74o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Farm Politics . 
Here it is proposed to discuss with freedom and fairness, ques¬ 
tions of National or State policy that particularly concern farm¬ 
ers. The editors disclaim responsibility for the opinions of cor¬ 
respondents. The object is to develop a true and fair basis for 
organization among farmers. Let us think out just what we want 
and then strive for it. 
SOME POPULAR FALLACIES ABOUT MONEY, ETC. 
GEN. CASSIUS M. CLAY. 
1. The idea that the price of silver can be raised or re¬ 
duced by a Congress of Nations has now been proved false 
by the steady rise of the price of silver here, while no im¬ 
portations have been made from abroad. Silver and gold 
and wheat, under just legislation, will adjust themselves 
under the same laws as all other articles of commerce. 
2. The idea that a certain amount of money is “ needed” 
per capita in a nation is a fallacy. A man “needs ” (is en¬ 
titled to) just as much money as he has, or can get on 
honest credit, and no more ! This idea rests upon the ex¬ 
ploded theory that government can create a dollar ! None 
but God and labor can do that 1 If the whole mass of gold 
and silver in the world were doubled by magic in an in¬ 
stant, how long would it be before the idle, the spendthrift, 
and all dishonest debtors would cry for more “money?” 
Again, suppose that the “money” of the United States 
were doubled at once, none could get any except those 
who had paid or would be able to pay for it 1 Let us resist 
all schemes in or out of Congress to relieve one class of tax¬ 
payers for the benefit of another. 
3. The idea that production of food by the voluntary 
laws of Nature, as in the case of fruit bearing trees, etc., by 
the cultivation of the earth and its fruits, the capture of 
wild animals and birds, etc., can keep long ahead of popu¬ 
lation is the most fatal of theories. Man is subject to the 
same laws as other animals; even in forethought he is 
followed at a distance by the lower creations. Many 
animals, as the squirrel, wood pecker, etc., lay up food 
for winter or migrate, and if they fail to do this they 
perish 1 The stock-breeder raises just as many hogs or 
chickens as he has corn or other feed to give them ; when 
the feed gives out the stock die ! Man is subject to the 
same lot by Nature. There will always be poverty in the 
world ; but honest laws will greatly diminish it. Why do 
they not do so ? The bravest moralist is a coward here. It 
is said that France has not increased her population in the 
last decade. If this be true, France is the wisest of 
nations! When a nation approaches her maturity, the 
reduction in the number of births of children, is a 
supreme necessity. 
Shall I state the facts ? How can this be best done ? 
By the exportation of her criminal classes; by the stop¬ 
page of importations of women and men ; by discouraging 
marriage; by celibacy in nunneries, monasteries, etc.; and, 
lastly, by obstructing the normal increase of births, or 
destroying the old, the middle-aged or the infants. Both 
of these last remedies, though now practiced, are crimes, 
and should be punished as such. These are subjects for 
thought and action. Until such reduction is made there 
is no use of talking about relieving poverty by “scientific 
production ” If the food of the world is doubled, the 
population will be as ready to consume it as it is now. A 
legitimate increase of the volume of money, then, will not 
cure poverty; but it will diminish it. 
4. The idea that we do not want a tariff so much as an 
increase of foreign trade is a fallacy. If there is a surplus 
of manufactures and food, and the people are suffering 
for both, we do not wane added markets, but honest dis¬ 
tribution. Nations are not governed by the laws of 
Christianity. I would, with all my soul, that they were ! 
If we are bent upon building up and maintaining the plutoc¬ 
racy of railroads, then let us have a tariff against Europe 
and free trade with the Spanish Americans ! England 
and France can beat us with capital and skill and pauper 
labor; let us put up the Chinese wall against them ! We 
can beat the Spaniard both in capital and labor ; let us 
“^take him in 1” 
What we most “need” just now is a fair distribution 
of property, equal taxation, honesty in trade and just¬ 
ice EVERYWHERE. 
Madison County, Ky. 
AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION. 
