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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Confiscation +An Outline + + + +WILLIAM GREENWOOD + + +Those Palaces on the Nob Hills of these United States; are the +toadstools of the decay that is going on in this Republic today. - Page +42. + + + + +PREFACE. + +The Emancipation Proclamation has only 718 words. + +Lincoln's address at Gettysburg has only 266 Words. + +The works of Thomas Paine were not only one of the important factors +that brought success to the struggle for Independence, but they were +also largely instrumental in the Declaration itself being made. And +those works, what were they? - mere pamphlets. + +Shakespeare, whose writings are said to be an education in themselves, +can be had in a volume not twice the size of "Progress and Poverty." + +Why, then, cannot a scheme of political economy, even when it is a +radical departure from our present system, be sufficiently outlined for +working purposes in a volume of this size, and also written so that it +shall be intelligible to those to whom all such works should in a +Republic be addressed; namely, the voter, who alone has the power to +bring about the desired change? + +The late Professor Tyndall was both an original investigator of natural +phenomena and a teacher who could make his discoveries plain to the +ordinary mind as he could to the scientist working in the same field as +himself. + +Discovering a truth in Nature or in political economies is work only +half done if the discoverer wishes to make it known to those in whose +interest he claims to be working. + +Labor, iron labor, makes the scholar, says Emerson. + +Labor, iron labor, gave Tyndall the faculty that, made him intelligible +and interesting to the young, and the right to preside at a meeting of +Humboldts. + +But there is pride of intellect as well as pride of riches, and none +shows this pride as do the writers on political economy who have made it +the "dismal science," instead of having made it the A, B, C of our +mental furniture, as it should be with the people of a republic. + +Making a good use of our means in our home and business affairs is good +economics. + +Making a poor use of them is bad economics. + +That is all there is to this word, whether it is our private affairs or +those of the nation that are being considered. + +If we live up to our laws, and yet want and privation exist while there +is more than sufficient for all, then the fault must, be in those laws. + +Making a scapegoat of the foreigner for those conditions because he will +not buy our wheat, or use a metal that we have an overplus of, places us +side by side with the witch-burner of old. We are just as ignorant in +one way, as he was in another. + +At his door who has been writing on this subject does the blame of this +universal ignorance of it belong. He takes up this plain, simple +subject, and becomes an intellectual aristocrat and a snob of +exclusiveness from that time on, and, like the aristocrat of wealth, +will have nothing further to do with the common people, cutting off all +former connections by turning out a mass of intellectual mud that, only +leisure and education can penetrate. And dear to him is the dignity of +bulk, the dignity of paunch, using, as he does, twenty words where three +would do better work. The living and the dead if his species are alike +in this hunt for the "Absolutely Pure" to puff out their little dough. + +Dissecting "Co-operation," the writer of Progress and Poverty must drag +the poor remains through over 800 words - almost enough to bury the +single tax theory itself. Co-operation means getting rid of the +middleman. With organized labor it, means keeping out all whose +admittance would cause a surplus of labor among those who have organized +to prevent that as well as injustice by the employer. But what has +become of that middleman and black-balled laborer? One is ruined and +the other is a helpless chip that is drifting into - some State prison for +forty years. + +Co-operation is the savior of some, but the ruination of others, and her +plea of justifiable homicide cannot be accepted while this earth has +more than enough for her own. + +Not a God-like wisdom, nor the assumption of it, is needed to either +conceive a remedy for our present troubles, or to formulate laws for its +application. Plain sense we most all have, let us use it, then, and we +will have no further use for either the bookworm or the logic chopper. + + + +Confiscation. + + + +I. + +Running a republic under the economic laws of a monarchy must of +necessity result in producing the same conditions - great wealth for +some and great poverty for the rest. This may be a government by the +people, but it certainly is no longer a government for the people. +Heretofore individual greed has had full swing in the United States, and +naturally enough the ablest returned in possession of everything worth +grabbing. And naturally enough, too, if a republic means a country owned +by all its people, it cannot be a republic if it is owned by only a few. +All the power of a country is bound to be in the hands of those who own +it. If its wealth is in the hands of a few, its power is there with it. +In the hands of a few it must be, if it would be a kingdom or empire. In +the hands of all it must be, if it would be a republic. To insist on +having the personal liberty that goes with a republic, and at the same +time not to set a limit to the resources an individual can own, is a +contradiction. A republic has economic laws that are essential to her +existence. Any others mean her destruction. And it is utterly out of the +question for any political party to improve the conditions of the +people, while they use the present economic laws as the basis of their +proposed legislation. + +You must begin at the foundation. Individual greed should be made to +respect the right of others to exist, and made to conform itself to laws +that are as necessary to the life of a republic as is the ballot itself. +The ballot, in fact, has lost its power. It is the key to a house we +have lost possession of, and if we would regain possession and make the +ballot something more than a mere symbol of a thing that is dead, we have +no choice but to resort to the one process by which the resources of the +country can be returned to its people, and the blight of poverty and +pauperism that is settling down on the country and is becoming permanent +can be removed - namely, confiscation. + +Man, in the beginning, seeing annihilation staring him in the face, +combined and gave us the Government of the Tribe; out of that developed +the Despotic form; out of that developed the Constitutional Monarchy, +out of which developed the Republic, the highest type of them all; and +this work of development must ever go on, if we would not lapse into +former conditions. + +The founders of the republic could not have expected their work to so +soon come to the Chinese halt that has overtaken it, until we now find +ourselves floating on an ebbing sea back to the shores we thought we +had forever left behind. + +The founders of the republic met the needs of their hour, and expelled +the foreigner. We have failed to meet the need of our hour in not +discarding the economic laws that were of that foreigner's bringing; +the economic laws of the monarchist and despotic forms of government, +that is making this republic a republic only in name: the economic laws +of the monarchist and despotic forms of government that has built up an +aristocracy of wealth here as they have there, that must of necessity +depend here for its existence as it does there, on the enslavement of +the people. Do not let a mere word further deceive you. The word +republic means a free people - we are slaves. For great revenue, be it +of king or millionaire, has the same magician's wand - the overladen +back of the enslaved toiler. + +In the face of our boasted intelligence what an appalling sight does +this country offer to the All-seeing Eye. An abundance of everything and +people starving by the thousands. When our lawmakers in Washington +learned that the death penalty was to be inflicted on those who were +convicted of treason for trying to overthrow the established government +in Hawaii, they said it must not be done, and busied themselves to save +those people's lives. And during all their agitation to save these men +who were to suffer a punishment that is meted out to such by all +governments, thousands of their own people were perishing for the want +of something to eat - not inhuman or hard-hearted, but simply do not see +how they can prevent it. There is no law by which they can stop +starvation. The legislator in a monarchy knows that poverty is inseparable +from that form of government and are reconciled to it. + +Our legislators are reconciled to the same conditions. They do not see +the incongruity of conforming the legislation of a republic to the +economic laws of a monarchy. They do not know what a government by the +people and for the people means. If they did, they would know that there +was something wrong when one man has $50,000,00 while another has not +enough to get his shoes cobbled: and another has 50,000 acres of land, +while others must be buried four in a grave. + +And none of the political parties shows a way of escape out of this +miserable state of affairs, as a brief review of their positions will +show. + +We once had the Free States and the Slave States, and these two terms +were designative of two sections into which the country was then divided +on the question of slavery. To-day we have "Free Coinage of Silver," +"Protection," and "Free Trade." These three terms, Free Coinage of +Silver, Protection, and Free Trade, are as truly designative of three +different sections into which the country is divided to-day on economic +or industrial questions as were the terms Free States and Slave States +designative of two sections in the past. Thus the preponderating +interest in one section is the mining of silver, and this interest is +represented by the Populist Party, who demands the coinage of more +Silver. The preponderating interest of the second section, or East, is +manufactures, and is represented by the Republican Party, who demands +protection. The preponderating interest of the third section, or South, +is agriculture, and is represented by the Democratic Party, who demands +free trade. This is substantially correct, although the Populists seem +to be as strong in the agricultural South as in the silver-producing +West. The Populist Party, indeed, originated among, the agriculturists +of the South, and was the outgrowth of discontent among the farmers; and +in saying that Populism has its stronghold in the West, or +silver-producing section, we simply mean that the farmers' organization +has been captured by the silver interest. They seem to think that their +own prosperity is linked with that of the silver producers, and that the +free coinage of silver means the salvation of both. With this political +manoeuvering, however, we have nothing to do. There are three political +parties in the field, each with the preponderating interest of some +section in charge, which it is bound to see through regardless of the +interests of the other two. The industrial rivalry that is going on +throughout the whole world has entered these United States, and each of +the three different sections are struggling to obtain legislation +favorable to itself, with the same indifference to the interests of the +others that is shown by France to England or by England to the United +States. Even the naked savage has found that it is a good thing to have +something to sell, and our agriculturists are brought into competition +with territory the New World over where a plow or harvester was unknown +ten years ago; instead of having a monopoly in the European markets, as +was the case a few years ago, where they could dispose of their surplus, +they are now compelled to feed it to their hogs, which, as a source of +profit, ranks even now with the thing they are fed on. + +But we are not depending on foreign markets for enough to eat and wear. +Those things are here, not there. We may have lost the foreigner as a +customer, but what prevents us from eating that which he refuses to buy. +We look back a hundred or more years, and cry out in horror at the +inhumanity of those then in power, in allowing human beings to be burned +alive and living creatures to be torn to pieces on the rack. Those who +will look back to these times will be no less astounded at the +inhumanity and imbecility of those now in power in allowing starvation +while food is actually rotting for the want of consumers. The question, +then, is, can we not formulate a policy that will work harmoniously +throughout the whole country for the benefit of all sections and every +individual? Can we not find some way out of the swamp into which the +masterful greed of a few and the dense stupidity of their legislative +tools have mired us? + +If we cannot, then let us submit, with the best grace possible to our +masters who know how to lay on the lash when their dividends are at +stake. + +The resources of the United States have hardly been touched upon; but in +less than a hundred years individual greed has done its work, and the +people are bankrupt. They have been legislated out of everything, and +the one function of our government, as at present conducted, is to see +that this legislation is enforced. Yes, it is beyond the reach of +contradiction that this government, that was founded in the interests of +All, has degenerated into a merciless taskmaster, ever ready to beat +into submission the slaves of the country, when their few owners give +the word. + +But this treatment should be expected. It goes with ownership. Give me +the ownership of men, and all else goes with the title - how I shall +clothe, feed, and lodge them, and how I shall keep them on the grind. Of +course, the wise ones will say, Was it not our own chosen representatives +who made all those laws that gave our resources and the people themselves +over to the favored few, and must not we, the principals, grin and bear +it, and live up to whatever contracts those representatives, our agents, +made in our name? + +It is not, however, how we were despoiled, but how we are to recover the +plunder, that is interesting us just now. Is there a way