MAN'S B" r 'K)WN I ; Hi! y , j presented to the UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO by Tom Ham MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Man's Birthright New York Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. Copyright, 1911 By DIBMOND FITZGERALD, INC. Alt Sights Reurved TO MY WIFE PREFACE " AMERICA," said Walt Whitman, " has set forth upon the most tremendous task ever conceived by man; a task indeed beyond the scope of any man's thought. Urged on by the inner destiny- forces of the race, she is attempting to realize the race-ideal of a true Democracy. " To accomplish her errand she must be nerved and vitalized by the highest and deepest of ideals; for hers is a world-battle with all the relentless foes of progress." What must these " highest and deepest ideals " be in order that her mighty task may be accomplished, and posterity fall heir to that which man has striven to attain through the ages? Has the East anything to offer the West? Have European nations discovered any definite ideals worthy of emulation ? No more than have the People of the United States who stand stupidly by, witnessing the stu- pendous farce that is being enacted and of which vii viii PREFACE they form a part; an exact copy of the failure of Democracy depicted by Plato in his " Republic." Have the People of Switzerland, who possess the best of our so-called civilized governments, realized those ideals; or may they be found in an industrial Democracy as conceived by Karl Marx; or are the ideals attainable only through methods of " single- tax," as conceived by Henry George? Iri an endeavor to answer these and other ques- tions of an economic and political nature, we shall take the United States of America as a partial illus- tration for the reason that its population is com- posed practically of all nations inhabiting the Earth. It is the only nation that is recruited from all nations; in which all nations are interested; and upon which the eyes of all nations are turned, watching the trend of its present social develop- ment. Its people are accustomed to constant social change and experiment, and, being the least hampered by the social prejudices and conventions of a traditional past, they are, perhaps, the best fitted of all nations to act as the advance guard of future human devel- opment. We repeat, that we take the United States as a partial example only, but that which is here said PREFACE ix concerning it applies equally well to all peoples inhabiting the Earth to the most primitive as well as the most civilized, according to the degree of their spiritual development and the climatic conditions to which they are subjected. CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 PAGE I. PRESENT CONDITIONS i II. TAXATION IO III. SOCIALISM. ITS FALLACY 20 IV. THE LAND. ITS DISTRIBUTION .... 51 V. THE LAND. ITS PRODUCTIVITY .... 58 VI. THE ARABLE AREA OF THE EARTH 88 VII. TOWNS AND CITIES 95 VIII. FAMILY HOLDINGS AND INHERITANCE 105 IX. WOOD "3 X. 118 XI. WATER 132 XII. MINERALS 137 XIII. CONTROL OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE EARTH'S NATURAL RESOURCES 144 XIV. 14.8 XV. WILD ANIMALS *f w 152 XVI. 171 XVII. LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT .... * / * I 7 6 XVIII. 18? XIX. CORPORATIONS * J 188 XX. 1 80 XXI. THE ARMY AND NAVY * v 7 IQI XXII. THE RECONSTRUCTION 193 XXIII. THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE You FREE 2O2 XXIV. " " ...... ... 216 XXV. 11 .. i. 237 XXVI. <. it n 256 EPILOGUE 266 APPENDIX 267 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT PRESENT CONDITIONS / ~1~ V HE war of the classes has begun. Owing to the unequal distribution and monop- olization by the individual of the Earth's nat- ural resources, society to-day stands divided against itself. Every man's hand is against his fellow. The representatives of Organized Capital, syndi- cates, and trusts, whose sole aim is that of profit- making regardless of consequences, not only endeavor to crush all small competitors within their spheres of industry, but by reason of their power acquired through the accumulation of enormous wealth, are to-day able to plunge whole nations into war merely to serve their private ends; while Organized Labor seeks no less determinedly to stifle all independent effort on the part of the workingman who refuses to recognize its Unions or Organizations. 2 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Unless you make common cause with us, both Or- ganized Capital and Labor declare, you shall neither work nor engage in independent commercial pursuits. Both being monopolies, both are in the wrong. No man possesses the right either to dictate or determine what the individual shall do, or how he shall conduct his life or private affairs so long as his actions and motives are honorable. Nevertheless, Labor like Capital is now employ- ing the same weapons against the individual brute force and organized violence masking as law. The struggle is a most unnatural one. The basic commercial principle existing between man and man, or the natural law of voluntary com- petition which leads to progress is being entirely changed, and in its stead, the economic combination of force is supplanting economic competition. But this is only a beginning. A combination leads to the combination of com- binations, which, if not checked, must inevitably lead to its natural outgrowth, the combination into one organization of the entire industries of the land, rendering it impossible for the laborer or employe to find more than one employer, and the consumer more than one seller from whom to purchase wares and the necessities of life. And this in reality means PRESENT CONDITIONS 3 that there will no longer be a distinction between the laborer and the consumer, but all will become the slaves of the few who control the sources from whence the necessities of life are obtained. The same hands that control the railroads, will control the land, forests, and minerals the same hands that control the banks, will control the Na- tional Treasury, or, in other words, controlling the sources from whence the People's necessities of life are obtained, they will control the Government as well. The power already acquired by Organized Capital is such that it to-day controls the financial markets of the world, subjecting the Public to its constant caprice of raising and lowering prices and commercial rates of interest, and compelling it to accept adul- terations of food, imitations and machine-made arti- cles at a higher price than that at which goods of a superior quality might be had were there other com- petitors in the field. The cost of living has increased so steadily through- out the world that the problem of acquiring a liveli- hood is fast becoming a serious one for the majority of people. Within the immediate confines of the financial centers of the world rents have risen out of all pro- 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT portion to legitimate earnings, but in the average communities and rural districts throughout the country they are either stationary or are depreciating. Wages, it is true, increase in special occupations and in special localities, but not in general, and not in the same proportion as the increase in expenses. The average wage-earner receiving from forty to sixty dollars a month in America, or half or three- fourths that amount in Europe, finds it practically impossible to save ever so little, and is forced to live on the plainest of fare; while every second member of the working classes who attains the age of sixty- five dies a pauper. In short, things in general which go to make life comparatively comfortable and enjoyable for people of moderate means have increased so enormously in price that many of them which were once regarded as everyday necessities have become luxuries. ' The rich become richer and continue to accumu- late wealth out of all proportion to the individual of the community; the poor become poorer, and each day their lot more hopeless." Everything is sacrificed to profit-making. Private fortunes run up to hundreds of millions, while crime PRESENT CONDITIONS 5 and degeneracy and want and misery increase on every hand. When crime, degeneracy, and pauperism are steadily on the increase, and we are annually com- pelled to build new asylums and prisons, there can be little doubt but that society as a whole throughout the world is no longer progressing but retrograding. " Broadly viewed, the main characteristic of our industrial system, the characteristic which distin- guishes it from those of all other ages, is its mechan- ism. The past has had its great empires, its highly developed philosophies, literatures, and political sys- tems; but no other age ever had so much mechanism. The whole world, to some extent, and the United States in particular, has been developed into one vast machine for the production and distribution of goods." The nations have thrown moderation to the winds in the scramble for wealth. Idleness, extravagance, dishonesty, and lack of moral responsibility are met with on every hand, while the brutality, sang-froid, and indifference with which those in power lord it over the community might well cause the Gods to pause and marvel at the patience and stupidity of 6 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT the populace, did they concern themselves with the petty affairs of men. Men without the slightest talent or claim to greatness are received with the acclamations due a Cassar, the people quite for- getting that truly great men are the mediums through which the truth is voiced in all times, and therefore need neither ovations, statues, nor tablets to commem- orate their deeds and names. In England, forty-three per cent of the popula- tion, however hard they may work, however thrifty they may be, are not able to command an income sufficient to provide for a standard of workhouse sub- sistence. Further, there are always over a million of unemployed and over a million paupers. The cost of living in the United States has risen