676 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



The small sum of 115,000,000 acres, 22,000,000 acres less 

 than has been given to the railroads alone. If we take the 

 rate at which the public lands have been going for the last 

 twenty-five years as a basis, there will not be, at the end 

 of fifteen years more, one acre of government land to be 

 had. Then these big land sharks will begin to reap their 

 reward, unless compelled, through legislation, to put their 

 lands in the market at once. By all means let us have a 

 graduated land tax. 



In 1880 there were 75,000 farms in the United States 

 which contained over 500 and less than 1,000 acres, and 

 286,000 which contained more than 1,000 acres. The 

 census of 1880 shows us that at that time, seven years ago, 

 there were 1,024,000 tenant farmers in the United States, 

 200,000 more than Ireland ever nad, and the number has 

 increased nearly 3 per cent, since that time. 



In former chapters we have treated briefly of the 

 monopolies that have sprung into existence within the past 

 twenty -five years, with the position that the leaders of the 

 two great political parties have occupied thereon, and the 

 rapid strides that have been made towards an aristocratic 

 and centralized government. 



The natural tendency of all monopolies, as must be 

 apparent to all, is to burden men with an indefinite amount 

 of debt, create a system of usury, obtain mortgages upon 

 real estate and eventually own and control all the land, 

 and live, fatten and flourish off the rents thereon. Millions 

 of acres have thus passed under mortgage, the inevitable 

 result of which is "the creation of a class of land owners 

 on the one side and of tenant farmers on the other. n 

 Twenty billions of debt have been fastened upon the 

 people, and a system of usury established that is sapping 

 the very foundations of our national prosperity. Twelve 

 hundred millions of dollars interest money are thus annu- 

 dly demanded as a tribute on labor to pay into the hands 



