 to live under tyranny, but never under tyranny 
 like this. It resembled the government of evil 
 genii rather than the government of human 
 tyrants." 
 
 Previous to the occupation of India by the 
 English the people were robbed twice a year, by 
 bands of native soldiers marching through the 
 country, and taking all the portable property 
 that they could find ; but by this method of rob- 
 bery they could not stop production and con- 
 sumption, and cause starvation, as the English 
 were enabled to do, by appropriating the land 
 and establishing a high tariff. 
 
 If the Irish and English tenants were only 
 robbed twice a year of their all, they would be 
 much better off than they are at present. They 
 would as soon think of eating a child as to eat 
 anything that their landlords will take for 
 rent. 
 
 Of Ireland, Henry George says : " Even dur- 
 ing the famine, grain, and meat, and butter, and 
 cheese were carted for exportation along roads 
 lined with the starving, and past trenches into 
 
i6 
 
 which the dead were piled. It went, not as an 
 exchange, but as a tribute to pay the rent of ab- 
 sentee landlords ; a levy wrung from producers 
 by those who in no wise contributed to produc- 
 tion. Had this food been left with those who 
 raised it, etc., there would have been enough to 
 support in bounteous comfort the largest popu- 
 lation Ireland ever had." 
 
 But with all her wretchedness, Ireland can 
 still boast of the purity of her wives and daughters. 
 To see the extreme effect of oppression and deg- 
 radation, we must go to England. There, in the 
 agricultural districts, the tenants are forced to 
 live in the most extreme poverty, and when they 
 are no longer able to work are sent to the 
 workhouse to be tortured and starved. 
 
 John Ruskin, in a lecture delivered at Cam- 
 berwell, said : " Within ten years of the passing 
 of the Poor Law Act we hear of the paupers in 
 the Andover Union gnawing the scraps of putrid 
 flesh, and sucking the marrow from the bones of 
 horses, which they were employed to crush." 
 
 Their daughters are compelled to submit to 
 the demands of the lords of the soil, or are kid- 
 napped and carried to London for the use of 
 Queen John's licentious curs. (Queen Victoria, 
 I mean ; I think she was not legally married to 
 John Brown.) 
 
 You may say it is not so in this country; but 
 the inevitable result must be the same if the 
 
1/ 
 
 present system of holding land as private prop- 
 erty is continued. Our land laws are essentially 
 the same as theirs; English capitalists already 
 hold 20,000,000 acres of our best land, and un- 
 less there is a change in the programme, in a 
 few years they will hold 20,000,000 of ""Free '* 
 American citizens in bondage. 
 
 The Government has given 100,000,000 acres 
 to railroads, and American capitalists have 
 bought 80,000,000 of acres more. AH the land 
 that is near a market, or is worth cultivating, is 
 already monopolized. 
 
 Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, in a sermon recently de- 
 livered in Brooklyn, said : " The powers of aris- 
 tocracy and centralization seem to be gaining 
 every day. Those vast estates in the West seem 
 to be preparing for little dukedoms, such as are 
 the bane of Europe to-night. 
 
 "In the most interesting interview I ever had 
 Alexander Stevens said that the greatest danger 
 of the Republic was monopoly ; then he added, in 
 tones of great solemnity, ' I hope that question 
 will be settled by the ballot, but I fear it will 
 have to be settled by the bullet.' " 
 
i8 
 
 The Cause of Stagnation in Trade. 
 
 Under-production always causes stagnation in 
 trade ; if all men were constantly employed at 
 fair wages they would never cease buying ; 
 therefore, the producers would furnish a demand 
 as long as any one desired more wealth. There 
 may be, and often is, relative over-production in 
 some branch of industry, but it is caused by 
 under-production in some other industry. This 
 could soon be adjusted by reducing the price of 
 any article that has a slow sale, instead of reduc- 
 ing wages, or discharging labor. This would 
 keep out competition, for capital and labor seek- 
 ing employment would be obliged to engage in 
 some other industry ; but if wages were reduc- 
 ed in proportion to the reduction in the price of 
 produce, the profit remaining the same, compe- 
 tition would keep up a relative over-production. 
 My argument is as much in favor of capital as 
 labor. Bar out monopoly, and there never was, 
 and never can be, any conflict between capital 
 and labor. They are twin brothers. They are 
 one. What is for the interest of one is for the 
 interest of the other. This is proved by the fact 
 that, without any exception, in every country 
 interest and wages have always risen and fallen 
 together. 
 