about fifty per cent between the years 1896-1906. Twenty to thirty per cent of the entire working popu- lation are out of work a part of every year, and more than two million of the workers are unem- ployed from four to six months in the year; while forty-five per cent receive a bare living wage. One per cent of the families of the United States hold more than ninety-nine per cent of the national wealth. Ten million of our people are always underfed and wretchedly housed, and of these four million are forced to depend upon State or City relief funds PRESENT CONDITIONS 7 for sustenance. Nearly half the families in the country are propertyless. Over a million, seven hun- dred thousand little children are forced to become wage-earners. The fact that the daily wage of a little child, thirty cents, often goes to procure supper for the whole family, and " may mean the difference between coal and no coal in winter, and ice and no ice in summer," amply illustrates the degradation to which certain classes of our people are reduced. Such are the conditions which are increasing more or less rapidly over the entire civilized world. The shifting sand upon which the whole structure of modern society is based is a striking illustration of the inevitable outcome of the false doctrine promulgated by Adam Smith in his " Wealth of Nations," namely: that the individual in pursuing his own interest is promoting the interests of all; an assumption plainly contrary to fact. " The trust," says Mr. Keir Hardie, " constitutes the modern menace to progress. It places the pro- ducer and the consumer alike at the mercy of the over-rich. The trust is more rapacious than the rob- ber barons were of old. It is the bandit of com- merce, the vampire of trade. . . . The trust is dangerous to national life and destructive of the 8 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT freedom of the individual. Its operations can only be successful through the intimidation of the work- ingman, corruption of the press, and control of politics." The ascendancy of Organized Capital is fast be- coming that of the Beast of Revelation upon whose back is mounted the great Whore Babylon, before whom all men shall bow, rich and poor, and bond and free alike, and by means of whose power no man shall buy or sell save he who bears the mark of the Beast; a fitting climax to the much vaunted progress attained by present civilization. But what does all this go to prove? It proves beyond a doubt that the trusts are merely an exagger- ated form of what unbridled individual power may assume, and although reared and fostered on the legitimate commercial principles of our time, and therefore standing quite within the law, they never- theless emphasize the fact that the entire commercial system of the world to-day is a false one. Political equality cannot remedy social inequality. So long as the mass of the people lack an equal chance in life with the dominant minority or ruling class, the growth and operation of our financial trusts and syndicates will not only continue, but the organized PRESENT CONDITIONS 9 tyranny resulting from the unequal distribution of wealth and power will destroy every civilization in the future the same as it has in the past. The direct cause of existing evils is not far to seek. The laws of force and organized violence being still as strenuously upheld and recognized by society as righteous and justifiable as in the days when the might of the sword prevailed, it becomes a simple and easy matter for individuals who have accumu- lated wealth to enslave the people by buying land, wood, and minerals, the initial sources of all wealth, and holding them as their own under the shelter of unjust laws, to dispose of them as best meets the re- quirements of their private ends. It is a mistake to imagine that the rich are par- ticularly to blame for present conditions. We are all to blame. The blood is on the hands of all of us; rich and poor alike. The rich and governing class, owing to their indifference to the suffering of the masses the poor because they toler- ate such conditions. When injustice endures for generations it is no longer the fault of the Government or a class of men, but of the entire Nation, which like the in- dividual possesses a conscience, and if it submits to injustice, is guilty of cowardice. II TAXATION /""''AN taxation remedy social inequalities? The ^^ advocates of Henry George's taxation theory claim that a single-tax placed upon land will remedy existing economic ills the world over, and bring the control of the Earth and its natural resources back into the hands of the People. It is strange that a man possessing the keen, analyt- ical mind of Henry George should not have perceived the futility of his scheme or, indeed, of any scheme for curing human ills by means of taxation. No system of taxation can possibly be devised that will in itself remedy existing economic inequalities or overcome the evils resulting from the monopolization of land and its raw products. The adoption of his single-tax theory would have little other effect than that of shifting the burden of taxation from one quarter to another; creating a State monopoly upon the Earth's natural resources in place of the individual's monopoly of to-day. 10 TAXATION ii The State has no more right to monopolize land and its natural resources than has the individual. Under Henry George's taxation system the in- dividual or corporation that to-day holds hundreds or thousands of acres of land with its forests and minerals could continue in possession of them so long as the single-tax or rent demanded by the Govern- ment was paid. And naturally the tax exacted by the State from those who rented the forests and mines would be added to the price of the wood and minerals; so that the consumer would virtually pay not only the price of the wood and minerals, but the tax demanded by the State as well. The public would derive no benefit whatever from such a change. The representatives of capital would still remain in control of the earth's natural resources; would still be able to prevent others from using or culti- vating their rightful portion of the land; would still, so long as the single-tax was paid, be able to keep other men from their birthright. The practice of collecting tithes or taxes is as old as the history of civilization. And yet, in spite of the supposed benefits resulting therefrom, both his- tory and present conditions show that it has added nothing to the advancement of the human race. 12 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT On the contrary, excessive taxation has been from time immemorial the chief cause of the overthrow of governments, for the reason that, once the in- stitution is adopted, the rate of taxation never de- creases but steadily increases. Taxation in a moderate form, however, is in reality not an evil, but highly beneficial to the State or community desiring it, provided the revenues col- lected are raised with the consent of the majority of its members, and expended on useful, not harmful purposes. If on the latter, better for that com- munity to go without taxes altogether. Without taxation there could be neither govern- mental nor communal institutions beyond the primi- tive order of the tribe or clan, whose members, while recognizing the leadership of chiefs, contribute nothing to their support; compelling them to acquire their own livelihood the same as the humblest mem- ber of the community. Indeed, without taxation society must inevitably revert to a state of simple husbandry of industry and barter. Nevertheless, while granting that taxation in some form or other is a governmental necessity if mod- erately imposed, the fact remains that it is in effect a fine placed by the State upon human energy. TAXATION 13 If I save or economize in order that I may in- crease my gains, down comes the tax-collector upon me as a penalty for my thrift. If I construct a railroad or a canal, or cultivate the soil, or drain a swamp, or erect a factory or a building, benefiting the community in which I dwell and the country at large, down comes the tax-gatherer again. I am robbed of the fruits of my labor, and treated not as a benefactor to the State, but as a malefactor or a public nuisance ; being compelled to pay a fine. This is no mere figure of speech, but the exact definition of taxation intelligible to all. Taxation should not assume the nature of a pen- alty placed upon human energy. If men wish to enjoy the fruits of their labor they must guard against excessive taxation, the result of ignorance and indifference on the part of the general public and of the extravagance and corruption of those in power. Overtax the masses and you make paupers of them, a burden and a menace to the State. Overtax the rich and you will have no rich. There should be a reasonable maximum rate of taxation fixed by law which should never be over- stepped; while it should ever be the aim of the community to reduce taxation to a minimum. The i 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT tax, moreover, should apply equally to all citizens of the State with no discrimination in favor either of the rich or the poor. The Income-tax is the only rational method by which such an equalization of taxation can be at- tained. It admits of no partiality toward the in- dividual. It is the most just and rational system of taxation for the reason that men would pay a fair rate of percentage on what they earn. Men are to-day compelled to pay taxes, accord- ing to the systems in vogue, not only on their in- comes, but on everything else they possess as well. If I buy a piece of land or city property, paying the price demanded, I still continue paying for it so long as I own it. If I build a home and pay the cost of its construction, I am annually taxed for it. If I buy a horse or a watch, a piano, or books, or anything else, I never succeed in paying for them, but must still continue to settle for them until finally I have paid their original value over again. Owing to the fluctuation of financial