out of the +night of despair? is the question that should be met, and, if possible, +answered. Finding a way out of a difficulty is one thing, however, and +having the courage to take it is another. Modern surgery has discovered +much, but without the courage to use the knife mankind would not have +been the gainer. The prayer meeting has its uses, but those who expect +to obtain political or industrial deliverance in that quarter can set +out their rain-gauges and go there; but those who know the nature of the +fellow who has been grabbing all in sight will make him let go in the +old-time way by using a force superior to his own - a force that he will +feel when it comes down, supposing the power to feel is left in him. + +We have no hatred of the rich - nor love of the poor, for that matter. +They are both fishers for gain, and one gets it, and the other don't; +but his basket is just as large. But we are a lover of justice, and if +one is too much for the other would handicap him, and thereby make the +struggle for existence more even for both. The weakling, will always be +a weakling, whatever laws are passed for his benefit, and the drudgery +of the world will ever be his portion; from it he can never escape, but +he is entitled to his life, and if the able denies him, what is +necessary to it, then Justice must step in and take his part. + +Volumes could be padded in showing how this can be done, but we can +demonstrate in this brief work how poverty can be obliterated as a +feature of our national life, and if it does not make justice more +even-handed for all, and the people of this country as prosperous as any +on earth, then the fault must be in the plan itself, and not in the +resources which we possess, for of those we have enough to empty every +poorhouse in the land, and eighty-five per cent. of the jails and +penitentiaries. + +Let our wrongs be righted without physical force, by all means. History, +however, has no encouragement for such a hope. The contentions with +those on top have ever been of the blood-red order. Power once obtained +has never been surrendered only through conquest. The ballot should do +much, and had it been in use in the past history might have had less of +blood in it, as it should have less of it in the future. But the ballot +for a long number of years has, like a great many stomachs of late, been +working on wind - the wind of the Protectionist, the wind of the Free +Trader, and the wind of the latest cure-all, the fellow who is hunting a +market for his silver. + +If something substantial to work on is not soon given to this man with +the ballot, he will drop it - and then let the blame of it rest with the +fools and rascals who have been deluding him so long. + +The average man makes a better soldier than he does a voter. He can get +the range of an object easier than he can comprehend an economic truth - +this one, for instance: If the capitalists have obtained possession of +the money issued in the past, what is to prevent them from getting +possession of all that will be issued in the future? His answer will be +to issue more. He has been told so by his political mentor. When the man +with the ballot loses confidence in this mentor, he will start a game of +his own, and then the jig will be up with that idiot. We use the word +idiot advisedly here. When a tax was assessed against the incomes of the +rich, this driveler would score a point gained in favor of the people. +This claim of itself shows the institution to which he should be +consigned. + +Victoria, Empress and Queen, rules a country where, pauperism is +steadily on the increase, and the potter's field received the bodies of +eighty of her subjects that were frozen to death in London in four days +of January last. Yet the rich have been paying an income tax in that +country for generations past. + +When the rich merchant, or rich anything else, insures what he is +dealing in, he adds the cost of his policy to the thing he sells. The +income tax is but another premium, and he tags that on where he pinned +the other. The laborer has always paid the expenses of the rich, and +always will. The laborer can never dictate terms to the rich. The labor +leaders even have come to recognize the hopelessness of the unequal +contest. The power of the rich to do as they like can never be destroyed +while they are allowed to retain the riches that gives them this power. +A readjustment and a limit set to the amount an individual can own is +the only remedy. And the sooner that unassailable truth is recognized +and acted upon, the sooner will you get rid of the lobbiest and the +pauper. + + + +II. + +We need more money per capita: say some more would-be leaders, who have +found the only way out of the land of bondage. Increase the currency to +$50 per capita, and business and prosperity will once more fill the +land. Money has become scarcer, they continue, and therefore dearer. +Those who contracted monetary obligations last week find that they are +now paying more for the use of that money than it was worth when the +debt was made. + +This is a hardship on the borrower, and can be prevented by increasing +the amount of money in circulation. + +This is the very essence of what is claimed by those who are for +increasing the volume of money in circulation. Money has changed in +value, and those who are mortgaged, or otherwise under interest-paying +obligations, have found that money is scarcer, in this instance through +contraction of the currency, and therefore harder to get. + +There should certainly be enough money issued for the smooth carrying on +of the country's business, and when they determine the amount necessary, +it should be put in circulation at once. But stopping money from +fluctuating value is another thing. + +The man who buys a barrel of flour one day for $4.00 may find that it is +worth only $3.50 the day after. The man who borrows money at 7 per cent. +one day may find it worth only 6 1/2 the day after. + +To prevent these fluctuations in the value of either money or +commodities is a legislative feat beyond the power of mortal man. And +when we see our Legislator trying to regulate the value of anything that +one man has to sell to another, are no longer surprised at his trying to +regulate the weather by exploding powder in the air. Our Mark Twains and +Bill Nyes are flat indeed, when compared to that straight-faced clown, +the American legislator, who would give an unchangable value to either +the shoes we wear or the money we use. + +This whole question of currency has as little to do with the prevailing +misery as the missing button off your vest would have to do with your +being frozen to death. England not only has enough money to carry on her +own business, but also has $15,000,000,000 to lend to outsiders. It is +not the wealth of a country, but how it is distributed that tells the +story. + +- + +The single taxers of whom Henry George is the great apostle, are also +claiming the floor, but a patient hearing finds the distressed turning +away for relief that the single taxer can not give. They are cultivating +a century plant, and while we are waiting for it to bloom three +generations of human beings will have met their millionaire masters and +taken their place in the line that leads to the soup house and the +pauper's grave. + +The masterly logic of these reformers is the work of serene-tempered and +well-fed men, whose cosy library with windows facing to the south, and +the open fire-place with its soothing and cheerful glow, is conducive to +the developing of a red-tape reform that must be an inspiring subject +for discussion at an afternoon tea. Because they are well fed is the +reason why they can play a waiting game, but the despairing and maddened +people, for whose benefit this single tax contract, with its long +deferred payment, is being drawn up, will have as little use for it as +they will have for the plate-glass window when their bread riots begin. + +The land owner alone is the one these one-horse-chaise reformers would +start their Dobbin after. The large landowner should be cut down in his +holdings, and their plan is just the one to fix him and make him let go. +They will tax him in such a way that he cannot pay, and then they have +got him, they tell us, as they leisurely jog along over their pleasant +highway. + +Now, why this dilly-dallying with the large land-owner, or any one else, +that has something that he should surrender for the general good? + +When the owning of 50,000 acres of land by one man is wrong, then it is +wrong to let him own it, and if there was one drop of the John Brown +blood in this crew of house-gown and plush-slipper reformers, they would +go into the enemy's camp, and never let up on their open warfare until +what belonged to the people was returned to them. + +Taxing an enemy to make him give up his plunder! + +When hunger and plenty is found side by side what solution can there be +but to set a limit to what the overendowed can tag with his name, and to +put his forfeited surplus where the underfed can, with reasonable labor, +get possession of it. + +If the single taxer is given plenty of time, he will accomplish +something, undoubtedly, but the whole thing will be over long before +poor old Dobbin gets on to the scene. + +- + +The millionaire land-owner and the millionaire capitalist are as much +out of place in a republic as is the man with a title; and the laws +which permitted the growth of the first two are the primary cause of the +disgraceful conditions that exist in this Republic to-day. When we know +that people in actual want are to be found in every section of the +United States, we ought to be able to say that it is Nature that has +failed us for the time being; but it is not Nature, but the wretched +laws of man's own making that are at fault. Had we the economic laws +that belong to a republic, instead of those that belong to a despotism, +the foreign markets could be entirely closed to us, and all our people +would still have enough of all things that are necessary to life. And +those able men who have gone into the domain of natural philosophy, to +see what they could find to advance and benefit the human race, have +found so much, and brought about such a change in the industrial world, +that they have completely bewildered our political philosophers, who +have been utterly unable to make room for the labor-saving inventions +and discoveries of those men, until the confusion and distress resulting +from the incompetence of our political philosophers to adjust the laws +to meet the changed conditions are beginning to make us look upon the +inventors as our enemies, instead of our benefactors. + +The work of the world consists principally in raising food and +manufacturing the things we wear, and the forwarding of both to the +consumer. And the great inventions of the McCormicks, Howes, Fultons, +Stephensons, and rest have made this work so easy that the labor done in +two months now is equivalent to the labor done in twelve months a few +years ago. That is why they are great inventions. Yet our law-makers are +still legislating for conditions that disappeared with the ox-goad, +hand loom, lapstone, and sickle, and are continually trying to devise +ways and means by which the labor of the country can be kept employed +the year round. What doing? When they find out how to make you wear +twenty pairs of shoes at a time, they will have found out how to keep +the shoe factories running the year round, not before. + +The natural philosopher can overcome physical difficulties; the +political philosopher cannot overcome economic ones. + +We would reside on a certain hill were it not for the climb. A Hallidie +lays his cable, and puts us at the top without further trouble. We find +Egypt cutting into our cotton market, Argentine into our wheat market, +France and Germany have shut their doors against our meats, and +England will not approve of silver. Many throughout this country find +their very bread falling short through these conditions abroad, and the +sufferers call in our political economists to help them to at least keep +the +necessaries of life within their reach. + +Of the various nostrums prescribed by these political quacks, two have +been thoroughly tried, but the aggravating results have only cut the +eye-teeth of the humbugged; and when they take the field themselves as +political economists they will have a preparation of their own that will +be bitter enough to the taste of those to whom they will apply it. + + + +III. + +What rainbow-chasers these McKinleys, Wilsons, and J. P. Joneses are! +Do they not see this country with its limitless resources? Do they not +see the surfeited millionaire, and the hungry laborer with his starving +dependents? Do they not see that they must break down the one if they +would build up the other? Do not these miserable bunglers see that this +noble ship of the fathers is foundering because of her uneven load? + +See the imbeciles rushing hither and thither in frantic despair! This, +one with his wad of wool to stop a leak that does not exist; that one +with his tears and kisses falling on the silver charm that hangs about +his neck; this other at the masthead high shouting to foreign Shores for +help we do not need. + +Never did the black flag of a Caesar or a Napoleon III. bear down on a +richer-laden prey than this helpless hulk and its jabbering crew. + +- + +Through Confiscation, and Confiscation alone, can we restore the +conditions that are necessary to the life of the Republic. + +Confiscation is a forbidding word. We associate it with the sheriff's +writ, and with the idea of distress in some form, and with bloody war +itself, its greatest field of operation. It is one of the few words in +the vocabulary of Might. Without Might there would be no such word, and +the weak have ever been the prey of both. But it is a plain word. As +plain as are the conditions under which we are now living. There is no +mistaking its meaning. And having the same momentous work ahead of us - +of gaining our freedom, and throwing off the yoke of our latest master - +as that which confronted the founders of the Republic, we cannot go to a +nursery rhyme for a word to describe that work. + +It is the way in which Might is to restore our lost liberties and +resources that is of the gravest concern to all, and not the word used +to describe the result of what Might shall