19 
 
 Capital is accumulated labor. A machine that 
 assists in producing wealth is as much a laborer 
 as the man that feeds the machine. If wages 
 are low and profits are high in any industry, other 
 capital will step in and employ more labor, and 
 competition for labor will force wages up to 
 their real value. It is an axiom that under-pro- 
 duction must cause poverty, and that there can- 
 not be over-production until the wants of all are 
 supplied. 
 
 If the time ever comes when there is more 
 wealth produced than any one wants, it will be 
 very easy to remedy the evil by destroying the 
 surplus. If any one claims that an enormous 
 production of the necessaries of life can cause 
 want among men, he must admit that they have 
 less intelligence than pigs. If pigs should have 
 more food than they could consume, it might 
 cause dyspepsia, but no pig would be stupid 
 enough to die of starvation. 
 
 Whatever is produced by labor that is of any 
 use is just so much gain. Even if a man pro- 
 duces what he does not want, and cannot sell, he 
 is in the same condition that he would have been 
 in if he had done nothing. He has only lost his 
 time. 
 
 High wages increase trade, and low wages 
 diminish trade in proportion to the reduction. 
 
20 
 
 This is as true as the law of gravitation, the 
 law that forces water to seek its own level. 
 Look at this from any standpoint, and take the 
 trouble to think, and you will perceive that it is 
 undeniable. If the whole world belonged to a 
 few men ; and all the rest were forced to work 
 for just food enough to keep them alive, it is 
 evident that in a few days or a few weeks the 
 masters would have all the wealth that they de- 
 sired, for more wealth would cease to be wealth. 
 What cannot be used and cannot be sold is not 
 desired. 
 
 The result must be an entire suspension of 
 trade and manufacture. 
 
 This has been the partial result and ruin of 
 every nation that has continued the institution 
 of chattel slavery. 
 
 Every civilized nation now enforces a worse 
 form of slavery by allowing land to be held as 
 private property. 
 
 The Southern planters, if they could, would not 
 take their slaves back under the old conditions, 
 when they can get either black or white labor 
 much cheaper, taking into consideration lost 
 time, the expense of keeping the young, the 
 old and the feeble. Hunger is a better slave- 
 driver than the lash. 
 
 It is as true that a nation must die if its cir- 
 
21 
 
 culation of wealth is stopped, as that a man 
 must die if the circulation of his blood ceases, 
 as that vegetation must die if the circulation of 
 water is cut off. ^ If the sea should refuse to cir- 
 culate its water, the land would become a barren 
 waste, and all animal and vegetable life would 
 cease to exist. 
 
 We are not dead yet, but we are paralyzed. 
 We are in about the same condition that vege- 
 tation would be in if there was only a slight 
 shower once in six months. 
 
 Unless we change our course we shall soon 
 be numbered with the civilizations of the past, 
 all of which died of the same causes: extreme 
 wealth and extreme poverty. 
 
 According to the census return of 1880, there 
 were only about one-third of the population of 
 the United States engaged in any occupation. 
 This estimate includes industrial, professional, 
 personal, mercantile, and every other occupation. 
 At the present time there is not more than one- 
 fourth employed. Therefore, each man that 
 works must provide for himself and three pau- 
 pers. If these idlers could be starved or killed, 
 and skinned for their hides, or sold for dissection, 
 as they were in the Tewksbury Alms House, and 
 many other institutions in the United States, it 
 would not be very expensive, but it is very 
 
22 
 
 expensive to provide for some of our rich 
 
 paupers. 
 
 " Take what to you belongs, but take from none 
 By greed, or force, or fraud, what is his own." 
 