values, few men's income is annually the same. It is so much one year, so much the next. Thus it is a well-known fact that the value of improved property may be as fluctuating and un- certain as that of unimproved property or of stocks TAXATION 15 and bonds. Buildings that stand vacant during periods of financial depression are of no more value, for the time being, than unimproved property; and men should not be forced to pay taxes on that which does not produce an income. Under an Income-tax such injustices would cease. A man would pay taxes only on that which he annu- ally earns. Again with an Income-tax the rich would not be favored at the expense of the poor or the poor at the expense of the rich. The poor, and those earn- ing from forty to sixty dollars a month are citizens the same as those whose incomes amount to thousands annually. The responsibility and dignity of citizen- ship is the same for both, and the current expenses of maintaining the State should fall, in like pro- portion, on all, regardless of class distinctions. " An Income-tax . . . has several specific ad- vantages over other forms of taxes. It has no tend- ency to disturb prices. Were there no taxation except on Incomes, and were all Incomes rightly ascertained, the prices of everything would be just as if there were no taxes at all. Taxation would then be like the atmosphere, pressing equally on all points and consciously on none." It is ". . . the most uni- 16 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT form, unfailing, expansive, and responsive to con- trol, of all fiscal expedients." * " It may be said that while general personal prop- erty taxes become worse and worse the longer they exist, wherever a rational kind of Income-tax has been laid, as in Switzerland, Prussia, and England, the longer it lasts the better it works, and the more gen- eral the popular approval. It is the only way in which a large and influential and even rich class can be made to bear its fair share of taxes." f This is the only true and just Single-tax. There should be no other. The opponents of an Income-tax assert that men will not declare their true incomes. Make the pen- alty for falsely declaring one's income too severe to warrant such a risk. " Men are not so isolated from each other as that a man's neighbors do not know pretty well the general amount of his in- come." Heavy fines or imprisonment for falsely declaring one's income would soon bring about prac- tically correct statements. Or, if such delinquencies remain undiscovered until after the delinquent's '"Principles of Political Economy": Arthur L. Perry. t"An Introduction to Political Economy": Richard T. Ely. TAXATION 17 death, the State can confiscate such portion of his estate as will reimburse it for the loss sustained by it during his lifetime. But let it not be forgotten that the Income-tax may become just as burdensome as any other form of taxation if its rate be excessive, preventing the accumulation of wealth. The individual has as much right to collect dollars, if he does so by legiti- mate methods, as he has to collect postage stamps. And any rate of taxation that interferes with this right should be abolished. Naturally a people adopting an Income-tax cannot consistently maintain a tariff-system which, though an indirect method of taxation, nevertheless amounts to a double tax on all articles included in the tariff. A tariff-system is simply a device of the rich, finan- cial corporations, and those in power for compelling the people to pay them enormous profits on their articles of commerce. The home industries being protected from foreign competition, the people are not only forced to pay the tariff-tax, but twice the amount for food-stuffs and articles of an inferior quality. The tariff-system is economically unsound because it subsidizes Capital at the expense of Labor; forc- ing the wage-earner to pay twice the amount he should i8 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT for the necessities of life, and thereby reducing his savings as well as his plane of living to those of his fellow-laborer abroad. This is a downright injustice to the Public. Just because somebody wishes to engage in some com- mercial enterprise is no reason why the rest of the community should be taxed under the guise of tariffs in order that he should reap profits at the expense of the Public. An industry that cannot bear the competition of the world deserves no encouragement. As a matter of fact, no country is self-sustaining that collects its revenues from imported goods or contracts foreign loans. The instant a country is obliged to institute a tariff-system on imported goods as a source of national revenue, or is forced to become indebted to another country for the amount of one penny, that country is bankrupt and non-sustaining. But leaving aside as immaterial to the present in- quiry the methods we employ in levying taxes, the whole question of taxation resolves itself into this : Man may institute tariff-systems and levy taxes on the creations of his mind and hands to the extent which he considers himself benefited by the institu- tions such revenues sustain; but taxes cannot lawfully be levied on the things which lie wholly outside his sphere of jurisdiction, on the things which, according TAXATION 19 to the universal laws of being, are pre-existent, self- sustaining, and independent of man's laws and gov- ernments. The instant taxes are levied on man or animals, on the land and its natural resources, they become a tribute levied on man's right to existence on Earth, a supposition that is contrary to the law of life. If a man cannot pay his taxes to-day, the land is taken from him and, being cut off from the initial sources of wealth, he becomes a homeless wanderer on the face of the Earth an outcast in the Universe. Man's right to birth, life, and death on Earth is, like that of every other sentient being, a divine and eternal one, and should forever remain an undisputed one. This is why taxes cannot lawfully be levied on man or animals, on land, or forests, or water, or minerals, for, like man, they are part and parcel of the divine scheme of creation, necessary to his ex- istence and spiritual development within the terres- trial sphere which he inhabits. Ill SOCIALISM. ITS FALLACY /~\F all the reforms offered as a solution to the social question, the " Socialistic Ideal " is the most radical. In fact, it is the only one worthy of serious con- sideration, but if put into practice, it would result in one of the most despotic forms of government imaginable, for the reason that, under such a con- dition of communal division of labor, no one would be free. The labor, prompted by purely unselfish and philanthropic motives, and performed entirely for the good of the community, would, nevertheless, be compulsory for all. And even though it were possible for all to agree concerning the division of labor, pleasant and un- pleasant, and as to its usefulness, the individual would still be a slave to the communal laws. It is not essential now to consider the Socialist's assumption that physical labor should be placed on 20 SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 21 a par with intellectual labor; that the man who shovels dirt in a railroad construction gang should command the same reward as the engineer who is responsible for building the road. A half-witted person can toss dirt with a shovel, but could he construct a railroad? The entire socialistic propaganda is reared on fal- lacies, the chief of which lies in the fact that it is founded upon compulsory labor, and like all forms of government that are maintained by the powers of coercion must inevitably be destroyed by the same forces within them by which they are up- held. The same powers of coercion which maintained the ancient Spartan commonwealth intact were the very ones that wrecked it. The present economic slavery of mankind is bad enough and is rapidly becoming intolerable to all thinking persons; but with the establishment of the socialistic regime man would become less of a free agent than he is to-day. And not without reason did the late Charles Dudley Warner declare that, if he had to decide between Bellamy's socialistic form of government and Hell, he would choose the latter; though in all justice to Socialism it should be added that, when Warner made that statement he seemed 22 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT to be quite unconscious of the fact that he was already in Hell. All honor to Karl Marx! Let no man under- estimate the value of his conception of the ideal commonwealth, the magnitude of its influence upon our times, or the mighty hold it has taken upon the ranks of labor throughout the nations of the Earth. The struggle which is now being waged between Capital and Labor, the proletariate and those in power, is one to the death. And let no man deceive himself by imagining that this mighty struggle of the classes will cease until individual control of the Earth's natural resources has been annihilated swept from the Earth forever. Socialism maintains that monopoly throughout the world is inevitable that the trusts or financial syndi- cates must either soon own the governments and nations of the world, or the nations own the trusts. That the whole question at issue is, whether the monopoly of the means necessary to sustain life and create happiness for man should be controlled by private individuals who think solely of their own welfare, or owned and controlled by the nation. The latter, its advocates claim, would be conducive to not only the greatest happiness, but to the greatest amount of personal liberty as well. SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 23 But would the individual's freedom be preserved? Socialism offers man every material luxury, but takes away his liberty. In order that the State might be maintained, every able-bodied person would be obliged to work so many hours a day and so many days in the year. No one would be free to act or think, to come or go independently of his neighbor, to