do. + +Justice is due. But how is it to arrive? By way of the ballot, or over +the same bloodstained road in use before the ballot was discovered? + +If the plundered and starving have lost faith in the ballot, and sheer +want has brutalized them until they see no way but the brute's way of +saving themselves, then place the horror of it all at the doors of +incompetence and grasping greed where it belongs. + +It is a plain word. As plain as are the conditions under which we are +now living. As plain as is the wide-spread want and hunger that is in +this land to-day, while there is more than enough for all. + +And those who have gained possession of our resources are responsible +for this hunger, and are enemies just as much as if they were invaders. +Whatever progress external foes could make in landing on these shores +would be only temporary, and not a blow could they strike, or a step +make, without our knowing it. Not so the millionaire. His is the work of +the thief in the night and we know nothing till his work is done. And +then, because we would resort to the same process of recovery that we +would in the case of any common enemy, we hold back, forsooth, because +that process is called Confiscation. + +Those whom we find to be inimical to the life of the republic will look +upon an anarchist as a cooing dove compared to the man who would +advocate Confiscation. They have nothing to fear from the anarchist, +except a stray bomb now and then, for they know full well that the +"plain" people will always stand between them and that wild-eyed dreamer +of the impractical. + +What those favored people think, however, does not interest us. What is +of more concern to us, and to all others who have no doubt but what +there is something wrong in the present scheme of things, is that the +doctrine of Confiscation should be first understood before it is +rejected. If it is found to conflict with law and order; if it is found +to obstruct in any way the material welfare necessary to any man, woman, +or child in the United States; if if takes from any man, woman, or child +in these United States a solitary privilege or right that is essential +to their well being; if it makes one more tramp, convict, or outcast of +the street; if it fills one more pauper's bed or potter's grave, then +our Search is not ended, for it is only another delusion, and of them we +have more than enough already. + +If, on the other hand, it does away with hunger and rags in a land of +plenty. Does away with the cause of ignorance, namely poverty. Does away +with the cause of eighty-five per cent. of crime, namely, poverty. Does +away with the cause of strikes and rioting, namely, poverty. Destroys +the power of one man to bribe one or fifty, and with his thumb at his +nose defies the law to reach him. Makes robbery of the people by way of +the lobby a thing of the past, and makes unnecessary a third house for +the investigation of the other two, a stage we have already reached. +Does away with the millionaire and his charity - the beggar and his need +of it. Gives the conditions which makes individual and national +improvement possible, and securing every such national improvement by +making all the people its willing defenders, which they are far from +being now in their hunger and wretchedness. Makes employment easy to +obtain, with just wages in return for the labor done, putting within the +reach of all, those comforts and luxuries, which, in this age of the +world with its skill for quick and easy production, should be looked +upon as a matter of course, but which in fact are unknown to a large +part of the working people of the country. + +If Confiscation, then, can do all this, why should it not be made to +supersede all other policies that have been tried, and all those that +are now courting public favor, but which, like the rest are based upon +unrepublican economic laws, and must end, therefore, like the rest, in +failure and disappointment? + +With our resources restored to the people, which can be done only +through Confiscation, prosperity would diffuse itself throughout the +country as easily as the sun scatters its light. + +We will now outline, as briefly as we may, what will be the effects of +Confiscation, and what Confiscation means. It means the limiting of +every individual fortune in the United States to $100,000. + +And the excess of every fortune now exceeding that amount to be +confiscated and turned into the public treasury. No exceptions to be +made as to persons or the thing owned. Money, land, buildings, bonds, +stocks, everything - wherever an excess is found, confiscate. + +The anarchist! It is justice and the intelligence of the people that +these new tyrants dread. The equity of this reform should be evident to +every one who knows that this government was originally established for +the good of all. And the time has now come when the work commenced in +1776 should be again resumed, and our latest masters got rid of some way +or other. + +But, it will be asked, will not a fifty times millionaire give +employment to as many men as will 500 men with $100,000 each. No. Not +even if madam and himself are at home from toadying up and down through +Europe in search of a princeling. (Stop this fad of the spoiled darlings +of fortune and you stop a leak through which over $1,000,000,000 of +American money has already disappeared. We will sustain this with facts +in its proper place.) One million dollars divided among ten men will do +ten times more good than if owned by one man. One million dollars owned +by one man is like one million acres owned by one man. He will certainly +make some kind of use of his acres, but the very best he can do will be +as nothing compared to the use a thousand men or more can make of them. +It is the same with a million of money. And an enterprise calling for +one million dollars of capital can be carried on just as well if that +capital is owned by fifty men, as it could if it is owned by one man. We +will have more to say on this point before we are done. + +The American millionaire has also the power to squander outside of our +own territory that which is much needed in his country. And the +thousands in money which he sends to Europe for something to hang on his +walls would pay for a much needed improvement in some city or town in +the country where the money was made. + +The American millionaire is a detriment to his own country any way you +take him, although a great many people are thoughtless enough to say +that we cannot get along without the millionaire. The capital which he +controls will be still here after he is legislated out of office, just +as it is when Father Time gathers him in. + +He not only injures our country by taking its capital away, but he +checks development by tying up the resources which he has got title to. +He incloses thousands of acres for a few deer or some such to browse in +when the whole should be thrown open, and those in need of homes allowed +to settle it. There can be no doubt but what this is a great waste of +land when we remember how rapidly those reservations were settled when +they were thrown open within the last few years. Those large inclosures +may or may not contain land suitable for those in need of homes, but a +look through the foothills and mountains of California will show that +homes can be made among the rocks and canyons even - when people are +forced to it. And it is this power of millionaire to compel us to takes +his refuse that we have to do with here, and not with the quality of the +land in his game preserves. Strip him of this power and you make the +"decoration for his wall." the "deer park," and the "princeling" +impossible, and the people will once more have come into their own. Let +him retain it and he will soon drive us to beat the bush for game that +he himself will bag, as he has already bagged the wealth we produced. +Let him retain it, and his sixty miles of fencing may or may not inclose +worthless land, but it will not be the land, but the idea represented by +the deer inside, that will set us to thinking of the aristocratic +parasite and of the pauperism and slavery that is a part of his +belongings where-ever he is found. Let him retain it a little while +longer, and the soldier, who is steadily working his way on to the +scene, will be here, and then the power to help ourselves will be gone, +for the grip will be at our throats. + +Those who are watching the mighty drama that is slowly unfolding itself +on the world's stage of to-day, saw during the strike of last summer +with what astounding ease a great people can be subjugated by a few +disciplined men. And we no longer labor under the mistake of thinking +that because they are our own people they will not shoot to kill. Put +your brother - aye, your son - into a uniform, and he needs but the word +to snuff you out as quick as he would a red handed Apache. He has been +drilled to believe that he himself would be snuffed out if he disobeyed. +And this result of disobedience is ever present with the man in uniform, +and has been engraved into his very soul, for his only God is the +drum-head court-martial. This is the creature that has made the +aristocratic parasite a fixture in Europe, and he is all that is needed +to make the same curse a fixture in our own country, and every attempt to +increase his number should be resisted with all the means in our power, +until the plunder he is wanted to guard shall have found its way back to +its rightful owners. + + + +IV. + +We will now show how the principle of Confiscation should work in the +case of railroads. This class of property, by the way, should never have +been given over to private ownership to begin with. They are for the +convenience of the public, just as much as any harbor or navigation ever +was. And if it was right that the founders of the Republic should, in +the interests of the country's commerce, deny the right of private +ownership in our navigable waters, then it was wrong to concede the +right of private ownership in railroads. As for the capital to build +them with, it was just as easy to get it for that purpose as it was to +get capital to dredge harbors, build lighthouses, build forts or the +Stanford University. The first railroad, or even the twentieth, never +suggested to the leaders of those times any idea of what this rival of +the winds and tides would develop into in a few short years. Individual +greed has so little time, to spare from the building of its own nest +that politics in the United States, where the common good should be the +aim of all legislation, has become a hand-to-mouth affair, and the +morrow must shift for itself. Busy hunting for spoil, like our own +incompetents of to-day, the legislators of the past cared nothing for +the morrow; and, without knowing what they were doing really, +surrendered a principle to the railroad projectors that was but a spark +at the time, but which has spread until we find the blaze devouring us +to-day. The statecraft that never found time to look beyond the ringing +of the curfew bells would have starved to death had it to compete with +those who were then working the lobby, while it was splitting hairs over +the Constitution and accepting the "stuff" that would do it "the most +good." No class of property shows the justice, and therefore the need, +of Confiscation as much as railroads. No class of property has done as +much toward absorbing and transferring the whole country into the hands +of a comparatively few men as railroads. But when Confiscation gets +through with these monarchs of all they survey, the town or section +through which these railroads run will not find themselves like a sucked +orange by the wayside. + +Taking the Southern Pacific Railroad, we find that it runs through +Madera County, California, but it is doubtful if ten cents worth of its +securities are owned there. Madera County, then, has property within her +borders that earns an income, not one cent of which goes to the county +where it was earned.[1] The property is there, but the income from it is +taken elsewhere. This is the one great flaw in our present economic +life, and is the very root of our present troubles. + +The income from property is taken from the locality where it was earned. +And the farmer's wagon sinks to the hubs for want of money to build good +roads. And the laborer is robbed of the income that his labor earned, +and he sinks his manhood at the soup-house door. We repeat it: The great +defect in our economic life is the taking of the income from the locality +where it was earned, and from the laborer, the source of of it all. This +does not mean that the laborer must spend his income or wages where it +was made. It does not mean that the income from property must be spent +in the particular locality where the property is located. It does not +mean, in short, that there shall be any restrictions placed upon the +individual in any way outside of limiting him to the ownership of +$100,000. With that he can do as he likes, and go where he likes - +title-hunting if he wishes, when he will be sure to find many bargains, +for it is our impression that there will be a slump in that market when +the American millionaire is no longer found among the bidders. + +To the United States Government must be left the winding up of the +affairs of the railroads, and all other paper-represented property, +as it is obvious that she can do it much better than the many States of +which the country is composed; and the before mentioned excess shall +then be turned over to the different counties where the railroads are +located, each county to receive in proportion to the value of the +railroad property within her limits, and not according to the number of +miles. + +President Huntington does not own all the stocks and bonds of the +Southern Pacific, but for illustration sake we will assume that he does. +Is it not plain then that Confiscation, when it gets through with this +railroad owner, will have made the counties where it is located its +owners, both of the property itself and the income which it earns? Is +this Government ownership of railroads? That term as now understood +means buying the railroad, and it is the millionaire we are trying to +get rid of, but he is still here if you take his railroads and give him +something better. We have already said that private ownership should not +have been allowed, and we would