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Flesherton Advance, 2 Jun 1887, p. 2

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*^i ?1) Frirnte Owotrship iu Laod the llovt of all Poverty. THE LABOR QUESTION A UND QUESTION. Tax the Land Instead of Industry and Enterprise, and WAQES AHD WORK WODU) BE FLEHIirUL. Mr. Henry Goorge, who WM reoeivod with load appUuite, Baid : Ladies and (gentlemen, â€" I am to lecture to you to-nitjhton "TheOrjme of Pororty." I hold that poverty is a crim«. Not that it is a crime to be poor neooBsarily. There may be cases in which even that is true â€" - cases in which a man is poor from his own iault. But the (greater i>ortion of the poverty that exists all over the civilized world to-day I hold to be a orimo, not of the individuals who suffer, but of aociety at large. Two or three weeks ago there was started at a great meeting in New York an Anti-Poverty Bociety ; and the Chairman of that meeting is a priest whu, during a lung life in the ministry in that city, has been known for his charitable deeds and good worksâ€" Rev. L>r. MoOlynn. (Applause,) That society proclaims its desire to abolish poverty. That man, like many other men who have done what they oould to alleviate poverty by charity, has become satiiiUod that charity â€" the mere giving of almsâ€" coulddo practically nothing to meet the case. It is necessary to goto the root of the evil, and for that reason he has lifted up TIIK CBUSS Ot THK KEW CUDSADE •gainst crime â€" the social crime of poverty â€"and called together a groat body of earnest men and women who, like him, believe that it springs from a wrong, and the only way to suuoessfully deal with it is to abolish that wrong. (Applause.) In commenting upon this society and the part taken in it by Dr. McUlymi, a prom- inent Catholic clergyman of New Kngland in a recent sermon declared that the very attempt to abolish poverty was wicked â€" that poverty was ordained oy God, that Christ came upon the earth and blessed poverty and did nothing whatever to re- move it. If this preacher is right, it poverty is caused by the laws of Uod, if poverty is in the scheme of tlie Creator, then all efforts to abolish it are futile. If it is not, if it exists in dcflaiioo of Uod'* laws, if it exists because we don't observe those laws, then poverty is a crime, and the crime must meet its punishmuut. (Applause.) I oontend that tliure is in the laws and in the Srovidence of the ('reator nothing to pro- aoe the widespread poverty that exists to-day wen in the very centres of the world. On the contrary, it is due to the injustice of man â€" to the fact that we have ignored and do ignore the laws of Uod. l<ook over the civiliaed world today. Everywhere there is looming up what we speak of as the labor qaeation. i^very where men wiio earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brows are oeoomiDg dissatisfied with the existing order »l things. Kverywhere there is complaint of men willing to work with difliuulty finding the opportunity to work. Kverywhore there are those who even with the hardest toil can only make the barest living. I read to-day in Mr. Uoldwin Hmith's paper, the H'ffk, an item stating that a Uurliam ongineer had niadn a dis- covery by which the same amount of steam could be prodiiood as now with 7U {ler cent. less coal, and the article went on to say how this invention would unable steani- ahips to cross the ocean at a s|M!od of thirty miles an hour, without increase of running oxiienses - how it would decrease railway expenses, and at the same time effect a â- umoient saving to i:t.oriiR BViiiY Nixaj) iuck and fill every hungry stomach. That was the dream of men some decades ago, when the grand era of modern dhioovery and improvement was first entered ut>on. It is « dream which has not been realized. Invention upon invention and modern im- provemunt upon modern improvement have been made, yet where our inventions pro- vide the world with the greatest abundance there seems to be the most iioverty. In spite of all the ixiwers wnioli human ingenuity has nallod to the aid of human muscles in thuir priMluoe of wealth, the struggle for existence becomes more intense as time passes by. In civilized lands insanity is stoadil/ on the increase, and while we have on the one hand fortunes being amassed that seem monstrous, we liavo on the other thepauporand thutramp. What can we hoi>e for from future inventions if this is the case? liefore we can hope that mere invention will do away with poverty we must find out why it is that all the great powers which have come already }iave not suflioed to do so. All over the world the labor ijuestinn is arising. There are combinations of capital, strikes, lK)y- cotts on all sidue. This labor iiuestion iu the great matter to bo Muttlud in the future. What is at the Ixitlom of the labor ques- tion? Himply this: that there are now, in the best of times, among as a certain number of men who i\nd it difHcult to got employment. They are con- stantly met with the statement that there is either a surplus of products of labor or too little work to furnish employment for nil. Kven in our newest Btatos to day there are men idly tramping about looking for employment. Our great cities are full of them. An advertisemiint in the Now