rest from his prescribed labor or leave the community in which he dwelt, without the permission of the State. A certain number of free days each year would, no doubt, be doled out to the individual by the State under penalty of the loss of citizenship, starvation, or some other punishment, if he failed to return to his work the hour his leave of absence expired; just as to-day an employe is punished by the loss of his position. It is true that enforced competition has practically the same effect to-day on all those who are without wealth or who are compelled to work for others. Nevertheless, the State recognizes man's inviolable right to free agency; the ideal of personal liberty at least survives, waiting only juster economic con- ditions to become a reality. But this Socialism de- nies him. Without enforced labor the whole fabric of mod- 24 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT ern Socialism could not endure for a day, but would collapse like a house of cards the instant work ceased or was made voluntary. These are the two rocks on which the ship of State, that of Socialism as well as that of present governments, must inevitably shatter: economic slavery on the one hand, and the curtailing of per- sonal liberty under Socialism on the other. Without liberty to act, to go and come at will, there can be neither freedom nor happiness for the individual. True Democracy which means the rule of the People a government for the People and by the People, under which the individual's personal liberty is preserved becomes a delusion the instant labor is economically enslaved or individual freedom cur- tailed. Yet this is precisely what will happen under the modern Socialist's form of government just as it is happening everywhere in the world to-day under the misrule of Capital. Nothing can compensate for the loss of liberty. The physical, intellectual, and spiritual development of man depends solely upon his freedom to act and choose as his conscience and reason prompt him. The question of acquiring a livelihood in the world should be purely an optional one, and man not com- SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 25 pelled to work if he does not wish to; society in- sisting only that the individual should respect and hold sacred the life and property of his neighbor nothing more. The instant we go beyond this step in human evolution man ceases to be a free agent. To-day the Nations of the Earth are enslaved by Plutocracy, the few in power representing Capital, or those holding more than their rightful share of the Earth's natural resources; while under the social- istic regime the People would deliberately enslave themselves by depriving the individual of his per- sonal liberty. Under Socialism, the work being equally dis- tributed, the individual would possibly not be obliged to work more than two or four hours a day, being at liberty to dispose of the remainder of his time as he wished; but that is not liberty personal free- dom. Two hours of enforced labor bind the in- dividual to a locality as effectually as do ten. He would be as much the slave of the State as was the Negro of the South before the Civil War, or the Serfs of Russia before their libera- tion. It is true his slavery would not be of such an antiquated form, but of a more liberal character, 26 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT like that of the Incas of Peru whose government was overthrown in 1533 by Pizarro. Like the Incas we should all work less and have enough to eat and so many hours a day assured us for recreation, but every man, woman, and child would be a sleek, well-kept slave of the State, like the tame, broken-spirited drayhorse which, though well-fed and carefully groomed, is nevertheless whipped daily into the traces. Paint the picture drawn by the advocates of mod- ern Socialism as rosy as you please, a prison trans- formed into a bower of roses still remains a prison if its bars be not removed. What chance would there be for individuality to develop and assert itself under such an institution whose object will not be to fit the individual for independent action, but to force him to occupy a certain and exact place in the mechanism of society? The individual will be obliged to think and act in all things according to local custom. The slight- est deviation from this rule will be viewed with disfavor by the community. Unusual behavior, oddities of character, and eccen- tricities of genius will be looked upon with distrust. The individual will be under the constant surveillance of the community. SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 27 Privacy will eventually cease to exist. Nothing will be hidden; everybody's life will be laid bare to communal criticism. Such communistic despotism, suppressing person- ality by forbidding enterprise and condemning vol- untary competition as a public offense, means nothing more than a reversion of human society to certain primitive conditions; practically the same despotic form of self-government with modifications which was exercised by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and which still exists to-day among the Hindoos, Chinese, and other Oriental com- munities. And then the Socialist's idea of compelling society to work in order that men may be provided with material luxuries which they do not actually earn. Past and present experiences show us that you may provide men with every material luxury and advantage, and three-fourths of them will sit down complacently and grow fat, while the remaining fourth, with no advantage at all, will wear itself lean in the effort to satisfy personal pride and right- eous ambition. It is a pretty idea that my sphere of action should be limited by being held to one spot and forced to work a prescribed number of hours a day in order 28 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT that I should feed and dress my neighbor be- cause he is too shiftless and indolent to do it him- self. This, the Socialist claims, is the individual's pre- rogative; a thing as nonsensical as it is illogical, es- pecially when the initial sources of all wealth have been placed equally within the reach of all. It is perfectly true that certain individuals inherit wealth and luxuries to-day, and do well with their inheritance, but this is an exception, not the common rule of life. There have been bread-riots in history, struggles for the mere necessities of life, but it is not the desire for luxuries and wealth that has been the cause of revolutions. Trace back the history of human development to the remotest past and it will be found that the primal cause of all revolutions has ever been, as it always will be, the struggle for liberty. In the sweat of his brow shall man eat his bread, says Nature. That is, all men shall have an equal chance to earn their bread; but no man is entitled to that which he does not earn, be it luxuries or his daily bread. It is neither governments nor a share in profits that men want, but the legitimate use of that amount SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 29 of land, minerals, wood, and water which is the individual's by natural right, and which no power on Earth is going to prevent him from having. This is the handwriting on the wall which con- fronts society to-day. Again experience teaches us that it is impossible, through means of philanthropic schemes, to impress the individual with that moral responsibility which man should bear to man. In 1907, the Labor Party introduced a Bill * into the British House of Commons for the creation of a statutory " right to work." The essential clause of the Bill declares that : " Where a workman has registered himself as unemployed, it shall be the duty of the local unem- employment authority to provide work for him in connection with one or other of the schemes herein- after provided, or otherwise, or failing the provision of work, to provide maintenance, should necessity exist, for that person and for those depending on that person for the necessities of life." " To most people these proposals will seem some- what startling. That, however, is only because we * Defeated, April, 1908. 30 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT have forgotten the follies as well as the wisdom of our ancestors. Similar proposals were actually em- bodied in the statute law of England more than three hundred years ago, while even before that date voluntary attempts were made by the municipalities to organize work for the unemployed. "As early as 1557 the old palace of Bridewell was converted into an institution in which various industries were carried on by men who could not obtain employment elsewhere. This London exam- ple was followed by a good many other municipal- ities in the full spirit of modern municipal social- ism. . . . Yet everybody knows that the system was an absolute failure. Instead of diminishing poverty, it added to the numbers and to the degrada- tion of the poor. . . . " * Again, " early in the year 1848 a revolution took place in France. The King was expelled, and a re- publican government was established. The new Gov- ernment was inspired by socialistic theories. . . .