The honest farmer is never honest enough until he is 
honest with himself. I do not agree with the Massachu¬ 
setts Ploughman, as quoted by The Rural, that “there is 
but one righteous inducement to get wealth, and that is to 
do good with it to others.” The Scriptures command us 
to love our neighbor as ourselves, and there are thousands 
of men, farmers as well as others, whose obedience to this 
command will never do the community they live in much 
good until they learn to love themselves better. There are 
large numbers of men and women who are hurting them¬ 
selves in ways that would seem absolutely wicked, if 
applied in their treatment of others. 
I would like to quote a couplet for John Warr’s con¬ 
sideration, apropos of his reference to C. S. Rice : 
“ Few are the ills that men endure 
Which laws create, or laws can cure.” 
It is one of the absurdities of our present situation that 
men should look to the law for their salvation. The result 
is, statute books bulging with laws that are inoperative— 
and why ? Because the men who asked for them, and re¬ 
ceived them from the politicians, who grinned with wil¬ 
lingness and contempt, did not know what they really 
wanted, and much less how to get it, or use it when got. 
To quote again: 
“ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” 
We have, and boast that we have a free country, in 
which every citizen has an equal chance, according to his 
industry and ability, in the struggle of life. The survival 
of the fittest is a general law, which none can escape; but 
man, unlike the plants and the beasts, has in him, subject 
to his will, the power to make himself fit. He has before 
the law an equal chance. If his legs, bodily or mental, are 
short, he may and will be outrun; but here again the 
human superiority comes in, for we may all lengthen our 
mental legs by exercise. 
The complaint so rife in this country—the best and freest 
that man has ever seen—that the workingman and the 
farmer have a poor chance, is simply shameful to those 
who make it. Let us seek after a skilled and honest me¬ 
chanic for any job, and bow difficult we find the search ! 
He is probably engaged, “’way ahead.” There is a great 
scarcity, not of men, but of good men, who know their 
business. Every employer of labor feels this want. The 
honest, industrious, capable man is wanted, and need 
never be idle. If his personal habits and his health are 
good, he is sure of a competency anywhere. Is it any less 
so on the farm ? 
I say, no 1 I agree with Mr. Rice that the low price of 
farms is not one of the worst evils. It is the necessary 
consequence of the abundance of free government land, 
and will cure itself in time. This free land has been a 
blessing to the large class of men who are trying to be 
farmers, without knowing how. They are not doing very 
well, even on free, fresh land, but they are having a chance 
to learn. They have no right to expect to acquire wealth, 
except as they acquire skill and industriously apply it. 
Another thing ought to be considered: In every vo 
cation there are all degrees of skill, and in those pursuing 
them there are all degrees of natural capacity and fitness. 
It is not in the nature of things that all sorts of men, 
much less every man, should make a marked success in hip 
vocation. First-class men are very scarce; second and 
third class men are none too plenty; while of the men 
whose qualities in this comparison are denoted by higher 
figures there is a great abundance. Now, these very men 
themselves, in speaking of other men, recognize this 
grading of ability, yet too many of them refuse to 
accept patiently their own place in the line. But they 
must learn, and have to learn that there are no first-class 
places for fifth-class men. No amount of laws, however 
cunningly framed (and the cunning is generally on the 
wrong side), is going to change the situation. Farming is 
a good, safe, reputable and pleasant business for good 
farmers. It has its disadvantages as well as its advan¬ 
tages—and in this respect it differs nothing from other 
ways of getting a living. Its superiority, so far as it has 
any, is in the greater personal freedom and in the chance 
a man has to grow. The intelligent, industrious farmer 
becomes a better farmer every year, and to men who are 
men this is the greatest commendation of farm life. Every 
recurring season the farmer has a chance to correct his 
mistakes and amend his plans. He is not, as a rule, sub¬ 
ject to irrevocable disasters. He can “ pick his flint and 
try again.” In short, it is a good enough business for a 
good enough man. Bucephalus brown. 
“THE SINGLE TAX PLATFORM.” 