now confiscate them without any +reservation whatever if it were not for the thousands of small investors +in their securities and as these small investors must not be injured, we +are compelled to leave the railroads in the hands of private owners, as +buying out even these small owners would cause a national debt such as we +had better steer clear of. But it is not essential to the welfare of the +people that the Government should own the railroads. The point we wish +to bring out is, that the wealth and resources of the country has found +lodgment in a few hands, whereas it should be scattered among all the +people, and as long as they are getting the benefit it will matter +little to them whether they own it in their Governmental capacity or as +individuals, and the counties even are not to hold on to the forfeited +excess, but must dispose of it as fast as the people are able to buy. + +But Huntington not owning all the securities of the railroad of which he +is president, we send for persons and papers and confiscate as fast as +the excess turns up, and distribute as described above. "Oh my! Oh my!" +comes a voice from out of the woods. "Is not this robbery?" No; nor armed +revolution either, but a peaceable solution of the question. Who owns +this earth anyway? + +When persons and papers are sent for, and one of the interrogated is +found to possess, say, $100,000 in money and securities, $100,000 of +real estate, and $100,000 of other good things the right of choice +Should be given him as to the $100,000 he wishes to retain. For the +limiting of every individual fortune to $100,000 does not mean $100,000 +of one kind of property and $100,000 of another kind, etc., but $100,000 +all told. + +Those of our own country are, of course, amenable to our laws, but many +of the securities of the road under consideration are owned abroad, and +persons and papers there are not responsive to our subpoenas. If it +brings disaster to a country to lose income made there, are we not close +to one of the causes of the wretched want that is confined to no section +of this land as we draw nearer to the man abroad, who is fattening from +income that is drawn from all over this country? + +Repudiation is unnecessary here. Simply stop the interest on all +American securities owned out of the country. + +This we have a perfect right to do, and when it is done the foreign +holders +will be on their way here as fast as the first ship can take them. The +despised steerage and all will be full of him. + +Here we are once more obliged to use a word that is as hateful to us as +it must be to every one who has probed the wounds of this bleeding +country in the hope of finding their cause. And probe where we will, and +how we will, it is Bonds; always Bonds - the interest bearing bonds. And +standing around are the hyena millionaires, from far and near, lapping +their income from the dying form whose first breath was the immortal +Declaration. + +Gas Bonds, Water Bonds, Sugar Bonds, Flour Bonds, Telegraph Bonds, +Railroad Bonds, Bonds, Bonds, Bonds. + +School District Bonds, Road Bonds, Municipal Bonds, County Bonds, State +Bonds, and United States Bonds - chief offender among them all, whose +issue is left to the sweet will of one man - the political freak now in +the White House. + +[1] The railroad, of course, pays taxes to the county, but it would have +to pay taxes even if it had no income. + + + +- (V. editor) + +But we always get the money when the foreigner gets the bonds. That is a +lie. Here is some sample evidence of it. + +When our parasite hears of another large jewel reaching London from the +African mines, he says he must have it for madam's tiara, and taking a +small matter of $500,000 or so of securities, he goes over, and when we +next see him the securities are gone. But has he money in their place? +None whatever. Madam's tiara is safe, but this country is not one cent +of money the richer by the transaction. + +And when it is time for a husband for Miss Parasite, the two old birds +start over with bulging grip to get a mate for the sweet damsel - for +she is sweet, as they all are, bless them, whether they belong to the +millionaire's brood or to the laborer's - and it freezes our blood when +we think of what is sure to happen if the dread machine gets to work +here as it did over the way - to get, we say, a mate for the damsel, and +when he is found there must be money down and this money is obtained in +exchange for the bonds, and remains in the same country where the bonds +and titles are. + +This has been a losing transaction all round, for, alas, the dear one +herself goes over in a few days, and when we next hear of her she will +be calling on her big brother to go and thrash the whelp that our money +purchased. + +It does not look like business to make purchases abroad with income +producing property. But when they buy, say $50,000,000 of government +bonds at a clip, as did the late Wm. H. Vanderbilt, they turn the +interest as fast as it comes in into more income producers, and this +leaves their cash-till comparatively empty, so that when they need money +quick, for there is much competition among this gentry, as in the case +of a big jewel or a princeling, they have no option but to be up and +away, and our securities being pie to them over there they grab a lot, +and then the rush begins. + +Nevertheless there must not be the semblance of injustice done to these +foreign investors in our securities when they arrive here to make terms. +We have the right to stop the interest, but the securities themselves we +must redeem. But redeeming them all at once in gold being out of the +question, and as that is the only kind of coin that is now acceptable to +the foreigners, they must either wait until we get enough of gold, or +until they think better of silver, and are willing to take that metal in +part payment, and in the meantime while they are making up their mind, +about it they must accept the best we are able to give them, namely +non-interest bearing bonds. + +It is against the grain to bring the unsavory Bond on to the boards +again. But looking at him closely, as he now appears, You will notice +that he is well broken and as we have no better we must use him to bring +in the rest of the untamed band to which he once belonged. Neither +should our visitors complain about this form of payment. If all of our +obligations from abroad were paid in coin, assuming that we had enough, +it would fill Europe with idle money, and as we have always been a good +customer, and always prompt in our payments, they should be reasonable, +and admit that it is no worse to have idle bonds than it is to have idle +money, so long as final payment is assured. Neither should they expect, +par value for what did not, in many cases, cost them fifty cents on the +dollar. We will pay them market value no more. And do not imagine that +these people have been kept waiting very long to find out these terms. +For so positive are these leeches, here and elsewhere, of being able to +maintain their hold that those we have just finished with will not make +a move to come here until the New Bill of Human Rights has become the +law of the land. + +And this foreigner whom we are done with, so far as his power to injure +us goes, is the counterpart of our own millionaire, and the scowl with +which he leaves these shores means another crunch of the iron heel +on the necks of his own slaves, and it is only the magnitude of the work +that is before us, which none but the blind will deny, in the subduing +of our own masters, that makes it a sad necessity to refuse aid to the +oppressed the world over. One thing is certain however: whether Bunker +Hill led to the fall of the Bastile or not, the liberation of the slave +in the New World will show way to his liberation in the Old, and in this +way do we render him a service, even if we cannot see our way to help +him in any other. + +- + +The foregoing should make plain how the principle of Confiscation will +work in the case of railroads, and all other paper-represented property +that can be, and is, owned elsewhere than where the property itself is +found. + +And there is no need of interfering with or changing any of the +functions of the different branches of our Government in order to make +Confiscation a part of our organic law any more than there would be to +increase the duty on imported wool and to collect it. The machineries +of the law making, judicial, and executive branches of our Government, +are sufficient for any calls that Confiscation can make on them. Any +other construction that may be put on what has been said heretofore +or may be said hereafter, is all error. If insisted on, what then? Have +we run up against the impassable? It is sufficient to say that what is +ours is ours to change when the need is evident, and the Constitution +itself is not, an exception to the truth of this. + +The laws regulating the rising and the setting of the sun are not of our +creating, and we cannot hasten or retard its coming and going one iota +of time, and we do not live in the age when it could be done. + +But the Constitution is a man-made thing, and when growth has made it a +straight jacket then the time for ripping has come. + + + +VI. + +Once more resuming our pursuit of the millionaire whom we have +dispossessed of his railroad plunder, we find the chase taking us into +town, where Confiscation will find many problems which it alone can +solve - where it will find his sixteen story building, for his hours of +plotting, and his suburban palace for his hours of ease, and the hiving +humanity between over whom he had to walk to reach either. Those palaces +on the Nob hills of these United States are the toadstools of the decay +that is going on in this Republic to-day. + +The master crime of all ages was the building of those pyramids on the +Egyptian sands, for they were useless, but the whim and the slaves and +the lash of power were there, and the pyramids went up. + +Let us see to it that the power of our pyramid builders is destroyed +before it gets beyond five million dollar palaces. + +- + +When we apply the principle of Confiscation to the millionaire merchant +and turn his excess into the public treasury, it will be no more +destructive of the business of which he has had all the profits than it +was of the railroads. There will be more business done in the same line +than ever, but more will be doing it, and consequently more will share +in the profits. But if our object is to break up these fabulous +fortunes, which mean certain death to our liberties, and whose blight +has paralyzed progress and development, there should be no reason why we +should not allow the present owners to take a hand in the breaking up. +If the merchant, or other millionaire, would rather divide his millions +among his relatives (barring his wife and minors) and friends, than to +resign it over to the public treasury, let him do so. Our aim will be +attained whichever happens, which is simply to bring about a better +distribution of the wealth of this country, and we know of no way of +making this even distribution that will compare with Confiscation. +Socialism, in all its forms, means the surrendering of individual +liberty, and is a retrograde movement, and the outcome of it can be +nothing more or less than despotism of the very worst kind. + +Socialism enlarges the power of one individual over another. This is +incompatible with the liberty that goes with a republic. Confiscation +says, $100,000 is enough. When you are found with more, it will be +considered as proof that you have been taking an unfair advantage of +some one, and the surplus makes you dangerous to the welfare of a +republic, and is therefore forfeited. There will be nothing more +disagreeable, so far as the right of the individual goes, in the +enforcing of this proposed law than there is in the collection of taxes +on incomes. Cutting a fortune down to the $100,000 limit may be +considered a very disagreeable thing indeed, but when we are reminded +that it is all done for the common good, we become reconciled at once, +for we feel in our heart of hearts that the altar at which we can +cheerfully make whatever sacrifices we are called upon to make, is the +altar of our brother's welfare. + +The millionaire merchant will doubtless take advantage of his right to +divide his business among his relatives and friends. Naturally they +would give him the management, but the instinct to be master is strong +within us all, and this would soon break up and scatter that dangerous +accumulation. Then there would be more Market streets and Broadways. +Every dollar of business that would be taken from the one or two +principal thoroughfares, which is all that is now found in any of the +cities, would mean an increase of value in the property of the street +where this transfer business is carried on. And this increase in the +value of city property would continue on out to the city's limits; and +the limits themselves would be extended further out to find room for +habitable homes for the human beings that are supposed to live in the +tenements. There can be no question but what merchandising would spread +itself more over the cities if this limited ownership of capital was in +force; and this spreading out will give employment to all in bringing +about the change; and prosperity, such as goes with plenty of work, will +take the place of the wretched misery and want that now fill all the +soup-house infected cities of the country. There will be no impairment +in the value or need of the big "dailies" that are published in these +centres of population. They will simply be owned by more people and read +by more, and the improvement in the times being of a stable and +permanent character their circulation will be free from the rise and +fall with which they are now only to well acquainted, and the cheap-John +business into which so many have gone, in the last few years, wheedling +the ten cents and the dollars out of the child-like poor for worthless +truck, can be thrown into the waste basket with the last offer of money +for a Wall Street editorial. It is a mistake, by the way, to think we +are a nation of readers. Man is an interesting animal where-ever found, +the desire to know what he has done and is doing is strong in us all, +but even the little county paper is beyond the reach of many. The +writer, who is a common