York i/itraldâ€" and the Herald is in the habit of boasting about it- asking for help will meet with 200 or 800 responses. Thousands of people are landing upon our shores every week, driven from Knrope by the harder conditions of older settled cxiun- tries, and trying to improve their fortunes here, and yet all over our country there SIEliS TO IIH TOO H\NY PROPI.K. Clreat combinations of labor are formed to keep down these conditions, and it has gone so far iato our every day life that we are accustomed to regard work as a boon. Our iiewspapars talk of the man who furnishes work as a benefactor, and our public i>olioy, in important respects, is based on this idea. Wo maintain tarifTs to keep work in our countryâ€" to, in our idea, kooii foreigners from doing work that we thiuk should be done here. It is not natural for a man to want to work ; on the contrary, tlio natural impulae of a man is to allow others to do work for him. You may make work for a housewife by dropping grease on her kitchen floor or spilling coffee on her carj^t, but she will not thank you for it. (Laughter.) Yet vast expenditures have popular support, because It is said they are going to furnish workâ€" to make employ- ment, to give people something to do. Now, when you come to think of it, there is no natural surplus of labor. The rela- tions between the demand and the supply of labor are fixed. What is the demand ? It is the satisfying of human wants. And the supply of labor are those powers which a man brings into the world with him^ Bo long as for every mouth that is brOTght into existence there come two hands, the relations between demand and supply must be the same, no matter how the population increases. And if it seems, as it does seem to-day, that there is a discrepancy, it is simply that there is something that pre- vents the supply from satisfying the de- maud. (Applause.) This notion that there is a surplus of laborâ€" too many people in the worldâ€" has been devolopec into a philosophical theory, and it has been attempted to throw upon the Creator the respinsibility for the want and sufTeriug which prevail among men. It has been held by certain philosophers that there is a tendency to multiply population faster than subsistence. That is Till UALTaCBIAK THBOBY. There are in reality no facts anywhere in the civilized world that can support that contention. There are certainly none in a new country like this. Yet we are asked to look on the phenomena in this new land that these theorists have attempted to account forâ€" too many i)eople. The thing is preposterous! And to-day if there is one theory more than another that is believed in, that theory is over-prodaction. The thing is transcendently preposterous I There can be no such thing as over-produc- tion in any general sense until all noman wants are satisfied. Over-production I Too many new clothes! And women who would like a now dross have to turn their old ones I Too many shoes I And children have to go barefoot ! It cannot be over-production. It must be unjust distribution. (Applause.) Over-production 7 I read in a news- paper when the last spasm of hard times was coming on, an item aboat a cotton manufacturer iu an Eastern State, who called his work girls together and explained to them that in cousetjaence of over- production he would have to do something. He said he was aware they wore only getting enough wages to enable them to live in comfort ; he would not reduce these, bat would allow them to come to his assistance by working two hours more a day for the same pay. And that little thing is typical of larger things. Talk of over-prixluction ! While all over the world there are millions of men who would work if they could find anything to do, groat numbers of child4en are sent to work when th«y ought to be at school. (Applause.) Women who ought to be at home are forced to toil all day in our factories. Over-pro- duction ! when we are pressing men, women and children into the workshops to toil for Humething t« save them from star- vation. Over-production I when {nrents are forced to overstate the ages of their children to got them employment despite, the laws of the Ktatu, so that thuy may be enabled to get food and raiment. It is not over-pnxluction. The whole question of this industrial problem comes down TO THIS DSEMl'I.OTKll MAN. It is ho who forces all this competition in the avocations of all civilized communities. This conqietition, which runs through all branches of business, originates with the unemployed man. A number of men are working together in a common, unorgan- i/od trade. Along coniesan unemployed man asking for work. The employer tells him he hasn't any work for him. The man says, " I am tired and hungry and must get work. What wages do you pay ?" " Throe dollars a day," re«i>onds the boss. To this the seeker after labor says, " Well, I must have work. I will work for V'J.SO a day." The employer says " All right." He then goes to one of his employees and says ho must (liachargehim. " \Vhy,"aBksthemau, "don't I do my work all right? What have you against me?" "Nothing," re- plies the boss, " only I can get a man who will do the work for less wages." The employee thinks hu might as well work for the 92.50 as be discharged, and the boss goes around his men