In The Rural of September 27, page 642, “ H. C. W., of 
Morris County, N. J.,” has this to say about the “Single 
Taxers,” after quoting a paragraph which he says he found 
in their organ: “How about some of those ‘abandoned 
farms ’ up in Vermont and New Hampshire as well as in 
every other State in "this Union f There we have ‘ vacant 
land ’ which cannot be sold or even given away. Why don’t 
these folks buy up great tracts of this land and settle it 
after their own plan ?” I think it quite evident that H. C. 
W. has read but little more than the dozen lines he quotes 
from the Single Tax organ on this subject, else he would 
himself be able to give a sufficient reason why Single Tax 
advocates do not, any more than any other class, take up 
these ‘ abandoned lands.’ The Rural’s space is precious, 
or I would undertake to answer the question at more 
length; but as a matter of information generally on this 
subject, I will ask The Rural to publish the Single Tax 
Platform by Henry George, which states as clearly and 
coucisely as it can be done, the objects and purposes of 
those holding to this faith. w. o. foley. 
Decatur County, Indiana. 
HENRY GEORGE’S PLATFORM. 
“ The single tax contemplates the abolition of all taxes 
upon labor or the products of labor—that is to say, the 
abolition of all taxes save one tax levied on the value of 
land, irrespective of improvements. 
Since in all our States we now levy some tax on the value 
of land, the single tax can be instituted by the simple and 
easy way of abolishing, one after another, all other taxes 
now levied, and commensurately increasing the tax on 
land values, until we draw upon the one source for allex- 
f >enses of government; the revenue being divided between 
ocal governments, State governments and the General 
Government, as the revenue from direct taxes is now 
divided between the local and State governments, or a 
direct assessment being made by the General Government 
upon the States and paid by them from revenues collected 
in this manner. 
The single tax is not a tax on land, and therefore would 
not fall on the use of land and become a tax on labor. 
It is a tax, not on land, but on the value of land. Thus 
it would not fall on all land, but only on valuable land, 
and on that not in proportion to the use made of it, but in 
proportion to its value—the premium which the user of 
land must pay to the owner, either in purchase money or 
in rent, for permission to use valuable land. It would thus 
be a tax, not on the use or improvement of land, but on 
the ownership of land, taking what would otherwise go to 
the owner as owner, and not as user. 
In assessments under the single tax all values created 
by individual use or improvement would be excluded, and 
the only value taken into consideration would be the 
value attaching to the bare land by reason of neighbor¬ 
hood, etc. Thus the farmer would have no more taxes to 
pay thau the speculator who held a similar piece of land 
idle, and the man who on a city lot erected a valuable 
building would be taxed no more than the man who held 
a similar lot vacant. 
The single tax, in short, would call upon men to con¬ 
tribute to the public revenues not in proportion to what 
they produce or accumulate, but in proportion to the 
value of the natural opportunities they hold. It would 
NOV. i 
compel them to pay just as much for holding land idle as 
for putting it to its fullest use. 
The single tax, therefore, would— 
1. Take the weight of taxation off of the agricultural 
districts when land has little or no value irrespective of 
improvements,.and put it on towns and cities where bare 
land rises to a value of millions of dollars per acre. 
2. Dispense with a multiplicity of taxes and a horde of 
tax-gatherers, simplify government and greatly reduce its 
cost. 
3. Do away with the fraud, corruption and gross in¬ 
equality inseparable from our present methods of taxation, 
which allow the rich to escape while they grind the poor. 
Land cannot be hid or carried off, and its value can be 
ascertained with greater ease and certainty than any 
other. 
4. Give us with all the world as perfect freedom 
of "trade as now exists between the States of our Union, 
thus enabling our people to share through free ex¬ 
changes in all the advantages which Nature has given 
to other countries, or which the peculiar skill of 
other peoples has enaV>led them to attain. It would 
destroy the trusts, monopolies, and corruptions 
which are the outgrowths of the tariff. It would do away 
with the fines and penalties now levied on any one who im¬ 
proves a farm, erects a house, builds a machine, or in any 
way adds to the general stock of wealth. It would leave 
every one free to apply labor or expend capital in produc¬ 
tion or exchange without fine or restriction, and would 
leave to each the full product of his exertion. 