toiler like the rest, finds the moving world a +sealed book to him, for he cannot spare the needed dollar, and live. And +those editors who will fiercely rend and tear, with all the power of +their trained brains and skilled pens, at this vital need of our times +may live to see the day when they too will believe this world is round, +and that calling the original believers fools, thieves, scoundrels, +rascals, and enemies to civilization was a repetition of an old mistake. +It will be the day when they can be our guides, philosophers, and +friends without the itching palm stuck out behind. It will be the day +when we can accept, without doubt or a curl of the lip, the admonition. +from the sixteen stories of steel, because we will then know, that the +conscience of the man within is not itself all awry. + +To whatever cause the existing rot is chargeable the editor, at least of +all others, had the power to stop or check it, and failure to meet this +great responsibility shows that the strut of this great personage is +assumed, and that, like the rest, his necessities have been used by the +master to bend and break him till he no longer dare call his soul his +own. + +We can expect the screech of this helpless tool to fill the land as his +desperate master nags him on in the revolution that is coming. + + + +VII. + +The mammoth hotel where the parasite of greater or lesser degree +sojourns, where the popping corks of the costly imported champagne is +heard, can still be a hotel, but the profits of its millions of +invested capital must no longer he taken away by one or two men and it +therefore must have many more owners than it has now. It, too, must go +to the people, if its millionaire owner can find no more relations to +share with and begins to suspect his "friends" of having had a hand in +bringing about the upheaval. And if the "plain" people never expect to +enjoy the material results of the inventive wit of man as they are +focused within its luxurious interior, they at least have some reason +for being satisfied when they know that the profits will stay where they +were made and help those who made them. This reference to hotels brings +to mind a corroborative fact that proves the charge we make when we say +that all these colossal fortunes are nothing more than the accumulations +of able rascality of some form or other: bilking, cornering, lobbying, +watering stock, or charging all the traffic will bear. + +The Palace Hotel in San Francisco was built by a speculator and floater +of mining shares, and cost millions that he cashed in, after cleaning +out the simple minded laborer and servant girl, whom he deluded, with +all the art known to his tribe, into believing that there was still more +for their rainy day if they would only invest the little they already +had. + +The law makes a felon of the rascal with the bogus gold brick, but that +clumsy worker in the field of robbery does not get the returns which the +scienced work of his brother professional brings in; therefore, when +outraged law gives this petty malefactor the knock-out blow, the satisfied +spectators, chattering about the majesty of something, depart and the +curtain is rung down on another exhibition of what the American people are +said to like - namely, humbug. Let us say in passing, that the American +does not like humbug. Take the average of him as he is found in the little +world in which the routine work of his life is done and you will find him +alert and close enough to deal with, and that in all things in which he +has his experience to rely on humbug (swindling) is practically +impossible. +But when he gets outside of that experience, then, like the experienced +traveler, he patiently submits to imposition when resistance might mean a +loss greater than the original. But even the traveler must have enough to +continue on with, and when imposition reaches that stage resistance +begins. +So it will be with the man who is said to like humbug (robbery), when he +finds humbug (slavery) closing in on him. He too will resist. He did +before +and the rightful owners gained possession, as this same man, who is said +to +like humbug, will again recover possession of what is being so stealthily +taken from him. + +When outraged law is asked to administer justice to the scoundrel who +has deluded thousands into buying worthless mining shares or some such +swindling bait, the victims are told that the whole swindle has been +legitimized by the great seal of the state, and that their loss is the +profits of a business conducted by a licensed trader. + +The man with the bogus gold brick goes to jail. The man with the bogus +gold mine goes free. + +Why this difference when the principle in the two crimes is the same? Is +it because the millionaire swindler has, in fact, been given rights +under the law that is denied to the smaller fry? Or is it because the +larger bird of prey makes enough to go all around? Certain it is, however, +that Labor in its contests with Capital never got a decision in its favor +yet - in time to be of any service. + +These wholesalers found the concubining of justice herself a necessity +to the success of their rascalities and the delays and decisions of this +harlot are but the echoes of her paramour's orders. And at no time does +the debasement of this whited sepulchre display itself more than when +the miserable and friendless criminal whose crime is, assuredly, nothing +more than the natural and to be expected outcome of the wrong and +inexcusable crime developing conditions under which he is compelled to +live, is at her altar for Justice, which She renders in ringing tones +such as are never heard when Her paramour or his hirelings are before +Her. + +When Labor does finally get a decision it is as worthless to it as is +its pass-book on the gutted savings bank. + +Make the millionaire an extinct species, and the above assertion will +not have logic to sustain it, and our courts will not be making terrible +"examples" of the friendless, while the thief who ruins thousands is +allowed to go free. + +- + +There must be a radical change made in our laws if we ever expect to +stop the sharks from preying on us. Our laws, like a hole in a fence, +makes access easy, and the endless raids will never cease until the +holes are stopped up. Constant watching, even with the light from former +experiences, will all count for nothing while those holes and breaks are +left open. The persistent work of the crew of sharpers that has the +Nicaragua canal steal in tow shows this necessity for a change in the +economic laws of the country. Duplicating the scheme by which the +Huntingtons and Oakes Ameses robbed the people they submitted their +prospectus for endorsement, and, lo, this whole coast grovels in the +dust to these new Moseses, who are to show them the way out of the +wilderness into which their original, Huntington, has led them. + +The canal should be built. But the estimated cost of the whole +enterprise was $66,000,000 according to their own expert, whose report, +eight years ago, was published in "Harper's Weekly" - (published as +news, by the way, but was an advertisement, and paid for as such. And +that Julian Ralph stuff that appeared in that same weekly lately is more +of that peculiar kind of news that is being constantly ground out by the +capitalistic sharks to catch the unwary, and was paid for by Spreckels +- another Moses, that has come to the succor of our beleaguered coast. +The "Journal of Civilization" is a fit organ for the millionaire +corruptionist and the civilization that he is degrading) - and although +they have gone over the ground again and again since that report was +made, the maximum estimate is still well inside $100,000,000. Yet they +now want to issue $100,000,000 in stock; want the people to guarantee +principal and interest on $70,000,000 of bonds, and the right to issue +$30,000,000 of bonds themselves. No wonder it was called a steal on the +floor of the Senate. The public treasury will ever be the objective +point of such wholesalers until the inducement is removed. Humanity, +Honor, Patriotism, each and all are powerless before this all +conquering appetite of Individual Greed. + +What can such people as they care for this people, their country and its +benign form of government? What use have such as they for a government +that denies them the title that distinguishes their kind over the sea? + +Ay, what is to prevent them from using the vast power that goes with the +wealth they are absorbing day by day, and to gratify the one unsatisfied +wish of their purse-proud and selfish souls, and establish an Empire in +place of the Republic? The Republic is but a shell and their work would +be easy. + +The sophistry about the inalienable right of one man to crush another +has had its day, and their hypocritical wail about civilization and this +inalienable right, when these conscienceless rascals find their race is +run, will be like the yelling of remorseless wolves that have been +trapped and kicked into the vanishing distance. + + + +VIII. + +Understanding the principle of Confiscation, it will be easily seen how +it must work in every individual case; and, therefore, it is needless to +dwell on or elaborate its workings when it is applied to banks, +breweries, sugar refineries, water works, gas works, street railways, +etc. + +It will not destroy capital or business. It may lessen the value of real +estate on the principal streets in large cities, and fall in values is +not certain even there. It will trouble no one, however, if it does; not +the present owner, even, for the value of property in favored localities +is so great now that, however much one man can own now, he can own but a +fraction of it under the proposed change. The owner of, say, a $400,000 +building and lot on such a street as we are now considering may find a +shrinkage of $100,000. This will give him two partners instead of three. +The shrinkage, therefore, will be to his liking; for, be it known, the +aristocrat is a proud bird, and likes to flock by itself. And any +designs against these two partners will be so fruitless of results to +himself that a word in his ear now and then by his friends and +well-wishers, about the public treasury, will end in his cultivating, +such a lamblike submission to the new dispensation that his eloquence, +born of the new light and an awakened conscience, will make his titled +sister over the way give up her bauble when he shows her the cost of its +pomp to the struggling poor. + +Such will be the effect of the change on a man who now carries the law +in his pocket, when he hasn't it under his feet. + +Moving the laborer so far away from the centre of the city, and where +there is room to build habitable homes, will be a serious objection, it +will be urged. They cannot get to their work on time without getting up +at all hours. They can just have time to snatch a bite and be away +again. And the whole of Sunday must be given to sleep they cannot get at +any other time. + +They will be strangers in the near-by theatre, and the near-by library +will be given up to the spider and his web, and the little garden of +flowers that the once half-starved women have made a delight will be +unknown to the worn out bread-winner, who will be the same old slave we +premised to unshackle. Better clothes surely, and his home shows what it +is to be a citizen of a republic that is a republic in fact as well as +in name; but he has only time to snatch a bite and be away again. + +Will it never occur to those critics that we are here dealing with the +greatest creation of the Almighty, and of all time - civilized man; and +that we must make the conditions fit him, and not he the the conditions. + +Everything he eats, wears, and uses in twelve months can be produced in +two. Why, then, should he be compelled to labor twelve months for that +which can be produced or made in one-sixth of that time? The reason is +plain. When two laborers make an exchange there is wholesale robbery +committed by the non-producing and idle parasites, while the fruits of +Labor are on the way to those who alone are entitled to the whole. "And +I," says the millionaire, "say this robbery must go on, for I am an +impossibility without it." That gnawing canker never had any doubts as +to where his surfeit comes from. And now that it has become a question +of life and death with those he has been plundering, he should be +dragged to the bar of justice and compelled to disgorge. And then labor, +too, can come in on the eight and nine o'clock train, and be no later +for its work than is the banker and the rest of his class that have had +Labor under their heels so long. + +The capacity of the modern world to produce has entirely outstripped her +capacity to consume, and trying to solve the economic problems of the +day, by further denial or ignoring of this fact, that should be +self-evident, will be to build a structure with only half the foundation +laid, and the inevitable collapse is bound to follow. + +There will always he plenty of room in the heart of a city for those who +must live close to their work. + +But the inventor has made night work, except by the parasitical leeches, +unnecessary to the masses, a few hours of daylight being more than +sufficient to supply all the needs of the country. We are not insisting, +be it understood, on a four-hour or eight-hour system of labor. No +industry or occupation will be hampered or meddled with by doing justice +to the laborer in the way proposed. The railroad employee, printer, +baker, factory hand, etc., can work on as now, but they must be +compensated with just wages for the labor done. This will enable them to +retire before decrepitude comes on, and orders are left for the +poorhouse ambulance to call on its way out. + +If every city occupied three times the ground they now do, they would be +gainers in all ways, and the moral degradation into which large sections +of them have sunk would disappear with the conditions that produced +them. + +The capacity of Europe to feed her people is being crowded, we are told, +and then our flag is again run-up, and during the whole exhibition the +Chinese system of bunking is quietly fastening itself in every city of +consequence in the country. When those sorely pressed people, whose very +existence is being threatened by these foreigners of a degraded +civilization, awaken to the extremity of