 General Grant, financially, did much better 
 while he was employed by the Government 
 than he did while he was in the tanning business. 
 He received, and his wife now receives, the in- 
 come on $250,000, subscribed mostly by monop- 
 olists, who were enabled by the Grant ring to 
 rob the people of hundreds of millions of dollars. 
 Yet, after getting fleeced by a fishy game in Wall 
 street, he was enabled, by the joint act of Arthur 
 and Cleveland, to draw an additional sum of 
 $13,500 yearly from the U. S. Treasury. 
 
 It may seem cruel to tear the shroud from the 
 dead. Christ said, *' Leave the dead to bury 
 their own dead," but he never suggested that a 
 public park should be used as a Potter's Field. 
 
 If heroes would slaughter none but heroes, 
 and hero-worshipers would bury them at their 
 own expense, it would be their own affair ; but 
 every dollar used for ostentatious display is 
 drawn from the pockets of the laboring classes. 
 
 No man has a right to what belongs to others. 
 An agent has no right to do what his employer 
 has no right to do. The Government is the 
 agent of the people, employed by the people 
 
23 
 
 for their mutual protection ; not to rob the 
 treasury for the benefit of thieves or paupers. 
 A man who, by the use of his hands or his 
 brains, in any legitimate business, accumulates 
 wealth, has an absolute right to that wealth, 
 and if the idle vagabond or spendthrift is al- 
 lowed to rob him of his wealth there will be 
 no motive for saving, or reward for industry. 
 The millionaire has as much right to his mil- 
 lions, if he gained them by honest methods, 
 as the pauper has to his poverty. And no one 
 has a right to ask him for charity, or dictate to 
 him how he shall use his wealth, as long as he 
 does not use it for the injury of others, or take 
 from him any part of it, except a fair share for 
 the support of an economical Government for' 
 the mutual protection of the rights and liberty 
 of all. 
 
24 
 
 No Need of Charity. 
 
 It is very easy to dispose of the poor without 
 charity, as has been proved by new settlements 
 in all countries. All of the English colonies 
 were settled by the poorer classes, yet as long as 
 the land was free there was no need of charity. 
 There were no tramps, beggars or thieves ; no 
 poorhouses, jails or prisons, and no need of any. 
 Even Australia, that was used as a penal colony, 
 and settled by England's paupers, criminals, beg- 
 gars and tramps, furnishes no exception. 
 
 Crime, and the need of charity, always com- 
 mences with land monopoly. The following ex- 
 tract from Bradstreet's reports show how crim- 
 inals and paupers thrive, if they have a square 
 deal : 
 
 *' Total foreign trade of the seven Australasian 
 Colonies, for 1883, increased to $586,452,440. 
 * * * * jj^ other words, the commerce of 
 the United States increased two and one-eigth 
 times in the twenty-eight years from 1857 to 1884, 
 inclusive, while the Australasian foreign trade- 
 increased nearly thirteen fold in the thirty-four 
 years from 1850 to 1885, inclusive. * * * * 
 This, surely, is a most extraordinary exhibit for 
 a population that barely turned 3,000,000 of all 
 ages and conditions. The industrial and com- 
 mercial history of the world furnishes no parallel 
 to it." 
 
25 
 
 If the lowest and meanest of humanity have 
 accomplished this under partial slavery, what 
 need is there for charity if all could have 
 their freedom ? With the exhaustless supplies of 
 nature, and our wonderful labor-saving machin- 
 ery, it is as easy for man to produce wealth as it 
 was for God to produce light, or as it is for a Jer- 
 sey swamp to produce mosquitoes. God said, 
 " Let there be light, and there was light." The 
 swamp says, *' Let there be mosquitoes, and 
 there are mosquitoes." But man says, " Fence 
 in the land, shut off the steam, close the factories, 
 and stop production." The result is, want and 
 starvation. 
 