*' On February 26, the Government proceeded to de- cree the " immediate establishment of national work- shops [ateliers nationaux]." M. Emile Thomas was empowered by the Min- istry to provide work for the unemployed. On * Quarterly Review, 1908 : " The Right to Work." SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 31 March 9 " the enrollment of the first 3,000 men began . . . the rates of pay were not high. The workers received 2 francs on days of activity and i 1-2 francs on days of inactivity; the squad chiefs received slightly more, and the brigadiers received 3 francs a day whether work was going on or not. . . . The next day an additional 1,200 men ar- rived. . . . On March 15 M. Thomas had 14,000 men for whom to find employment. " But fresh supplies of unemployed continued to arrive, and even at this early stage it was discovered that many of the men were not passionately eager to work. ' They preferred to draw i 1-2 francs a day for inactivity, rather than 2 francs for doing more or less hard work. To meet this difficulty the inactivity pay was reduced to i franc, but still the numbers con- tinued to grow. Indeed many men came to draw their i franc as unemployed, and then quietly went off to earn their living in their ordinary employment. Other men inscribed themselves in several different brigades and drew pay from each. ... By the end of April this number had risen to over 100,000, and most of the men had ceased to make even a pretense of working. ... At last the situation became in- tolerable. An insurrection broke out. Before it was 32 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT quelled, 3,000 persons were killed and 3,376 insur- gents were transported to Algeria. That was the end of the * right to work ' under the French Re- public of 1848. " Both in the metropolis (London) and in the provincial boroughs relief works have been fre- quently started during the last few winters, with the result that the money of the ratepayer has been wasted, and the number of the unemployed has been increased. Our local Government Board inspector reports [Times, Nov. 22, 1905] that in the prin- cipal towns of the West Riding of Yorkshire the con- ditions under which relief works have been estab- lished afford every likelihood of a stereotyped class of men being evolved who will be content to live on three days' work a week." Another inspector writes: "Irregular relief work has such charms that numerous instances have been noted of men throwing up regular wages at i8s. and 195. a week to earn from 55. to 75. in a stone-yard." In the case of the Manchester and Salford relief works it is reported: " Many men under a labor test left their work and forfeited the day's relief in order to join a procession of the unemployed. ..." What incentive to legitimate progress and enter- SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 33 prise could there possibly be with every man's finger in every man's pie, with the common man enthroned and reigning supreme and the whole world hearken- ing to his dictates? Socialism will curtail man's energies and debase the quality of all articles of use and consumption the same as do our Trades Unions of to-day by re- ducing our supreme ethical standards to those of mediocrity, for the reason, that those whose souls run on the dead level cannot be aroused to a just appreciation of that which is highest in art, science, and religion, that which makes most toward human development. Let it not be inferred that we refer to the common man at the bottom of the social strata, but the com- mon man who permeates all classes of society, and who, if maintained in his position and permitted to dominate, must inevitably reduce society to his level. This inequality of capacity possessed by individuals renders an equal development impossible. This is daily demonstrated to us by our school children, the majority of whom cannot be developed artificially or otherwise beyond a certain point the commonplace standards of life. Does a fruit tree bear equally well each year? Supply it with artificial stimulants and hedge it about 34 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT with glass, and it will produce annually a beautiful fruit to look at, but an insipid one. The same with the inventor and genius. To-day he creates, to-morrow his mind lies fallow. Days, weeks, months, a year may p?<^ during which he does nothing but wander in the Elysian fields of his imagi- nation, preferring want to comfort. Put him to work, set a time limit to his creative faculties, or in any way interfere with the God-given privilege of exercising his own sweet will, and you will destroy the ripe, mature fruit of his imagination ; the best that is in him, his gift to the race human- ity's priceless treasure. Is it within the hedged lanes of popular approval, or on the broad expanse of the wild, unsullied fields of freedom that we might reasonably look for a Homer, a Plato, an ^Eschylus, a Shakespeare, a Whitman, a Goethe, a Beethoven, or a Darwin ; those rare flowers of the human race that bloom but once? Had the State attached the red tape of authority to Dante, Hafiz, Moliere, Ruskin, Browning, Kant, Gauss, Tyndall, Mill, what would have been the inevitable result? Some prettily bound nursery rhymes suitable only for Christmas gifts to be dis- tributed among the jeune files of the community. Of whom does humanity take most account? Of SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 35 popular, virtuous citizen Jones who lives according to the ideals of the common man and dies smothered amid lilies and laurels of a local growth, the tokens of popular esteem, or the wicked Socrates who drank the hemlock administered by the common man ? Who crucified the Christ, permitted Nero to fire Rome, burned the Alexandrian Library, and lit the fagots that consumed Joan of Arc and Giordano Bruno? Who is responsible for the Inquisition, the enslavement of the Negro, or the persecution of the Jews in Russia to-day? The common man. Uphold and encourage him, and Pizarro and Cortez set sail with their rabble hordes of adven- turers, free-booting priests, and blackguards, and de- stroy two civilizations superior to any which White men of their day possessed. Place him in power and maintain him in his posi- tion, and he fixes the debasing system of Caste upon India, and reduces the population of China to its present besotted social condition by making the adop- tion and practice of Ancestor-worship compulsory for its people. But the common man is becoming enlightened, answers the Socialist. Is he? The representatives of Socialism and Organized Labor unhesitatingly de- stroy the lives and property of those who refuse to 36 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT entertain their views whenever the opportunity per- mits, just as do the advocates of present conditions the monopolization of the Earth's natural resources. The same powers of coercion which Mohammed employed to establish and maintain his kingdom, the Koran or the sword, the common man employs to-day. The common man of Socialism is quite as much to be dreaded as the common man of the past and the present. The great difficulty lies in our inability to dis- tinguish the common man; for usually the superman of to-day is deplorably common in the eyes of the succeeding generation. But supposing this not to be true, the effects which Socialism would have upon mankind must inevitably result in something equally disastrous to the human race, namely, the survival of the weaker members of society, not of the fit. For when the value and necessity of strength, physical strength, mental strength, and force of char- acter shall have been withdrawn, and the leveling process shall demand and result in no development of individual self-reliance, then truly the progress of the human race shall have ceased. Nature never makes a mistake. By harsh en- SOCIALISMITS FALLACY 37 vironment and the struggle for existence, Nature's law tends toward the development of the unfit and the weak into the fit and the strong provided there is any capacity for development. The whole tendency of Socialism is at variance with this great underlying principle of life, for, con- trary to its claims, Socialism would arrest human development. Life under Socialism would not only cease to call forth the best energies, and thus fail to develop the unfit, but by making no peremptory demand upon even the fit, the premium put upon strength and capa- bility would lapse, and growth would cease. For the logical and inevitable result of the introduction of a false principle into human society would be the steady deterioration and retrogression of the strong- est and most fit. Even Jack London, who is perhaps the ablest of the younger advocates of modern Socialism, admits this. " And in that day, for better or for worse," says London, " the common man becomes the master for better, he believes. It is his intention to make the sum of human happiness far greater. No man shall work for a bare living wage, which is degradation. 38 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Every man shall have work to do, and shall be paid exceedingly well for doing it. There shall be no slum classes, no beggars. Nor shall there be hun- dreds of thousands of men and women condemned, for economic reasons, to lives of celibacy or sexual infertility. Every man shall be able to marry, to live in healthy, comfortable quarters, and to have all he wants to eat as many times a day as he wishes. There shall no longer be a life-and-death struggle for food and shelter. The old heartless law of develop- ment shall be annulled. All of which is very good and very fine. " And when these things have come to pass, what then? Of old, by virtue of their weakness and in- efficiency in the struggle for food and shelter, the race was purged of its weak and inefficient members. " But this will no longer obtain. Under the new order the weak and the progeny of the weak will have a chance for survival equal to that of the strong and the progeny of the strong. This being so, the premium upon strength will have been withdrawn, and on the face of it the average strength of each generation, instead of continuing to rise, will begin to decline. " When the common man's day shall have arrived, the new social institutions of that day will prevent SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 39 the weeding out of weakness and inefficiency. All, the weak and the strong, will have an equal chance for procreation. And the progeny of all, of the weak as well as the strong, will have an equal chance for survival. ' This being so, and if no new effective law of de- velopment be put into operation, then progress must ceasey And not only progress, for deterioration would at once set in. " It is a pregnant problem. What will be the nature of this new and most necessary law of de- velopment? Can the common man pause long enough from his undermining labor to answer? Since he is bent upon dragging down the bourgeoisie and reconstructing society, can he so reconstruct that a premium, in some unguessed way or other, will still be laid upon the strong and the efficient so that the human type will continue to develop? Can the common man, or the uncommon men who are allied with him, devise such a law? Or have they already devised one? And if so, what is it? " * We need only look about us for the answer. Na- ture has answered the question from the beginning and for all time. * " War of the Classes," pp. 261-278, 1905. 