their danger, the bunking +system and its introducers will find perjury and the habeus corpus mill +powerless to save them. Mark this, however. The big capitalist imported +the Chinaman, and his powerful influence has defeated all attempts to +remove him. It follows, then, that we must break up the big capitalist, +if we ever expect to get at the thing behind him. + +We are not indifferent to the hardships of the oppressed of other +nations, but we cannot get out of our own perplexities by saying that we +are more favored in some way than are others. There are rocks ahead of +ourselves, and watching others going to pieces and firing congratulatory +guns will not help them or save us from, a like fate. + +Whatever is in the near future for Europe, we, at least, have nothing to +fear as to the capacity of our country to support all her people. And as +it is with room for producing, so it is with room in which to live. +There is plenty of both, and we should show ourselves worthy of the +legacy left us by that handful of brave men who established liberty in +our country, and insist on getting plenty of both before the armed +hireling appears and it is too late. + + + +IX. + +We will now apply the principle of Confiscation to land, and we will see +that Confiscation alone can undo the wrong that has of late become +apparent to even the law makers in Washington. Up to within three years +or so there were two ways by which farming lands could be obtained from +the Government - by homesteading and preempting. + +It is unnecessary to give the laws of either, but so fast was this class +of land going that Congress repealed the preemption law. In other words, +the amount you could obtain was cut down one half - from 320 acres to +160. What was more significant still of their barn door work after the +horse was gone, they made the owning of 160 acres, regardless from whom +it was got, private purchase or Government, a bar to the taking up of +Government farm land. Prior to the repeal every citizen, and those +intending to become citizens, had certain land rights, and owning half a +State did not impair them; which all goes to show that even this free +and easy-going Government thought it about time to call a halt. But that +was all it did do. As it was not necessary to give the laws under which +the homesteader and preemptor got title, neither is it necessary to here +ask how some men became owners of all the way from 1,000 to 60,000 +acres, every acre of which was Government land years after California +became a State. (We are using California facts. The rest of the Western +part of the United States has an abundance of the same kind.) Suffice it +to say, that they now own them; and suffice it too, that Confiscation is +the only way by which we can dispossess them of plunder, that the +welfare of the country demands should be returned? In Confiscation alone +will the people find a servant who will not condone the past, but will +follow up this breed of the grabber and restore what it finds, as it has +already done with others of his tribe. + +It will be the re-discovering of America. + +Never did kind and beneficent laws show what men, with the right kind of +stuff in them, could do, as did our land laws. Men who now own territory +as large as some of the Eastern States started in without a dollar. +They had something better. They had consciences that was good for any +tests that the scoundrels could put them to. Never did gangs of +"floaters" help the political boss and ward-heeler rob the public +treasury with greater success than did this other brand of the bastard +citizen help his boss to hog the public domain. + +In the fertile valley of the Sacramento, land that would give one +hundred and sixty acre homes to ten thousand families (fifty thousand +people) is owned by one hundred individuals, all average of sixteen +thousand acres to each owner. This is but a fraction of the valley and +leaves out the owners of less than sixteen thousand acres. + +In the great San Joaquin valley, the laborer in search of work can walk +for days in one direction alongside of fencing that incloses land +belonging to one firm. And this immense fortune-in land was obtained by +robbery, just as the other millionaire fortunes were obtained. + +In the land office we see the miserable tool and his master. + +In the legislative halls we see the miserable tool and his master. + +And we see the leaves on Liberty's Tree droop and wither as these deadly +borers do their work under the bark below. + +Up among the peaks and valleys of the Sierra Nevada lies the town of +Mariposa, settled by gold seekers whose rich findings gave world wide +fame to this hamlet among the mountains. Aluvial gold and quartz bearing +gold was scattered with lavish hand through the surrounding hills, and +in the beds of the summer-dried streams. Generous laws of their own +making, gave ample room, and the eager workers toiled on, forgetting the +past hardships of the long journey where so many fell by the way, and +the rugged hills became endeared to them as they marked out the shaded +spots on their shelving sides where their coming dear ones could look +down on the busy scene below. But the camp follower with ready knife +never finished the wounded brave quicker than did the "land grant" +swindler finish Mariposa when her riches became the theme of every gold +camp throughout the world. And to-day the big hearted and stalwart miner +goes to fever-laden Africa and ice-bound Alaska, when there are whole +mountains of the best mineral bearing land in the world in his own +country, but which our present laws forbid him to touch. + +Our people should no more bow to a Mexican land grant title than to a +superstition of their cave-dwelling ancestors. + +What matters it, however, in what way these colossal robberies were +committed; by coffee-stained lie from Mexico, or perjured oath of +faithless citizen; it has been done, and it is time for the undoing. + +Man developed the school house, and for this each is indebted to the +other, and the mutual debt is acknowledged by making the school free to +all. + +The Creator developed the Earth from chaos to the habitable home of man, +free to all, but this debt is not acknowledged, and the many are driven +into the highway by the few. + +Give us all the conveniences of modern life, railroads, telegraphs, +etc., etc., etc., but give us back the land, that is our natural +heritage as much as is the water we drink or the air we breath. + +Give us back this birthright, or take your railroads, and so on, and +your civilization, and sink them deep in the depths of hell, for the +starving have no use for them, and we'll take the savage state that +knows no hunger except in the time of famine. + + + +X. + +Limit the ownership of land, be it arable, grazing, timber, or any other +kind, to 160 acres. As no one shall own more than $100,000 worth of +property all told, this 160 acres will have to be reduced as we get near +to the centres of population. This will still give the owner of such +convenient land an advantage over those living further out, who will +always be willing to exchange should the first rather follow the coarser +grades of farming to dairying or gardening. + +Neither is there any reason why the owning of great sections of timber +land by one or two men should be necessary to the running of sawmills +and supplying the people with lumber. The mills are capable of doing +just as good work if the fifty quarter sections are owned by fifty men +as they are if owned by one man. And the waste of timber seen on every +hand wherever you find a mill owned and operated by capitalists would +have been unknown if there had been an individual owner to each quarter +section. The wanton waste of this breed of the capitalist, in his hurry +to pile up, would have been impossible had his mill been a "custom" +mill, to saw the timber from your quarter section and mine instead of +his fifty or five hundred. And the poor unskilled laborer would not have +to go to make room for the chinaman, or that member of a worthless tribe +who sold his "claim" to the "company" for so much and the promise of a +job. The small owner cannot afford the waste of the large one. His +income will not be so great that he can afford to waste the principal +from which it comes. As to any friction about whose turn it is to run +his timber through, it is only necessary to say that the business will +be then carried on by those who are now doing the labor, and it will be +no worse to accept wages from the man on the neighboring claim for +helping him to make lumber than it was to accept wages from the man who +was dethroned, and he will probably pay you as much as you could make +running your own logs through. + +If this is not satisfactory, sell out at once to one of the many that +are waiting to buy, and go, for you will not find anything in what we +are advocating that interferes in the least with the liberty of the +individual. Some may think differently, but then they are the ones who +brought all eyes to the window to see what was going on in the street. + +And as you travel on you will miss the once eager dog at the farm house +by the way, and no palsied hand will be lifting the corner of the +curtain as you are passing by, for the tramp has disappeared, and the +rare survivor and incurable will be doing it on bread and water, for he +must be a useless thing not to have drawn his last breath with his +compatriot at the other end of the scale. + +The farmer who has children that are not of age when the new arrangement +goes into force will see great hardship in the 160-acre law. He intended +to give this piece of land to one son and that piece to another, and so +on. He would give each of these sons more, but some one else owns the +rest of the country thereabouts, and these, say, 160-acre tracts, are +the best he can do. Leaving out of the question whether his sons can +locate alongside of himself or not, and confining ourselves to their +chance of being able to get 160 acres, which is the vital point in the +whole matter, he must see that, if he must surrender his excess and all +others must do the same, there would be more land to take up than there +are people to take it. We are in a Republic, Mr. Farmer, and the +interest of the many who have called at your door call on you to +disgorge with the rest. + +When we come to the land in the mountains we find that it averages poor, +yet the 160-acre law must be applied there also. To allow more would be +to give an opening to the smart one, who would take advantage as he has +always done; and as the country is pretty well tired of him we will save +future complications by tying him down to 160 acres like the rest. The +mountain farmer or rancher, with rare exceptions, gets his income from +the raising of pork or beef animals, which are rarely confined to the +owner's premises, but are allowed to roam and graze where they will, at +times as far as forty and fifty miles away from where they belong. And +as the mountaineer makes little if any provisions for the barn feeding +of his animals, outside of one or two milk cows and his few work +animals, and these last only through the work season and the bad weather +of whatever winter the locality may have, he will not find his business +of raising meat for the market curtailed in any respect. Should he need +more hay or grain ground, or ground for orchards or gardens, be will +always find it inside of his 160-acre inclosure, for there are none yet +among them who knows the possibilities of a 160-acre ranch under the +plow. And as none has yet been forced to put the plow into outside +ground, it can be taken for granted that they never will. + +Where, then, is the reason why this class of farmers should be allowed +title to more land than the others? The range or grazing ground among +the hills and along the water courses will still be open to their +animals, and instead of the proposed change injuring their business, it +will, in these days of cheap barb-wire, stop the would-be cattle king +and speculative grabber from crippling or destroying it altogether, a +fate not unknown to some who have tried in a small way to make a living +from cattle raising. + +There is, therefore, no reason why the farmer in the hills should be +allowed more land than his less favored brother in the valleys and +plains below. He must fall into line with the rest; and, as he takes his +place at the foot the assembled multitude of liberated slaves, sees a +gleam of scorn in the eyes of the once mighty railroad king as this poor +relation is thrust upon his notice. + +But it is not in a brave people to humiliate a fallen enemy, and the +order to break ranks is given, and the ex-slave and ex-master mingle +together, and depart to work out a destiny common to both. + +- + +In the preceding pages we have briefly tried to show that Confiscation +is the only peaceable way that is now open to us by which the people can +again obtain possession of their country. And we have tried to convey an +idea of how its principle should be applied, and we will now turn our +attention to its workings, and show, as briefly as possible, how easy it +is for the people to be prosperous when they have control of their +country's resources. + +There is not a railroad in the country that would not be taxed to its +utmost in carrying settlers to the forfeited lands; and the work of the +land agent and boomer, the uphill work of the town or section in trying +to build themselves up by advertising far and near, and the hauling of +cars full of exhibition pumpkins crossways and lengthways of the land, +would be needless. Government land, be it County, State or United +States, never requires booming in these days of the anxious home-seeker, +and never will again. + +At present when a new section becomes attractive there is a rush into +it, and then the rush slacks up with an air-brake suddenness. The +speculator has got there and pitched his tent, and his $100 to $500 acre +signs - part down, the rest at 8 per cent. - has taken possession, and +the stream is turned aside and goes elsewhere. And then the pumpkin, +with its 8 per cent. tags plastered all over it, is put aboard and +hauled through the country on its mission of deceiving the innocent. + +With the land speculator out of the way, and no expenses outside of +office fees, there would be a steady increase of population wherever +there is agricultural