 In the largest cities there is much land that never 
 has been occupied, and on which the taxes already 
 paid have amounted to more than the land will 
 sell for ; therefore it has been of no benefit to the 
 "dog in the manger," but has prevented others 
 from occuj^ying the land and producing wealth. 
 It is true that this system of robbery has enabled 
 the robbers to extort a large amount of wealth 
 from the producers, but the advantage thus 
 gained has been offset by discouraging industry, 
 depriving many of the opportunity to work, 
 checking trade, and reducing wages and interest. 
 
 It will readily be conceded by every one who 
 gives the subject proper consideration, that a 
 
26 
 
 man can accumulate wealth much faster in a rich 
 than in a poor community. That if all had equal 
 rights, then the whole community would be very 
 rich. 
 
 The majority of the rich have had superior 
 ability for accumulating wealth, or have had the 
 advantage of a better start by inheriting wealth. 
 If the rich, with the advantage of their ability or 
 inheritance, had devoted their time to legitimate 
 business with the same energy that they have to 
 robbing and trampling upon others, they would 
 have been as far ahead in the race as they now 
 are, and all the others would have been well off. 
 
 As proof of this : look at the careers of the first 
 great Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and other million- 
 aires, that started without a dollar, and in one 
 lifetime, by energy, perseverance and industry, 
 have accumulated more wealth than all the gen- 
 erations of Astors. I know it is the custom of the 
 envious and ignorant to call all hard-working 
 millionaires robbers and thieves, and no doubt 
 they have been compelled by the rascality of 
 judges and legislators to play " diamond cut 
 diamond." Yet I think in the main they have 
 acquired their wealth honestly, have developed 
 the resources of the country, and furnished em- 
 ployment to hundreds of thousands of people. 
 Jay Gould and the Vanderbilts, especially, have 
 
27 
 
 in their domestic relations set an example of vir- 
 tue that the best may be proud to follow. Drive 
 the land sharks off the land, and every man that 
 has brains or rnuscle to sell can become a mil- 
 lionaire. 
 
 Remove the fear of poverty, and the insane 
 desire for wealth will cease. A man would be 
 as foolish to load himself with useless millions 
 for a short journey through life as he would be to 
 carry a barrel of provisions on his back for a 
 day's journey to another settlement. 
 
 The tariff swindle in its injurious effect upon 
 labor and capital is only one grade below land 
 robbery. The manufacturers virtually said to 
 their employees, '' If you will vote for high tariff 
 it will keep out foreign competition and enable 
 us to cheat all of our patrons by charging a third 
 more than our goods are worth, and we will 
 divide the profits thus dishonestly gained by pay- 
 ing high wages." 
 
 They did divide the profits, but not with labor. 
 They divided with members of Congress to in- 
 crease the duty. The laborers went with heart 
 and hand into the dishonest scheme, and what 
 was the result ? It enabled the manufacturers to 
 charge exorbitant prices and accumulate enor- 
 mous fortunes at the expense of the consumers. 
 It enabled them to form combinations, to fix the 
 
28 
 
 price of goods and the price of labor, to close 
 their factories and hold goods for high prices. 
 
 It enabled them to discharge American labor, 
 and fill its place with foreign contract labor at 
 starvation wages. When trade is dull with a 
 merchant he makes it lively by reducing prices. 
 Competition compels him to sell more goods at 
 less profit. He cannot close his store and wait 
 for high prices — they would never come. 
 
 Without " protection " the same law of trade 
 would apply to the manufacturers. Foreign com- 
 petition would force him to keep his factory run- 
 ing all the year round. 
 
 Goods would be cheaper ; he could afford to 
 sell for half the profit if he sold twice the 
 amount, and he could sell twice the amount if 
 he sold for half the profit. Wages would be 
 higher, as there would be more demand for labor 
 and steady employment. 
 
 The whole system of tariff taxation is the 
 most unequal and unjust that could be devised. 
 The rates of duty on articles used mostly by the 
 rich or poor will show this. I have picked out 
 the most extreme rates, but any one can see by 
 examining the whole table of the rates of duty, 
 that it is so arranged as to throw the burden of 
 taxation upon the poor classes. 
 