40 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Creation's scheme only allows for the survival of the fittest; the physically and mentally fit; not solely the physically fit. The purely physically fit are quite as unfit as the purely mentally fit; what the one lacks mentally, the other lacks physically; both are wanting in poise. Look at primitive peoples and wild animals in their natural state, sharing all things in common. Which members survive and dominate the physi- cally or mentally fit? Neither. It is the average mentally and physically fit; those possessing the aver- age physical and mental poise; the fit product of a fit condition. We are the unfit product of our unfit conditions. And the great unfit majority of society must continue to dominate so long as we maintain such conditions, the same as it will under the artificial, unfit conditions of Socialism. Is this clear? A fit race of men can only spring from natural conditions; an unfit, from artificial con- ditions. Nature placed all things within the reach of men to enjoy and share in common the same as she did for the individual members of the animal and vege- table kingdoms, allowing the weak and the unfit an opportunity to develop into the strong and the fit. SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 41 But man, by disregarding this natural law and natural distribution of the means of sustenance, has placed the two minorities of society, the weak and the fit, at the mercy of the great unfit dominant majority. The human type, like the animal and vegetable types, can only develop naturally in conditions of freedom. The requirements essential to future human de- velopment are far greater than those dreamed of by Karl Marx when he penned his famous volume 11 Das Kapital." The different forms of life inhabiting the terrestrial sphere to-day were perfected in conditions of free- dom, not in those of restraint. Nature makes no distinction, shows no preference. All, both the weak and the strong, are given a chance to survive and thrive their alloted time within their proper spheres according to their capacity for en- durance and development. The rigors of Nature and the efforts necessitated by the struggle for food and shelter will continue either to eliminate, or develop the weaker members of society into the fit in the future just as they have in the past, provided natural conditions prevail; and this is as it should be. 42 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Let no man deceive himself by imagining that governmental control of a human soul will be any more beneficial to mankind, or easier to bear than that of the individual's control of a human soul as it is exercised by society to-day. True Socialism has for its object the elevation of mankind to that state of civic dignity in which the individual's right to life and liberty is universally recognized and held sacred by society; and without which there can be no natural development of the human race. The slavery of the enforced labor of Socialism is not the remedy for the economic slavery to which man is subjected to-day. All those who are familiar with the life, history, and traditions of primitive peoples, know that the spiritual development of certain tribes of North American Indians and Bedouins of Africa and Asia, before their contact with the White races of western Europe, surpassed that of the so-called civilized na- tions of to-day; which goes to prove that competition, constant labor, and the accumulation of wealth, or material progress, are not essential to man's spiritual development. The most striking example of this independence of spiritual development on the part of man is clearly SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 43 illustrated by the fact that the savage and the Mes- siah, representing the two extremes of the human family, meet face to face on a material footing of equality. The one, the undeveloped, the other, the mentally and spiritually mature representative of the human race; and both content with but that portion of the material things of this world which are necessary for the maintenance of life. And this truth, when more thoroughly analyzed, leads to the inevitable conclusion that man was originally endowed with a birthright, or free heritage sufficient to sustain life, rendering the spiritual ad- vancement of man as natural and rational as that of his physical development. That he, like the animals when in a natural state, recognizes the individual's right to that portion of the Earth's natural resources which are essential to the supplying of his daily wants. This is man's inherent right, and although the much dreamed of spiritual equality of the human race as a whole can never be realized, the demand that the Earth's natural resources should be equally accessible to all is not only a justifiable, but a peremp- tory one. This natural footing of material equality has been 44 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT man's from the beginning, and is the most sacred of earthly trusts bestowed upon him by Nature. A birthright which should not only be held inviolable, but whose recognition on the part of man should come before all his institutions. But why should men compete at all for a living, especially when the Earth is large enough to nourish the entire human race from the cultivation of the soil alone? " Competition in its modern sense develops the baser, not the higher qualities, when men or beasts require to compete fiercely for a living. What they develop are the tooth and claw and the fighting in- stincts. To be successful in business a man must trample the Golden Rule under foot." It is not the struggle and strife of competition, but love for his fellowman, leisure, and liberty, which are the chief incentives that prompt men to mental and spiritual activity, to a higher, clearer conception of their relationship to one another, to God, and to the Universe. The rational solution of the social question is neither modern Socialism nor schemes of government, nor taxation, but a natural condition of life in which SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 45 man's freedom and independence are assured, the land, minerals, wood, and water equally accessible to all, and competition voluntary, not compulsory; rendering the acquiring of a livelihood purely one of moderate industrial effort on the part of the in- dividual. With the possibility of gaining a livelihood as- sured to every man, the opportunity to work and properly feed and clothe himself and his family, the present fierceness of enforced competition would sub- side, and voluntary competition take its place. And we should then have neither enforced competition nor enforced labor, but freedom in both. With such a natural footing of material equality to stand upon, man need have no fear of the future; for no one in possession of his physical and mental vigor could possibly suffer want if moderately in- dustrious. Free the Earth's natural resources by limiting the individual's use of them, and all forms of monopoly can be easily reduced to the normal growth and ex- pansion of trade and industry by the natural laws of competition. The advantages resulting from such conditions would be infinite and far-reaching. All branches of industry, science, and art, being 46 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT limited to their normal growth, success in every call- ing in life, so far as the amassing of wealth is con- cerned, would depend upon the quality of the work. A comfortable living would be assured to all; not only to the farmer, but to everyone engaged in the legitimate pursuits of trade and industry, of science, and art, enabling each to accumulate wealth accord- ing to his intelligence and thrift. There would be no accumulation of wealth by single individuals at the expense of the Public; there would be few adulterations and imitations of food- stuffs and articles of use, for the land, wood, water, and minerals, the initial sources of wealth, being free and equally accessible to all, the laws of competition would incite and call forth the best efforts on the part of man, compelling the individual who hoped for success in his particular calling in life to produce nothing but the best. This is the Communistic Ideal; the condition which we should create, or rather man's natural condition to which we should revert. According to the universal law governing life on Earth, man is subjected only to that small amount of labor necessary to sustain life. Beyond this, all individual effort on the part of man, if natural, is voluntary, not enforced. SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 47 But why, we repeat, should men consider competi- tion so necessary to progress since leisure is essential to human happiness and development? If every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth to-day spent half their time in recreation there would be less grabbing and fewer schemes of monopoly hatched throughout the world; and in their stead there would result a vast amount of original thought. " The toiling farmer who works year after year from early dawn until dark, and thinks work the greatest virtue in the world, is often a mass of bony knobs and rheumatism at fifty "; or the merchant, or financier who passes year after year in his office until youth and the joys of life have slipped away with the years, awakes to the grand realities of life when it is too late. Labor for material gain ceases to be a virtue beyond