in the shop and finds all would rather accept the re<iuction than make way for the unemployed man. And this one unemployed man may under free condi- tions lower the price of labor of twenty men. It waa cases like this which caused the inauguration of labor unions. Ktill this oomi>etitipn grown, and though unions may fight it out now and then they can never duutroy it as long as large numbers of the roinmunity are out of employment. It is like rowing against the tide. Uet rid of the idle man and I'DVKHTV WILL UK ABOUSUKO. There will then only remain the poverty which results from vice. The Dible says : "Uethatwill not work, noithur shall hoeat." itut the curse of the present state of society iu that the iiiun who are anxious to work so that they may eat are unable to find the of>portunity to do so. No man has the right to compel another to employ him ; but every man does have a natural right to employ himself. Now what is the natural opportunity for employment ? How did the first man who settled in this new country gut employment ? There was simply the land waiting for him to labor on for it to produce all human douires, and he went to work. That wau all. Where men can find access to land there men can always find uinploynient. That is why in new conntriou labor is easier to find than in older ones. Over on our side of the line a delusion has been foutorod that a protec- tive tariff raises wages in the United Htatos. Why, wages in the Htates were higher in old colonial days, before a tariff was raised at all, than thoy are now. Adam bmith declare''! that when land was easy to get a man would not work long for small wages. Hut as those opportunities for solf employ- ment have been curtailed we find that fringe of unemployed labor increasing, and competition becoming more ami aiore bitter? They talk about labor being the creator of all wealth. Labor can create nothing. God Almighty alone can create. Man is not a creator, ho is a producer only. The whole human race oould not create the tiniest spot on the surface of the sun. Man produces fish by taking them out of the water. He produces coal by digging it out of the bowels of the earth. He produces houses by getting together the brick and mortar and wood, and produces cloth by weaving the material, etc. All our prodac- tions are simply the changing in plaoe or in form or THE RAW MATKBIAL which nature produces. Labor alone can accomplish nothing. Without the land it is helpless. It can only be of service in working qp the raw material already in existence. 8o it is that the man who has only his labor at command is absolutely helpless, and cannot use his labor antil he can attain access to the raw material. Man is a laud animal. We are just as much children of the soil as are the flowers or grass. The man who has only the power to work under conditions in which material for work is owned by somebody else is a mere dependent. The man who owns the land is virtually his master and he his slave. Yoa may call them free men, but they are not so. The owner has the power of life and death over them. In a community where one class of I)eople own the land and the other has no legal right to any portion of the earth, there must serfs be found. The landlord ! That is a title the Bible gives to Deity. Tennyson says : The God Almighty of the country side, He having power over the elements fur- nished by God can compel them virtually to do his will. They are his slaves. What is slavery ? It is compelling a man to labor without giving him in retam an adequate reward for that labor. Is not this indus- trial slavery just as much slavery as that which was abolished at the end of the great war ? The slaves had to be fed and clothed to keep them alive, and the children had to be reared to bo healthy men and women. Now, yoa take the older countries, and there>re great popolstions there who get ns more than the wages of the slave. Kven in our country men and women are working in our factories among machinery that has produced untold wealth, yet they are miserably poor. Is not the reason that we have mado UlSU tub riUVATB PIlOrKBTT OF A FKW. That we have enabled man, by virtue of their ownersliip of slices of this planet, to live in idleness, while others have to buy permission from them before they can go to work. Wu talk about there not being work enough. Take the groat city of New York. Go there and you will see the threat mass of the )>eoplo crowded so close together thatlthe very decencies cannot be observed. So close that the children die by the thou- sands in their infancy. So close that only about 4 per cent, ef the people live in separate nouses. Yet thete are lots of people there who have too little work. Is there no opportunity there for building opvratioBB? Why are there not more houses built .' Bricklayers and carpenters and material could be had at any moment. But yoa must get part of the surface of the land there to build upon. Yoa cannot build houses in tho sky. And there is plenty of land. About one-half of the area of New York is yet vacant. Why don't they build more houses then, when they are so much needed ? |kniply tor this reason : that the land is held at enormous prices by specula- tors. Go into Pennsylvania and yoa wUl find coal miners who are in a condition little