 Duty on articles used mostly by the rich : 
 
29 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Works of Art 30 
 
 Cords, Braids, Gimps, etc 25 
 
 Laces, etc.,, Linens 30 
 
 Musical Instruments 25 
 
 Braids, Trimmings, etc., for hats. 20 
 
 Champagne and Sparkling Wines . . 57 
 
 Jewelry 25 
 
 Diamonds and precious stones .... 10 
 
 Silk, manufactured 49 
 
 Average rate 30 per cent. 
 
 Duty on articles used mostly by the poor : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Rice. 104 
 
 Salt 81 
 
 Spirits, distilled from Grain 332 
 
 Tobacco 70 
 
 Cheroots 93 
 
 Woolen Cloth, low grade 90 
 
 Dress Goods, all wool 75 
 
 Yarns, woolen 69 
 
 Sugar 53 
 
 Average rate 107 per cent. 
 
 The rich are more likely to buy works of art, 
 diamonds, jewelry, etc., than the poor. 
 
 The poor are obliged to buy the necessaries of 
 
30 
 
 life, and it is generally conceded that each should 
 be taxed in proportion to his wealth A rich 
 man may consume as much of the necessaries 
 of life as a poor man, but the wealth is divided 
 in the proportion of a thousand to one ; there- 
 fore, in proportion to their wealth the poor pay a 
 thousand dollars as often as the rich pay one 
 dollar. 
 
 I have been speaking only of the United States 
 tax, which is nearly all derived from the duty on 
 imports and the internal revenue tax, there being 
 no tax on wealth. 
 
 State revenue is nearly all raised by a tax on 
 real estate ; but the landlords are enabled to 
 saddle the most of it off onto the laboring classes 
 by charging high rent. 
 
 Look at this, as another sample of injustice. 
 A man starts a National Bank with a capital of 
 $100,000, and he deposits this amount in bonds 
 with the Government, and receives $90,000 in 
 bills, draws interest on all the bonds, pays no 
 tax, and thus actually gets a bonus for carrying 
 on his business. His neighbor goes into the im- 
 porting business, with the same amount of capi- 
 tal, and in order to be successful must turn his 
 capital over four times a year. The average rate 
 of duty is 42 per cent. ; therefore, he pays a tax 
 of 1 1 68,000 a year for the privilege of using 
 
31 
 
 $100,000, and this tax, with about 50 per cent, 
 added, is eventually paid by the consumers. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the people are crushed to 
 the earth ? Could a race of Gods carry a load 
 like this ? 
 
 Labor unions and strikes never have, and 
 never can, accomplish any permanent good. 
 They are wrong, as they are essentially monopo- 
 lies, and would deprive the individual members, 
 and capital of independence and liberty. 
 
 Even if they could get all they claim, as long 
 as the land monopoly continued, there would 
 still be many out of employment. No doubt high 
 wages would revive trade and create a demand 
 for more labor, but eventually the landlords 
 would (by raising rent) derive all the benefit. 
 Any scheme that is not in accordance with exact 
 justice is not worthy of consideration. Two 
 wrongs never make one right ; good never comes 
 from evil. If a man attempts to strike you with 
 a club, it is better to disarm him than to strike back. 
 Take the land from its pretended owners, and 
 the labor market will at once be relieved of sur- 
 plus labor, and labor will receive its full rights. 
 
 All that we have to do to change our hell into 
 a paradise is to obey the moral law ; the law of 
 nature ; the law of God. The whole law is ex- 
 pressed in this one sentence : '* Render unto 
 
32 
 
 Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God 
 
 the things that are God's." 
 
 " Shall we in presence of this grievous wrong. 
 In this supremest moment of all time, 
 Stand trembling, cowering, when with one bold stroke, 
 These groaning millions might be ever free?" 
 
 The following quotations are from the writings 
 of some of the wisest men that this earth has 
 ever produced : * 
 
 Herbert Spencer (*' Social Statics," Chapter 
 IV.), in speaking of man's freedom, says : " He 
 must be free to do everything which is directly 
 or indirectly requisite for the due satisfaction of 
 every mental and bodily want. Without this he 
 cannot fulfill his duty or God's will. But if he 
 cannot fulfill God's will without it, then God 
 commands him to take it." 
 