land, until the last acre is in possession of an +actual settler, whose home would be on the place. (The principle which +allows a man living in New York, or somewhere else, to own land in +California, or somewhere else, should set every law-maker to scratching +his head to see if he cannot get an idea out of it.) + +And do not plague yourselves about the numerosity of the new settler, +and where the whole of him is to find a market. We are trying to get rid +of the pauper, and whoever heard of a farm, free of the 8 per cent. +night-mare, being the breeding place of such as he? Whatever else +happens to the farmer he at least is sure of enough to eat. Wheat may be +down; cattle without buyers; eggs a drug; potatoes left to rot in the +ground, milk wasting like water, and not ten cents in money on the +premises, but the owner is not starving. The dude may not see a brother +in him, and he will be denied entrance to the Inner Circle when Major +domo McAllister sees him in the rear. But he has weight, and looks as if +trying to get away with this year's crop, to make room for the next, +agrees with him; and if he thinks now and again of the days of the +hungry tramp it must be that the undertaking has proportions he little +dreamed of. + +But he will have a market. What causes him to need one? This. That he +may be able to get that which he does not produce or make himself. And +is there not some one else producing or making those very things, and +who needs what the farmer alone produces or makes? If yes, then we have +found the whole secret of what we call business - two producers or +makers of different articles making an exchange one with the other. Stop +that exchange, and there would be no manufacturing; we would all be +living off raw nature once more, and our ball-games would give way to +the pelting of cocoanuts and hanging by our tails. + + + +XI. + +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. + +- + +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. + + + +XII. + +The silver interest asserts that we will never stop our headlong rush to +the devil if we do not get free coinage of silver. Silver, like pork or +potatoes, is something for sale, and its owners have given up their +whole attention to finding it a market. Whoever heard of J. P. Jones +interesting himself in anything except silver. Never in all of his +twenty years of public life did he show that he was anything more than +"a man from one of the Silver States." Ever and always whenever he fills +the air with his noise, you have only to look and there you will find +him still knocking at the public treasury for a customer that already +has had enough of him. + +He has become a monomaniac on silver, and, although one of the principal +owners of the Mariposa land grant, will not open it up because it is +silver he wants and the grant only shows gold. It is this dementia that +secures him a life-lease of the Senatorship from Nevada. For Nevada has +only one interest, and that is silver. Silver is her wool, her cotton, +her wheat, her coal, her iron, her lumber, her manufactures. It made her +a State. It made her first representative to Congress and her last. It +made Jones - Jones the drummer whose one sample is silver, who talks of +silver, who sings of silver, who dreams of silver, and who gets his +inspirations of the past, present, and future as he looks down the shaft +of his silver mine in Nevada. + +Never did the tail of the dog work harder than does this little +bob-tailed thing called silver, that we find moving around among our +legs, trying to trip us up every time the political procession makes a +move. + +There is distress because there is not money enough in circulation, say +these peddlers of silver. It is a well understood fact that every sound +bank in the country has idle money in its vaults looking for investment. + +Money is precisely like the laborer - it, too, is on the lookout for +work. Show money where it can make interest, and it will come out of +those vaults as quick as the hungry laborer will answer the knock at his +door. + +Whatever distress the laborer is suffering, however, be sure that the +millionaire owner of that idle money feels it not. His belly is well +filled and his back well covered, and he knows nothing of the jolt of +the box-car as he listens to the rhythm of the wheels of his Pullman +sleeper. And it matters little to this millionaire, this flower of a +foreign clime, when his increase sets in again. He has millions, a word +we little comprehend the meaning of, and he will never know distress, +any more than the laborer will know plenty again while this vampire of +progress is permitted to survive. But the time must come when labor will +get to work again for a few months each year, the usual thing now, to +produce the needed stock of necessaries for the country, and then he +will see the man of millions step off and collect his usual toll, and +enough besides to make good any shrinkage in the principal. This owner +of immense capital, this traveler in the Pullman, who makes his regular +rounds through the country collecting toll off every laborer in every +section, preparatory to his flight to Europe, is twin brother to the +great land owner, and there is no hope for our country until both are +legally or otherwise exterminated. + +- + +We could undo the capitalist by making interest illegal, as this would +force him. to draw on his principal. We do not object, however, to the +interest capital receives. Banks have no enemy in this proposed change, +and we suspect either the motives or the judgment of those whose stock +in trade is a howl against banks, and what they call usury. Money has +its place in civilization, and the bank where it is dealt in is a shop +just as much as is the dry goods store or grocery, and is entitled to +its profits just the same. If a man earns $5,000 he should be allowed to +charge something for its use the same as for the wagon be made or the +house he built. Neither the wagon nor house is any more the result of +his labor than is this money, and no one will question his right to +charge something for the use of the first two. It is here where the +banks are of service - the man with money takes it to a place - the bank +- where the man who wishes to hire it knows where to look for it. Good +sense will not deny a market to a man with potatoes; neither will it +deny him a market for any other product of his labor, be it capital or +what not. Interest is wrong only when it is being drawn by a +millionaire, who, of course, did not earn the principal. Those millions +is where the danger lies, when found with an individual owner, whether +they are in bank vaults or on the shelves of the millionaire merchant. +Besides, it is a slow process, this breaking up the millionaire owner of +some thing by stopping his interest. This earth should be ours while we +are alive to enjoy it, and there is no hope of getting it by applying +the graduated tax idea to either land or capital. When a curse like +poverty can be removed the quicker it is done the better. + +Interest is wrong (we are not justifying extortion) when it is drawn by +the millionaire, not only because his labor did not earn the principal, +but because he has the power to take it out of the country where it was +earned. And he does take it out thereby impoverishing the country of the +capital that is needed to carry on developments that should never be +allowed to stop. + +There is, as has been said, idle money now, but the millionaire owners +care nothing for the general welfare, and the people cannot get this +idle money because they find it impossible to pay interest for its use, +and carry at the same time the fearful burdens they are now loaded with. + +An individual can be forced to submit to any kind of terms when his +necessities are driving him. When those necessities are satisfied he +must stop and let development go, for he cannot stand the terms. He is +willing to go ahead, but he simply finds his physical being unequal to +the task. As it is with one individual so it is with a nation of +individuals. They also can be forced to submit to any kind of terms when +their necessities are driving them, and when their necessities are +supplied they too must stop and let development go, for they cannot +stand the terms. In other words, the capacity of people, singly or +collectively, is limited, and if they are compelled to exhaust that +capacity in supporting millionaire parasites at home, and paying for +their extravagance abroad, they cannot improve themselves or develop +their country. + +Complicity, then, and negligence on the part of our law makers has made +a few men the absolute owners of the financial or money branch of our +economics, and the people find it impossible to move except when these +masters find it to their interests to let them. + +Progress under such conditions will never be more than a dream. + +We could find use for all the capital that is now in the country, and +all that has been and is being taken out of it, but we should first +loosen the grip of these legalized despoilers and see how far what we +have got would go before we talk of issuing more, which would soon turn +up missing like the rest. + + + +XIII. + +We hear much about what we are losing by the balance of trade being +against us, but not a word about that other floodgate through which our +capital is rushing, namely, our millionaire class making its purchases +abroad, and their other expenses while living among the foreign birds of +a like feather. Their idle money is left here for investment. They do +not look to that quarter for income. The world over there is under the +feet of a few as it is here, and the result is the same - idle money +looking for interest. + +No less an authority than the late Ward McAllister has said that up to +last year two hundred and eighty American women had married foreign +titles. + +$1,000,000,000 was the war indemnity demanded of France by the Germans, +and so vast is this sum that the civilized world believed the Germans +wanted to retain possession of the conquered country and demanded what +the French could not pay. Yet the amount of American money it took to +buy those two hundred and eighty titles is far in excess of that war +indemnity. At four millions each it would exceed $1,000,000,000. But the +average cost must have been more than four millions. One of our +millionaire flour mill owners, who is a mere tallow candle in this +constellation, paid $7,000,000 for the title his daughter is now +wearing. And this $7,000,000 must have been a mere bagatelle compared to +what it cost Huntington to get the lively Hatzfeldt. The poor flour mill +man could not have paid that fellow's "debts of honor." This buying of +titles, however, is but one way by which the millionaires are beggaring +the American people. So much of their time is now spent over there that +they have come to look upon the United States as their rented farm, and +Europe as the place where they, in their high roller way, must get rid +of its income. Call to mind the millionaire families who live a large +part of their time in Europe. Call to mind those who have made Europe +their permanent home, with their income drawn from the United States. +Call to mind the great European estates, that have been first cleared of +their peasantry, and then leased by American millionaires, that they may +have the exclusive right to shoot at something. Call to mind the New +York City millionaire, who purchased an English estate, one to fit the +title he is lick-spittling after, and where he can rest, after airing +his mind in his great London Daily and Monthly; all three, estate and +periodicals, being a source of loss, that is made good by American +earned money. Call all these things to mind, and if we are poor in +capital have we not found the reason why? + +Europe is the Broadway of these people, and they are there to squander +money, not to make it. And the European visitor to our shores does not +make up the loss. He comes, looks at some of our landscape, Niagara, the +Yosemite, etc., and is out of the country and home again. His is but a +drop to the ocean we lose. + +Need we wonder at our gold disappearing? Our bonds and stocks, +Government and corporation, are scattered broadcast over the whole of +Europe, and those decrepit titles, that were dying out, have been put on +their feet again by American money, and are now living off the interest +of American bonds of one kind or another. + +Nor should we have to borrow foreign capital. It is over a century since +this government was established, and it is time we had enough capital of +our own. + +But the United States Treasury is, and has been for over thirty years, +the clearing house for the foreign holders of American securities. We +are a mortgaged nation, and the office of our National Treasury is the +place of all others where our foreign owners should get their interest. +We are still in possession of the office, however, and in this we are +ahead of Egypt, but it will take much hair-splitting to show any +substantial difference in the results. + +History does not contain, the imagination cannot evolve, a more damnable +exhibition of incompetence than this failure of our scrub statesmen to +extricate their country from the clutch of its foreign masters. + +Ruling one or the three principal gold producers of the world, they are +compelled to resort, to all the shifts known to the desperate bankrupt +in order to keep a few millions of it in the Treasury, and thereby save +our whole monetary system from going to the dogs. For let us not delude +ourselves; the moment the United States Treasury cannot give gold for +its greenbacks, that moment will the history of the greenback begin to +repeat itself. And we are not saving ourselves by making greenbacks lean +on silver. They cannot be made stronger than the thing they lean on. +Gold we must have as our standard. + +We are in commercial relations with all nations, and the laws of trade +are inexorable, and say: You must have money that is acceptable to those +you buy from. Bring any other, and you can call the fifty cents it +contains one hundred, but your laws are for the United States only, and +you must accept the fifty cents or take back the mongrel that in your +own barnyard crows so loud, for the United States has induced a swindle +that she is powerless to enforce beyond her own borders. + +No