bettor than serfdom, working for poor wages and only ablo to get work about two- thirds time iu tho year. Work, too, is often shut off entirely on account, the mine owners say, of over production of coal, while at that very time thouiands of peo- ple in New York, Boston and Chicago want more coal and are not able to get it. If enough coal is not produced to supply these pi^ople it is not bocaase there is not Hufllciont 0(b1 land. Tho reason is that the lands are held by a few men, some of them residing in New York, some iu Cbioago, or (Hirhaps in Kngland, and the miners are not allowed to work. The owners shut down just when thoy like and up go the prices of ooal. It the men could dig down and bring out the coal that God planted there thuy would havu plenty, and having plenty they woukt make work for othersâ€" they would buy more dry goods and grocer- ies, and the whole commanity would be benefited. (Hear, hear.) Go into agricul- ture and you see the same thing. People are coming over the seas to our country and the population iu streaming across the continent. From the east they aru pushing west looking for laud. It is a good deal like swimming a river to gut a drink. You go out from New York and see (I HEAT TBACTS OF CNOOCDPIBD LAMO, but you must go a very long way before you sou any that is unclaimed, or that you daru sut a foot upon without paying some speculator or mortgaging your labor for years. Thus the cities are crowded. Open the natural opportunities for labor and none need lack employment. The primary oooupations are those on which all others are built and the remuneration on primary occupations regulato that on all others. No wonder wages are low and are only kept up to about half what they should be by combinations, strikes and fighting when you sou farmers in the Western States being obliged to give one-halt of their crops in order to get at the land. When men can got only one-half of the product of their labor on farms how must it bo in all other classes of labor ? Then look at tho booms you have all over the country. You havu had some in Canada and some pretty respuctable ones, I believe, in the North- west. (Laughter.) In Now York land is continually going up iu ]irioe and in Kansau City to-day, or ten miles out of tho city, you will soo theni making streets by running a plough along tho land, dividing the property on into lota and selling the lots at 8250 each. A groat deal of that is wild-cat sixiculation, but as population inoreaueu laud goes up iu value, and tho man who gets the land, though he does nothing, can grow rich by compelling others to pay high prices before they can use it. When any man can thus got rich on tho product of labor, tho man who does tha laboring must get loss in proportion. This is the FUNDAUENTAL CADSK OF THE DEPAKSSION, .'>ver production and poverty that fetter in uvory centre of population, and it is a cause that is a crime, 'fake the ooal of which I spoko. Before man came upon this earth the forces of naturo woroatwork producing this ooal. For what ? Evidently to fur- nish a store of heat and light and power for the dwellers that were to dwell upon the earth ; for the beings that differ from all others in their ability to use what has been placed upon and in the earth. What, then, was coal made for? For this cor- poration or that body of men ? Or was it for all men? Is it not a mani- fest truth of natural as well as of revealed religion that it was made for all the people of the earth? (Applaase.) God is no respector of parsons, and that which denies to any his right is an injury and a crime. Just think of it ! Little children to-day toiling in the factories in New York, Glas- gow, London and all big cities, and grow- ing up in such a wav that it is little less than a miracle to keep them pure. Are they not the children of God ? Are they not entitled to an equal share in His bounty, and are they not robbed when dis- inherited of their right ? When the English went to New Zealand and bought the land from the natives the women would como back to them and ask for more money. They replied, " Why, we bought this land from you and paid you for it, and why do yoa come back wanting more?" Then the women replied, " Yes, yes, but yon didn't pay this baby its share; this baby was not born then." Isn't the New Zealander's system a truer one than oun ? Why should a father be allowed to 8XU. TBI BIOBTB OF HIS CUUDBEM ? Take England, Ireland and Scotland, for instance, and there yon find that the vast part of the population come into life with no right to live and no right to use the land except they purchase it from another. Where one comes into the world the pos- sessor of vast lands one thousand are bom with no right- except what they get by paying the one. Is not this preposterous and absurd ? (Hearty applause.), Where can any man get the right to deed away slices of this earth 7 There certainly is a right of property recognized, and a right which is absolutely indispensable. That which a man makes is his. It is his against all the world so long as by the use of it he does not injure any one. That is clear, and rests upon the right of every man to enjoy the fruits which his labor produces. But who can have the right to the possession of any acre of land ? Man takes a fish