 *' The end of all political associations is the pre- 
 servation of the natural and imprescriptible rights 
 of man, and these rights are liberty, property, 
 security, and resistance of oppression.^' — Nation- 
 al Assembly of France, 1789. 
 
 " Look you ; there is a people and there is a 
 world ; and yet the people have no inheritance 
 and the world is a desert. Give them to each 
 other and you make them happy at once. * * * 
 Only find the man that really wants a plot of 
 land, and then say to him, ' Take it ; the land is 
 yours ; take it and cultivate it.' -^ * * Let 
 us learn to wish to benefit all men. Then every- 
 thing will be changed ; truth will reveal itself ; 
 
33 
 
 the beautiful will arise ; the supreme law will be 
 fulfilled, and the world shall enter upon a per- 
 petual fete day." — Victor Hugo. 
 
 '* We hold these truths to be self evident — 
 that all men are created equal ; that they are en- 
 dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the 
 pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights 
 Governments are instituted among men deriving 
 their just powers from the consent of the 
 governed ; that whenever any form of Govern- 
 ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
 right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and 
 to institute a new Government, laying its found- 
 ation on such principles, and organizing its powers 
 in such form as shall seem to them most likely to 
 effect their safety and happiness." — American 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 *' Let us consider the matter. The equal, 
 natural and unalienable right to life, liberty and 
 the pursuit of happiness, does it not involve the 
 right of each to the free use of his powers in 
 making a living for himself and his family, 
 limited only by the equal right of all others .^ 
 Does it not require that each shall be free to 
 make, to save and to enjoy what wealth he may 
 without interference with the equal rights of 
 others ; that no one shall be compelled to give 
 forced labor to another, or to yield up his earn- 
 ings to another ; that no one shall be permitted 
 to extort from another labor or earnings .-^ All 
 this goes without the saying. Any recognition 
 of the equal right to life and liberty which would 
 
34 
 
 deny the right to property— the right of a man lo 
 his labor would be mockery." — Henry George 
 (Social Problems, page io6). 
 
 Obey only the laws of God ; all other laws 
 should be abolished; they are engines of destruc- 
 tion and oppression. 
 
 Any man that thinks he can improve on the 
 laws of God is too far advanced to be of service 
 to any one in this world. The best thing such a 
 man can do is to build a world of his own, and 
 make laws to govern it ; then, if it is better than 
 this world would be if the laws of God were 
 obeyed, he should be appointed by the Supreme 
 God as law-maker for the universe. 
 
 Any one that encroaches upon the rights of 
 another should have an immediate trial by a 
 jury selected at random, Judge Equity and Judge 
 Lynch presiding, and from the verdict there 
 should be no appeal. As Judges Equity and 
 Lynch are ready at all times and places to open 
 court, it would be convenient, and as they never 
 receive fee or reward no one can doubt their 
 disinterestedness and impartiality. 
 
 Would it not be more manly to abolish all 
 government, and, if necessary, let each man con- 
 vert his house into a fort, and himself into a 
 walking arsenal, and fight for his rights, than to 
 be continually robbed by the rapacious monster 
 
35 
 
 called Government, and have his wife and chil- 
 dren crowded into a filthy tenement house, and 
 see them dressed in rags, and hear them cry for 
 bread until the good angel Death, in his infinite 
 mercy, relieves them of their sufferings? 
 
 But it is not necessary to resort to arms. 
 
 The laboring classes m this or any other 
 country can take peaceable possession of their 
 natural inheritance (an equal right to the earth's 
 surface) v/ithout violence or bloodshed. Two 
 thousand English landlords claim nearly all 
 the land in England. What could they do 
 against 30,000,000 of people if they were united, 
 and resolved to have their rights ? If any were 
 insane enough to oppose them it would only be 
 necessary to put them into straight jackets until 
 they came to their senses. 
 
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