such time bestowed upon the acquisi- tion of a livelihood. Man being exactly suited to the physical conditions of his surroundings, a material footing of equality a priori is as natural and quite as much in accord with the existing order of things to-day as it was in the past. A natural division of the Earth's resources is not only possible, but has become a necessity if the future 48 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT development of the human race is to continue. But in order that such a condition may become lasting, granting freedom to the individual and to the race, it must be sustained by natural laws, not by man-made laws. Society cannot be permanently reorganized by means of human schemes. Law-givers like Lycurgus, Confucius, Moses, Solon, Caesar, and Mohammed tried it and failed; but the two greatest social reformers known to his- tory, Buddha and Christ, recognized this fact, and did not attempt it, for they knew that it was not only impossible but quite unnecessary; the material or physical conditions essential to its reorganization being already provided by Nature, rendering man's existence quite independent of his schemes. Were it not so, the universal scheme of life and growth, of human evolution, would be for naught. Now science offers two solutions to a problem : a natural one and an artificial one. If a condition be controlled by a natural law, the true solution of the problem must be a natural one. If, on the other hand, no natural law exists control- ling it, science offers an artificial solution. Modern Socialism, or Karl Marx's conception of the Ideal Commonwealth, though highly scientific in SOCIALISM ITS FALLACY 49 one sense of the term, is, nevertheless, the artificial solution of the social problem, and, therefore, the wrong one. The natural solution was provided by Nature from time immemorial, and like all of Nature's laws, is a simple one, namely, that the Earth is large enough to nourish the entire human race, including its normal increase, from the soil alone, without other effort on the part of man than that necessitated by the mere tilling of the soil. But no man should be allowed more than that por- tion of the Earth's natural resources which is neces- sary for his support, or well-being. Without this requisite to human development man never could have become a free agent, but must have remained the bondsman of his artificial schemes and inventions the most unscientific thing imaginable: a scheme of things quite as unscientific and unnatural and ridiculous, as it would be to imagine man exist- ing in a universe illumined by a light of his own invention, not by that of the sun and the stars. It would be the most astounding, overwhelming, and crushing fact known to man were it proved that his existence on Earth is dependent on some one of his idiotic schemes of government. The very fact of man's existence, which is the 50 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT one supreme fact of the Universe, so far as man is concerned, should be sufficient to convince him that all natural necessities of life were, and still are, pro- vided for him, else there could have been no logical reason for his coming into consciousness of being. IV THE LAND. ITS DISTRIBUTION COCIETY in its most civilized or highly developed state, being merely an elaboration or refined con- dition of society in its primitive state, a further de- velopment of mankind necessitate- a return to first principles on the part of man if his higher evolution is to continue along natural lines. Hence the paramount issue of both political econ- omy and future human development resolves itself into the one, namely: What amount of the Earth's natural resources can safely be adopted as a perma- nent unit upon which to reconstruct society, securing not only the prosperity and happiness of the fireside, but the good already attained by present civilization, and the freedom of the individual as well? The first consideration in human development be- ing always that of the food supply, it will be seen that this question is concerned solely with natural laws and conditions, with the basal principles of the productivity of the soil. 51 52 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT It was never intended that the Earth's natural resources should become merchandise, but being originally given to man to enjoy in common, the in- dividual is as much entitled to his natural or free portion of them as he is to the sunshine and the air he breathes. The true title to land lies not in ownership, but in occupancy. And, furthermore, that title of occu- pancy is limited by natural law to the amount re- quired to sustain life comfortably no more. Such an amount is man's birthright, and every human being is entitled to his natural portion of arable land to be held by him in peaceable possession so long as he chooses, provided he utilizes it for pas- toral or some other useful purpose. If, however, he makes use of only a part of his natural or lawful allotment, then the part utilized is all that he can control because it is all that is necessary for his maintenance. In England, Germany, France, Holland, and the Low Countries, five to thirty acres of arable land are to-day considered ample for the support of the husbandman and his family; while in the United States, the homestead-law fixes the limit of individual pre-emption of public lands to one hundred and sixty acres. THE LAND ITS DISTRIBUTION 53 Just why one hundred and sixty acres were con- sidered essential by the United States Government for the maintenance of those living directly upon the produce of the soil is not clear. There is cer- tainly no logical argument for such a division, which is evidently not the result of scientific experiment and investigation, but of that prodigal liberality with which the Government dispensed its bounties during the early stages of its development. According to the most reliable agricultural and economic statistics the world over, from three to ten acres of average arable land are known to be adequate for supplying the wants of the individual and the family devoted to the pursuits of husbandry; supply- ing them not only with a comfortable livelihood if they are moderately industrious, but also permitting them to lay by a certain sum annually according to their thrift. Ten acres may appear an absurdly small amount to those who to-day are permitted to hold as their own vast tracts of land, but statistics prove that ten acres of arable land is a very generous portion of the Earth's surface to consign to the undisputed con- trol of the individual. The acquiring of a livelihood is not the accumula- tion of wealth. The office of the soil is to yield a 54 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT man a living, not riches. The latter, according to natural law, can only be acquired legitimately through the emanations and creations of the mind and the hands. As a matter of fact, if it became a necessity, not ten, but five acres of arable land are quite sufficient for the support of the average family consisting of five persons; an acre per capita. It was a common custom among the ancient Per- sians and Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Phoeni- cians, to allot two acres of land per man to re- tired soldiers and petty state officials from which to sustain themselves through agricultural pur- suits. " The ancients," says Pliny, " were of opinion, that, above all things, the extent of farms ought to be kept within proper bounds. Wherefore it was a maxim amongst them, to sow less and plow better "; to which pithy utterance let us add the words of the Roman Columella who also advocated moderation in the size of farms. " To other precepts," says he, " we add this, which one of the seven wise men has pronounced as a maxim that holds true in all ages, that there ought to be limits and measures of things; and this ought THE LAND ITS DISTRIBUTION 55 to be understood, as applied not only to those that do any other business, but also those that buy land, that they may not buy more than they are fully able for. To this is applicable the famous sentence of our poet. You may admire a large farm, but culti- vate a small one; which ancient precept this most learned man (Virgil), . . . expresses in numbers. This, too, is agreeable to an acknowledged maxim of the Carthaginians, a very acute nation, That the land ought to be weaker than the husbandman; for, when they struggle together, should the farm prevail, the master must be ruined. And, indeed, there is no doubt, that a small field well cultivated produces more than a large field ill cultivated." In the Province of Samara, Russia, to-day, it is estimated that over four hundred thousand persons get their subsistence from less than three acres of land per capita. According to Dr. Thomas E. Green, the Empire of Japan,* " containing an approximate area of 162,- ooo square miles, of which only 15.7 per cent is arable, supports a population of upward of 50,000,- ooo. Of the 50,000,000 inhabitants over 60 per cent are farmers and their families, the average * Hampton's Magazine, Sept., 1909. 56 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT amount of land tilled by each family being seven tan (about one and three-quarter acres)." The North American Indian was guided by a natural law when he permitted individual members of the tribe to cultivate a few acres of land whenever they chose to do so. They did not actually possess the land; their tenure of the land was only respected so long as they culti- vated it. They were not permitted to dispose of it to anyone; not even to members of the family, nor bequeath it as a heritage. The instant they ceased to cultivate it, the land fell free to the people once more.