from tho ocean and it is his, being the product of his own labor. No man has the right to come up and lay claim to or take that fish ; bat that is different from the right of ownership of the ocean, whereby any man should say no one else shall take out fish without permission from me. If you will go to Londonderry and stand on any of the bridges there you can see the salmon in the streams, hut you can't touch them â€" they all belong to a man who lives in London. (Laughter.) In all the places over there it is the same. All the salmon and the trout and the catfish, if there are any, are owned by men, just as if they were produced by some man who lives and enjoys himself in London or Paris. As for a common man, he would no more think of catching one of these fish than he would of catching a hornet. (Laughter.) Where did that man in London gut the right to those salmon, you ask, and he replies that he got it from his father, who is now dead. Where did hii father get it 7 Why, from some other person who is dead. And where did he get it ? Why, it has come from some king who died hundreds tit years ago. Now, how did any man who is dead get the right to give away all the salmon that are iu these streams now 7 THIS IS NOT A WOBLO FOB DEAD UKN, it is for the living, and what rights have the dead in this world 7 When men die they go to another world and have no rights hero. Then, you ask, how did the owner of this land on which this building stands gut the right to it and if you look back you will find it came from some dead man. A wuok or two ago there was some land sold in New York for 8 1,500,000 an acre, and when it was traced back it was found that it came from some dead Dutchman who died about 300 years ago. On Long Island two or three years ago all the fishermen paid rent in a percentage of all the fish they caught, to some one who called him. solf owner of the right to fish on the island. At last some one questioued his right and looked through the records for a trace of it. Tho man claimed that he had got a right from James the Second, but the flshormen coald not find any J>ai>era and would not pay any more. t they bad found the papers they woald have gone on payingâ€" men in the nine- teenth century paying the descendants of another man who had died years before for the right to catch fish. Isn't that absurd? It is like getting on a train and finding all tho seats vacant but claimed. You ask how they are claimed and a man tells yoa he holds the right to the seats, having got it from a man who got off at tho last station. Why should any man now hold rights to lands, which rights wore got from a man who got off this world a good many stations back. It is absurd, and no one can in justice dare to defend the system of private proprietorship in land. All thoy can do is to say that that is the only way that land can be put in use â€"that we must have private proprietorship in order to have it well used. What does that statement moan 7 It means that tho law of right cannot he carried out. Don't bcliovo anything of the sort. What is BKIIIT CAN ALWAYS BB CAKBIEU OU 1. You need not ask what isexpedicnt or what is wise if you ask what is right. Do jus- tice ; and there must be a way of doing justice to every one that oomes into this world. What is necessary in order to securo a full and proiier uso for the land is secure ^xjssessiiui, hut not the right of ownership. You want it to be so arrangol that he who sows tho seed shall have tho right to reap tho crop, and that ho who works in the mine shall have the fruits of his labor, but not tho right of absolute possession that gives one man the power to ha a dog-iu-tho-manger, and that makes vacant places in land and cities crowded with men who can't find employment, though all around them are tho opportuni- ties of plenty of work. Go to Loudon, or Chicago, or New York, and you will find corporations and individuals who can hold any amount of land, ond if thoy can why cannot tho community bo the possessors of the soil? The rights of ownership are not necessarily to the im- provement and use of the land. Men plant that thoy may reap a crop. Bocare to them tho right to reap the crop and that is all that is necessary. By that moans land becomes a thing in which all have au equal share during their life. Equal rights will thus be secured, and an opportunity ^ given to all men to get ample employment. It will OPEN TO ALL, UBN THH LAMD, and a vast fund can thus be raised from a tax upon the land which can be used for the good of the commtmity. It is not necessary that we shoold call tho land our own. It is not necessary that wa should rent it out. The easier way is sim- ply to increase taxes on land and abolish all other taxes. Remove the taxes on everything that bears on capital and labor, and put the burden on the value of the land, and the fund can be used in ways immensely beneficial to the country. It ia to my mind the clearest evidence of design of creation that such a system uhoold pre- vail â€" that land values should increase with the growth of society ; that the one thing which should increase is the value of land. And what does this mean 7 That as mea come closer together they can use the in- creasing funds for common purposes. It would have the effect of bringing them