Show HAT LAND TAX CHESTNUT I j The St. St Louis Mirror begins an ar article i with ith these words Ip lt I In i is ti talk k o of a rent strike How I mii much h of the product of labor is held up by rent 7 The tenant knows What is rent 7 It is a a toll exact ex ex- ex- ex act acted a of labor by privilege for the right to liv live on onte I 1 the the te land Yet man mall can live nowhere e else sE but ui Ol on J land nd T There ere is enough I land lind nd for all but buta j a few have preempt pre d' d t the e land and c charge arge oth others rs fo living on n it The only right to land is it its productive use but ut the land owner who rents out laud lund docs does not use s it productively He uses uses it ito to tax production There is a a. lot more o of of that that same stuff stuff for as we have stated before the editor of oJ the Mirror or does not want any taxes taxes' except on n land and none at all on personal property r. r Now if the land in St. St Louis had llad no io owners of course e it t would have no houses and and the laborer there thero could go out and sleep on the tho ground all the year around Would he be better off if the thc man who had the gold with which he bought the theland land and built the house pleased to put his gold in hl a mortgage The Mirror would say he was entitled to o have that mortgage without taxation taxation but but then the laborer would have no house To carry it a little further the would have no right I to ta tax labor for the food the laborer eats But the Mirror irro draws the line on the tho land Land must pay all the taxes but no no man must own own it Anything th that t is a product of ot labor the Mirror says should not be bo t taxable Where is labor going to sleep 1 When V en will ou our country get over over- the thc idea that everything g must be 10 n the flie e welfare elfare of t labor When the editor of th the I 1 Mirror devotes t fifteen fifteen fifteen teen hours a day dayto to preparing his his' paper for the 1 public US useS use he h wants a a. house to sleep in at night llight According to his own theory when someone builds a house and arid charges him rent for it he is robbing him Or according to his theory if he builds his own house and eats and sleeps in that house th then n n. h he should be taxed to the limit while hi his neighbor neigh- neigh her bor wI who 0 does not work at all aU but who has large 1 amounts of mOney money on hand can use use his money in 3 any anway y way va the world except to bu land laud with it without t taxation There Juay may be good sense in that hat proposition but the world except a few is is yet too primitive to torea reason on that thing out And then theu that men Inca get got gett f t work at all is due to the fact that certain other men jen have Ilave money and they use it in such steh a way vay J that it is necessary to employ labor to help and the th price of ot J labor bor is regulated ac according q ding to the laboring la- la boring mans man's necessities If the theman thenan nan inai with the tho ri money ncy ey pa pays pay's pas s 's him 3 a day Ii he lOes l cs it in part beo bese be- be o Jause se the man that he hires has to pa pay r 2 23 cents a night for fOt a 3 place to sleep If that w were re taken away yay he would only pay him a da day That is i reversing all aU the good sense of the past laS It is the governments government's duty uty to take every possible possible possible ble obstacle out put of the w way y of ol labor but it is not its duty to tell the laboring man that he lie creates everything and that if f a m man mail n charges him rent for his lodgings that man is robbing h him m because a tired man man after a work days work wants a place to tos s 's sleep ep an an and l l. l wants wants it comfortable And so so fa far 1 in inthis I this this country it is possible for fOl labor with what it earns carns to buy the food necess necessary ry to live and to pay the the rent rent to comfortable lod ren necessary get lodgings ings and rind when wIlen it g gets ts beyond that we wo then thim shall have anarchy indeed and the result will vill be that men neu will not hire laborers but will vill let them them shift for fortl tl themselves Just now the the- laboring men Then of America Ameria Amer Amer- i ica ia a have the advantage over l all th the world They Theyan can an n get better wages and sh shorter hours hours in this country than titan in any place on earth and the agit agitator agi agi- t tor that would un under er those conditions promote trouble trouble between the employer and the employee ce may Amay think ho lie is doing a holy work but he lie is hurting hurtin hurt hurt- in ing n labor vastl vastly more than he hc is hUtting hurting capital |