LAND MONOPOLY. 665 



The nation is in the hands of the fundholders; they are 

 our creditors and likewise our masters; they have but to 

 command and their subjects obey, and young or old men 

 that enter the councils of the nation who desire to rise, 

 have but to do their bidding and hide and screen their 

 hellish plots and methods to despoil the people, and they 

 can share the glory as well as the spoils of their masters. 

 Thus the highest honors are conferred upon those engaged 

 in the most iniquitous and damnable proceedings. If a 

 man refuses to be bought, coaxed or cajoled into support- 

 ing these schemes of wickedness, or remain passive as to 

 their consummation, he is ridiculed, ostracised, "read out' 7 

 of the party and followed home and beaten for re-election. 

 We dwell upon these evils, though it is somewhat of a 

 repetition, at the risk of wearying the reader, because we 

 desire to call attention to their relation to the subject 

 under discussion. Land monopoly is infinitely the worst 

 in the whole category of evils; in fact, it is the aggrega- 

 tion of all the other evils. Every sytsem of class 

 legislation, every law that favors one at the expense of 

 many, every measure that tends to centralize wealth, is a 

 step towards the consummation of the land monopoly. It 

 is the result aimed at; it is the object to be attained. Its 

 consummation is not a blight upon this generation alone 

 but upon those that are yet unborn. It evils are wrought 

 with such evil consequences, and entail so much misery, 

 suffering and woe, that anything, even the bloodiest and 

 most sanguine war is preferable. 



For various reasons the farms of the South have not 

 been mortgaged to the extent of those in the more fertile 

 regions of the North and West. But Shylock has already 

 turned his greedy eyes upon this beautiful Southland and 

 is now establishing his loan agencies. We cannot too 

 strongly urge upon the Southern farmer to beware of the 

 net that is being spread for him. Shun it as you would a 



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