to an etjuality, and do away with differences between the strong and the weak. Here is a vast field that could be entered upon. A poor, straggling widow needing help â€" an old man, crippled, needing assistance â€" could be relieved without recourse to what is called charity. A painter falls from hia ladder and is serioaaly hurt, a miner ia crushed by falling mineral, a fisherman goes out and never returns. In the present state of society their widows and children are left to get along as best they can. Such a state of tnings in a DISOBACK TO CHBISTIASrry, for every man should feel assured that in a Christian country his wife and children would not need if he were called suddenly away. (Applaase.) In the city of Mew York, in the city of Glasgow, in other large centres of population there are immortal souls growing up in worse savagry than the world knows. AU this might be obviated if the land reform I urge was brought about In the city of New Y'ork alone the fund would amount to 9100,000,- 000 per year. What vast improvements, what stately buildings, what magnificent avenues, what comfortable dwellings for the poor would not this procure. Why, even your own delightful city could be vastly beautified by the amount which would accure therefrom. (Hear, hear.) Now is it not a stupid thing the way tho taxes are imposed ? A man spends a lot of money in building a house which adorns tha thoruughfare and increases the value of adjacent property, and a tax is im- mediately imposed on him. The lazy, good-for-nothing fellow who left his lot lie idle, reaps the advantage. It looks like a ta.\ on thrift and encouragement of the spendthrift. Barely it was a good thing to mako two blades of grass to grow whureona grew before. No sooner does the farmer, however, build now buildings, put his fuucea iu repair and generally improve his place, than down comes the tax gatherer and FINIS niM roB MAEINO IMCBOVEMSNTS. (Applause.) The custom in too many instances was to ta.x the farmer's bare land that he is trying to make an honest living from up to a figure very much higher than that paid on exactly similar land hold for speculative purposes. Would it not ba wise to take off these taxes ? However, these would be light benefits iu a com- munity in comparison to the choking off of these "dogs-in-the-manger" individuals who hold property for speculation. In tho new state of things, which I hope to see come to pass, there will be a thinning out of dense populations, no one need bo idle who want work, leisure could be taken advantage of, the hell of greed would be extinguished and God would be worshipped instead of the golden calf. (Applause.) It is not the human muscles that are the groat pro- ducing power. It is tho braiu of man that makes him tho master of the beast s and products of nature. It the new land system wore in vogue all might be rich. Not that we will be richer than our neighbors, but there will be no more of that degrading poverty which prevents many from enjoy- ing the advantages of civilization. (Ap- plause.) It was a fact that now men cannot find time to enjoy the privilege of self-development. There is no necessity for there being any poverty. We might be rich â€" I mean have leisure and all the ordinary luxuries of life and comfortable homes â€" if we would but DO SIMPLE JDBTICE. (Applause.) Christ struck right at the root of (wverty when Ho said " Do unto others as you would that they uhould do unto you." It this golden rule was carried oat in our institutions and laws poverty would be abolished. (C'heers.) What was the prayer he taught: "Thy kingdom come, thy will bo done, on b.uitu, as it is done in heaven." AU we have to do to make this a heaven in earth is to carry out tho prin- ciple of doing unto others as wo would that they should do unto us. (Applause.) After referring to the new Anti-Poverty Society in New York, and appealing to the audience to give heed to the arguments ha had used, if not for their own sake for tho sake of others, Mr. George took hia seat amidst applause. gUEHTIONS AND AMSWEBg. The Chairman then rose and stated that if any one desired to ask auy questions thoy might do so. A gentleman in the audience, who said ho had como from Toronto and was a stranger in tho city, said : " Is it any sin or crime on my part in saving part of tho wages learn, orwos it v.-rougfor me to pur- chase tho houso I own in Toronto, that when I gc hence I may know that my wife and family are provided for ?" Mr. Georgeâ€" It is certainly no crime or sin for you to buy a home if you can, bat you should also do somothiug to make it easier for Others to buy homes, too. Tho gentleman said he thought the ovil was caused by tho abuse of tho rights of property owners more than by anything else. Mr. George replied that under the pre- sent system a groat majority of tho people have no homes. In Now York probably not 2 per cent, of tho population own their homes, while a groat majority of them were living in rack-rented tenements. Under tho system he proposed others would bo enabled to got homos. By making tho land uuprolitablo to speculators, it would pass into tho hands of those who would use it and all would have some spot they oould call homo. r II 8 'i jL ' ' jflr- ^:4

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