law is necessary to make us take gold. Just out of the mine or just +out of the mint, we want it - the whole world wants it. + +Finance, if not as old as the hills, is at least pretty near as old as +the graves at the foot of them. There is nothing new to be learned +regarding her laws. And those laws do not shut out tin, copper, paper, +rags, nails, or silver from being used as money as long as it is +agreeable to the interested. But the wisdom of the world comes from her +experience, and if she calls for gold money it is because she has never +found a better. All other kinds fade before it as fades the moon before +the rising sun. + +There is but one central orb in the world's monetary systems, and that +is Gold. And its satellites, paper or silver, will never be able to get +out of their orbits where the fixed and unalterable laws of the world's +financial systems have placed them. Temporary disturbances may deceive +the searcher, but he has mistaken his calling who cannot distinguish +planets from the sun around which they are moving. + +The different governments of Europe, that are not gold producers, have +gold as the basis of their monetary systems, and, what is more, the gold +is there. The United States, that is a gold producer, would also have it +as the basis of its monetary system, but this nation, the one +independent nation that is all extensive and the leading producer of the +metal that the enlightened world approves of as making the best of all +moneys, cannot retain enough of it to give future stability to her own +currency. + +This nation, the greatest of to-day, or any day! + +This nation, that has given more to the rest of the world than it has +ever received! + +This nation - of all others on this earth - must be content with the +money of the enslaved East Indian coolie; must be content with the money +of the decaying Chinaman; must be content with the money of the half +savage republics to the south of us! + +This nation, whose chief magistrate is the embodiment of power never +dreamed of by the Caesars and Napoleons in their palmiest days! This +nation, that is impregnable against the combined armies of the world, is +being sapped and mined of its wealth under the very eyes of its +driveling lawmakers, and silver is becoming the badge of its humiliation +and inferiority! + + + +XIV. + +The national debt of France is $7,000,000,000. This exceeds the combined +national debts of the United States, England, and Germany. + +In territory, France is not as large as California. + +Her population is[2] ....................... 37,000,000 +The population of the United States is ..... 65,000,000 +The population of England is ............... 37,000,000 +The population of Germany is ............... 40,000,000 + ____________ + Total .................................. 142,000,000 + +The French navy is a fairly close second to that of England. + +Her army is as large as that of Germany. + +France, then, supports an army and navy of the first class, and has only +37,000,000 people to do it with. And this same 37,000,000 people pays +interest on a debt that is greater than that of the 142,000,000 people +in the three countries named. Yet there is no wail of distress, such as +we are familiar with, heard in this France, with its great army and +navy, and its fabulous interest-bearing, debt. + +What is the secret of it? + +France is the greatest producer of luxeries in the world, and, of +course, has the rich the world over for her customers; and she is a +nation of small owners, her resources, land and all else, being +subdivided among her people to an extent unknown elsewhere. This is only +half the secret. + +There is a natural increase of wealth in every country. Keep that +natural increase in the country where it is made, and there will always +be a surplus left after the mere live and wear expenses are paid, and +this surplus can be used either to support an army or to build +macadamized roads. This then is the other half, without which she would +be where we are: France legislates to keep her wealth in her own country +- and her loss on that canal is only one plum out of her heeping bushel. + +The foreign sapper and miner does no work on French soil. His field of +operation is the whole American continent, beginning in Canada and on +down through, without a skip, till he reaches Magellan and the Horn, +scattering his due bills all the way. + +The French law-maker, in spite of his clatter, is without a peer, and he +dwarfs none so much as our own, who will become the butt of his own +sneer if he ever gets his eyes open. + +This foreign master of the art of governing legislates in the interests +of his own people, who are the only source of his country's power or +greatness, and he leaves the income of the large farm or small one where +it is made. And when the issuing of bonds is the only alternative he +issues them in sizes those small incomes can buy. + +Their labor pays the debt in the end, and it is their interests that are +first consulted when profits from bond issues are considered. He makes +the size of the bond fit their ability to buy, and not that of the +millionaire syndicate, as is the case in this misgoverned land, where +the matchless ignorance and complicity of the law-maker is made to serve +the matchless corruption and greed of its millionaire master. + +No French syndicate makes its five to ten per cent. profits off every +issue of bonds. + +Thousands among our toilers could have secured their ten-dollar savings +could they have bought Government bonds of that denomination but they +could not, and were forced to become the victims of swindling bankers. + +Individual greed cares nothing for its victims as they are thrown on the +streets and its ways. + +When this enterprising foreigner, with his surplus capital, the result +of wise laws, started for Panama to do a much needed work for this +Western world, that this great gold producing country could not find the +capital to do, our blackmailers worked the Monroe Doctrine on him and +all the while he was quieting the rascals, the sappers and miners were +splitting their sides at our treasury door. + +Congress is opened by a chaplain. It should be opened by a physician and +a warrant - bibs for the drooling chins of some and the rest to jail. + +[2] The writer is not within hundreds of miles of works of reference; +but these figures are substantially correct. The quibbler, however, is +welcome to anything he may find. + + + +Conclusion. + +A policy that keeps our increase of wealth in the country, and prevents +it from lodging in a few hands, can work no injury whatever. No +enterprise worthy of notice will languish for the want of the necessary +capital. The savings banks are the depositories of the people, and the +capital of those institution in all the cities of the country exceeds +that of the commercial or capitalistic banks, and the "statements" of +the savings banks should dispel any fears as to whether capital can be +concentrated afterit once gets into the hands of the people. $50,000,000 +is the assets of more than one savings bank in the City of New York. And +our own San Francisco has its Hibernia and other banks of its kind, with +from $5,000,000 to $30,000,000 of capital. And when it is remembered +that the total deposits of an individual in most of those institutions +is not allowed to exceed $3,000, we can see that the people will not +fail us as "concentrators" when their help is needed. + +Those statements also show whether those of small means are for +concealing it, or for putting it into the hands of competent managers +for investment. And if these competent managers approve of an enterprise +they will not neglect their client's interests by refusing to make the +required loan. + +At present, they do not seek investment outside of corporate limits, +and, of course, the money they have been intrusted with, must be about +all invested, and cannot be called idle money, or there could be no +interest paid to its owners. + +There will be no friction in the management of industrial enterprises +when this savings-bank depositor makes a direct investment. The voter at +the polls has his say as to who shall fill a political office, but he +cannot interfere in the work of the office itself. Neither will our +investor have the right or power to interfere. In short, the modern +industrial world would go to pieces even now, if it was run by its +million owners, instead of by its appointed or elected superintendent. + +These small depositors are either laborers or in "business;" business +that they would enlarge if business of all kinds was not already +overdone. It is not to be inferred from this that the new law will cause +factories to run day and night, or keep the merchant's door always on +the swing. There will be an increase of business surely; but this world +is not like a goose whose liver we are after. Her capacity to absorb +what we make or produce is limited, and when we reach that limit, let us +be content, and chain down Greed for the moment, that we may look out +and see how beautiful is this world whereon we live, when freed from the +crack of the master's whip. + +- + +Through Confiscation alone can the people regain their liberty and +possession of their resources. + +A readjustment means justice to all. + +Without it the days of the republic are numbered, and the overwhelming +disaster to mankind will mark the burial place of the aspirations of its +founders, and the latest conquest of individual greed. + +That disaster cannot be averted by Grover Cleveland, the head of the +Democratic party, finding a foreign market for a few more shiploads of +our products. And never should the oppressed of other lands find an +enemy here to take their bread. Pinching nature has not made wolves of +this people that they should go and show their teeth among the cabins +and hovels of Europe. Theirs is but a crust now, and a judgement should +wither the hand that would take it from them. + +This disaster cannot be averted by Thomas B. Reed, the idol and +recognized leader of the Republican party, forcing the producers of +those few ship loads of products to consume them themselves. The whole +could be dropped to the bottom of the sea, or sold for their value a +hundred fold, and it would not stay the doom of the Republic one swing +of the pendulum. + +This disaster cannot be averted by Robert G. Ingersoll - another idol - +advising the millionaire to be extravagant. Or by taking the +labor-saving machinery away from the people, and keeping them longer at +their toil, as this humbug has suggested. + + +- + +This Is The Age Of Beef. + +Our leaders are incompetent. Argument here is needless. We have plenty +of everything, and plenty of hunger at the same time, which shows +mismanagement. Our leaders, therefore, must be incompetent. Nor should +the blame of this be charged to the people. Statecraft, like the +prescribing of medicine or the practice of law, is a profession, and the +unlearned in their ways is at the mercy of the quacks of all three. + +When none but quacks offer their services to the State a selection must +be made, and the people cannot be held to account for choosing quacks +when there was nothing to choose from but quacks. + +Whatever physical characteristics distinguishes the genius of leadership +from the ordinary man; whether it is long legs or short; long nose or +pug; big heads or little, one thing is certain - history tells you on +her every page that leadership is never found in combination with beef. +Cleveland and Reed! How they stew and swelter in positions they cannot +fill. How these Jonahs have grown till they have become the whale +itself. How their fat will spot the pages to come, and float on the sea +where the Republic went down. + +And Ingersoll - let us not forget Ingersoll - the thumber over of past +woes, whose five hundred dollar opera ticket identifies the class to +which he now belongs, and proves his success as a fifteenth century +reformer. The people made and keep up the acquaintance of this man by +way of the ticket office, but instead of considering him as they would +any other footlight performer, who had struck a paying vein and was +working it for all it was worth, and who can only be heard at so much +per ticket, they have come to look upon the character he has been acting +as the man himself, and their friend who would make their cause his own. + +No fee is collected at the door of the little church that is found along +the byways of every Christian land, and its humble preacher can be heard +free of cost. But abuse of this follower and disciple of Jesus, whose +teachings are in no way responsible for the crimes of Individual Greed, +has been the source of large profits to this man, who has even gone so +far as to tell his hearers not to give a dollar to the support of a +preacher - meaning, doubtless, while you could see his performance for +half the money. + +This man, whose audience is world-wide, uses his great opportunity for +helping mankind by inclosing the scenes of former struggles, and +collecting the gate receipts. + +This bogus friend of the people answers the cry of distress that is +heard all over this bountiful land by a shrug, and a nod to the master +to drop a few more crumbs, as if the people were hungry dogs under the +table. + +Ingersoll a friend of the oppressed? He would render justice to the +enslaved toiler by lengthening his hours of labor. + +A sham reformer, who would destroy the Inquisition of this day by +plunging his spotless blade into an Inquisition whose sun has set, never +to rise again. + +Ingersoll of the tender soul, who shows the sincerity of his +exhibition-tears for the persecuted dead by riding, rough-shod, over the +sensibilities of the blameless living. + +Warrior Ingersoll, furiously charging up and down an abandoned +battle-field, rattling the bleaching bones of a dead and gone enemy - +for an admission fee. + +Ingersoll the capper, who would turn all eyes to the ashes of a +burned-out bell, while another is being dug in our rear. + +Cleveland - Reed - Ingersoll, + +The Three + +C A G L I O S T R O S. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Confiscation, An Outline, by Greenwood + diff --git a/2611.zip b/2611.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20c1ebd --- /dev/null +++ b/2611.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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