5. It would, on the other hand, by takiug for public uses 
that value which attaches to land by reason of the growth 
and improvement of the community, make the holding 
of land unprofitable to the mere owner and profitable only 
to the user. It would thus make it impossible for specula¬ 
tors and monopolists to hold natural opportunities unused 
or only half used, and would throw open to labor the 
illimitable field of employment which the earth offers to 
man. It would thus solve the labor problem, do away 
with involuntary poverty, raise wages in all occupations 
to the full earnings of labor, make overproduction impos¬ 
sible until all human wants are satisfied, render labor- 
saving inventions a blessing to all, and cause such an enor¬ 
mous production and such an equitable distribution of 
wealth as would give to all comfort, leisure and participa¬ 
tion in the advantages of an advancing civilization. 
The ethical principles on which the single tax is based 
are: 
1. Each man is entitled to all that his labor produces. 
Therefore no tax should be levied on the products of 
labor. 
2. All men are equally entitled to what God has created 
and to what is gained by the general growth and improve¬ 
ment of the community of which they are a part There¬ 
fore, no one should be permitted to hold natural oppoi-- 
tunities without a fair return to all for any special privi¬ 
lege thus accorded to him, and that value which the 
growth and improvement of the community attaches to 
land should be taken for the use of the community. 
NOTES. 
The Farmers’ League is taking a very active part in 
New England politics. Its main work is being done in 
Massachusetts, where efforts are made to elect a legislature 
that will pass a law compelling the manufacturers of 
“oleo” to properly brand or mark their product. The 
chances are that at least two State Senators will be de¬ 
feated squarely on this issue. 
A New York subscriber sends the following note: “I 
wish to thank The Rural for the stand it has taken in 
regard to purity of morals in our legislators.” The 
R. N.-Y. can see no reason why our representatives in Con¬ 
gress should not be pure-minded men of high character 
There is altogether too much fist-fighting and vulgarity in 
that body. It is neither a dignified nor an inspiring 
spectacle to see our Nation’s rulers acting like a set of 
loafers. 
It is evident that Mr; Tillman will be elected Governor 
of South Carolina. The “ straightout ” Democratic move¬ 
ment does not meet with much favor because the “straight- 
outs” are forced to admit that they are breaking well- 
established party rules in opposing the regular nominees. 
Southern politics are peculiar. The farmers’ fight there 
must be made inside the Democractic party. 
. Professor W. C. Latta, of the Indiana Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, gives some very sensible advice about the best way 
to secure recognition for farm legislation. There should 
be uniformity, he says, in the demands made by the farm¬ 
ing class. He would have a joint committee formed of rep¬ 
resentatives of all the farmers’organizations in the State. 
This committee should decide what measures it would be 
wise to push, and those they select should be thoroughly 
supported by farmers. It is urged that the piompt indorse¬ 
ment of these selected bills by all farmers’ organizations 
would secure for them 10 times the attention that would 
be paid to a flood of bills submitted at random by Tom, 
Dick and Harry. By organizing in this way, the farmers 
can secure the passage of a few important measures, but if 
t hey go on w ithout organization or without some committee 
authorized to properly “ edit ” their demands, they will 
gain little or nothing. 
The main issue before the voters in Wisconsin this year 
is of fairly National importance. Shall the Bennett com¬ 
pulsory educational law be maintained ? Politicians have 
endeavored to mix up the issue and cloud the real object 
of the bill with all sorts of appeals to religious and na¬ 
tional prejudices; but this one central point should be 
kept in mind. The bill requires that all children of suit¬ 
able age should be sent to school for a certain time each 
year and that the English language must be taught in 
that school. The parent may send his child to any sort of 
school he pleases, but that school must teach the English 
language. “Any parent who believes in education and in 
the English language will never kuow that there is such a 
measure as the Bennett Law.” Demagogues attempt to 
tell the Germans and Swedes of Wisconsin that this law is 
an attack upon their religious rights. The R. N.-Y. does 
not believe that intelligent men will be deceived by this 
argument. All that is dear and valuable iu American 
history is recorded in the English language, and it is im¬ 
portant that every citizen should be able to study it. 