* This custom was also practiced to a limited extent by the early Norsemen, Celts, Teutons, and Slavic nations, and is still practiced by all primitive people who have not been forced by stronger nations to relinquish their ancient customs and inherent rights. " I believe," says Emerson, " in a spade and an acre of good ground. Whoso cuts a straight path to his own living by the help of God, in the sun and the rain and sprouting grain, seems to me a universal workingman. He solves the problem of life, not *This primal custom is still in vogue among the Pueblo In- dians of New Mexico and Arizona, the wild tribes of Mexico, South America, India, Asia, and Africa. THE LAND ITS DISTRIBUTION 57 for one, but for all men of sound body." To which we add the words of Ruskin. " But since we live in an epoch of change, and too, probably, of revolu- tion, and thoughts which are not to be put aside are in the minds of all men capable of thought, I am obliged to affirm the one principle which can and in the end will close all epochs of revolution that each man shall possess the ground he can use, and no more." THE LAND. ITS PRODUCTIVITY A S already stated, nothing could be more absurd than to imagine that the future development of man is dependent upon a special form of government. The instant it is shown that the arable area of the Earth is more than ample to support the human race, assuring the independence of the individual, there can be no particular demand for reformers' schemes and theories, for the basis of human exist- ence and development rests not upon them, but upon the economy of Nature. This great, underlying principle upon which human society is founded is a natural law as available to man now as it ever was in the past. But in order that this truth may be made clear, it will be necessary first to show by examples of the productivity of the soil that all things have been provided for man from the beginning. That he is to-day as free to go and come, to think and act, and create and manifest his wishes as he ever was, provided he recognizes and abides by this natural law. 58 THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 59 Owing to man's ignorance and indifference, the true possibilities of rational and scientific farming have been confined chiefly to small areas of land. Thus far the surface of the Earth has only been scratched with the plow; the soil has never actually been tilled. As a result of the prevailing unscientific methods of land culture, the nations of the Earth, taken in- dividually, are to-day agriculturally non-supporting, and mutually dependent, one upon the other, for their food supplies. The most striking example of this agricultural non- support is found, perhaps, in great Britain which, with its present cultivable area of 33,000,000 acres of land, provides food for only one-third of its popula- tion; or, in other words, with 378 inhabitants per square mile it can feed but 130, requiring thus an average of nearly three cultivable acres per capita.* The home-grown food production of France and Belgium is much better. France produces food for every 170 out of 188 inhabitants per square mile; Belgium food for about 490 out of 579 inhabitants per square mile. The Malthusian theory that there is not enough land area on the surface of the Earth for the nourish- * See Appendix No. i for domestic consumption of flour per capita. 6o MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT ment of its inhabitants is the reason given by most economists and those in power for man's failure to support himself from the soil. But is this true? Is it possible for Great Britain, for example, to feed annually its 40,000,000 inhabitants from 33,- 000,000 acres of arable land, allowing Sy 2 bushels of wheat required for one man's annual food? * ' The average yield per acre in Great Britain is 28 bushels, or 3 1-2 quarters [wheat]," says Robert Blatchford. "At 3 1-2 quarters to the acre, 8,000,- ooo acres would produce 28,000,000 quarters; 9,000,000 acres would produce 31,500,000 quarters. ' Therefore, we require less than 9,000,000 acres of wheat land to grow a year's supply of wheat for 40,000,000 persons. " Now we have in Great Britain and Ireland about 33,000,000 acres of cultivable land. Deduct 9,000,- ooo for wheat, and we have 24,000,000 acres left for vegetables, fruit, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry." f " i. If the soil of the United Kingdom were cul- tivated only as it was thirty-five years ago, 24,000,- * See Appendix No. 2 for estimate of per capita consumption of wheat in certain countries. t See Appendix No. 3 for a more recent report. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 61 ooo people, instead of 17,000,000, could live on home-grown food. " 2. If the cultivable area of the United King- dom were cultivated as the soil is cultivated on the average in Belgium, the United Kingdom would have food for at least 37,000,000 inhabitants. " 3. If the population of this country came to be doubled, all that would be required for producing food for 80,000,000 inhabitants would be to culti- vate the soil as it is now cultivated in the best farms of this country, Lombardy, in Flanders." * This is what British agriculture is capable of ac- complishing to-day, and yet, in spite of the fact that a single acre of land is sufficient for the support of a man, statistics for 1905 show that one person in every forty in England and Wales is a pauper. The idea that a large acreage is necessary to suc- cess in farming is most erroneous. In 1895 there were not less than 9,188,007 farms in the United States, England, France, and Ger- many, from one to twenty acres in size. The num- ber of small farms in the United States is steadily increasing. f *" Fields, Factories, and Workshops": Prince Kropotkin. t See Appendix No. 4 for small farms from one to twenty acres. 62 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT "A large acreage is not always essential to suc- cess in general farming. This is shown by a little farm of fifteen acres near one of our large Eastern cities. Twenty years ago this farm came into pos- session of its present owner, with a mortgage of seven thousand dollars upon it. A definite system of rota- tion and soiling was adopted, which included the growing of certain forage crops and their utilization in the feeding of dairy cows. ' The farm is now supporting a herd of twenty- eight dairy cows, besides having some produce to sell. " The crops are those ordinarily found on any farm, corn, timothy, clover, rye, and oats. All this accomplished by close attention to details. System and business methods are followed everywhere, and the latest discoveries in agricultural science are util- ized. . . . The new fields in agriculture are not always to be found in general farming. " Some of the most promising openings for young men to-day are in the most intensive lines of work connected with the growing of fruits, vegetables, and other crops. ... In this field general fruit-growing offers the greatest number of opportunities to young men . . . five, ten, fifteen, or twenty acres de- voted intelligently to this work should yield an income THE LAND--ITS PRODUCTIVITY 63 above the average secured in professional or mer- cantile pursuits."* The two following examples are merely average yields, not maximum crops: 1. "The Island of Jersey, comprising an area of 28,707 acres, rocks included, not only nourishes about two inhabitants to the acre, or 1,300 to the square mile, but maintains in addition, 12,300 head of cattle and 23,000 horses used solely for agriculture and breeding. 2. " On a territory of 37,000 acres, all taken, in the district of Saffelare in East Flanders, a popula- tion of 30,000 inhabitants, all peasants, not only finds its food, but manages, moreover, to keep no less than 10,720 horned cattle, 3,800 sheep, 1,815 horses, and 6,550 swine, to grow flax, and to export various agricultural produce." f In reference to the Island of Guernsey ( The World's Work, December, 1909), Mr. Bolton Hall says: " It is only four to seven miles long and three to four miles wide, yet it supports a population of about *Prof. B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States. t" Fields, Factories, and Workshops": Prince Kropotkin. 64 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT 71,000 41,000 permanent and about 30,000 visi- tors each year and also has exports to the value of two and a quarter millions of dollars. " The soil is naturally rocky and intractable, and only 11,623 acres are capable of cultivation. Yet this little strip produces about four and a half mil- lion dollars' worth of farm and garden stuff annually, or a little less than $400 to the acre. " If the state of New York were cultivated and populated at this rate, it would produce nearly $15,- 000,000,000 worth annually, and sustain 233,541,- 473 people, or about three times the present popula- tion of the entire United States." The following examples of remarkable yields will attest the fact that still greater agricultural results are obtainable from a higher standard of scientific and intensive soil culture: 1. " At a recent competition [in America] in which hundreds of farmers took part, the first ten prizes were awarded to ten farmers who had grown, on three acres each, from 262 to 346 3-4 bushels of Indian corn; in other words, from 87 to 115 bushels to the acre. 2. " In Minnesota the prizes were given for crops of 300 to 1,120 bushels of potatoes to the acre, i.e., from 8 1-4 to 31 tons to the acre." 3. [Referring to Major Hallett's method of growing wheat in rows; a method long employed in China, India, and Japan; THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 65 planting each grain of wheat separately from eight to ten inches apart:] "The 8J/2 bushels required for one man's annual food were actually grown at the Tomblaine station (France) on a sur- face of 2,250 square feet, or forty-seven feet square, i.e., on very nearly one-twentieth part of an acre." * 1. "James L. Rea of Lewis and Clark County, Montana Territory, produced 102 bushels of good wheat from one acre, and obtained the first premium at the Fair for the largest yield of wheat raised in the Territory. 2. "In the reports of wheat culture in 1879, eleven different producers in various parts of the United States grew wheat averaging from 4254 to 6i^4 bushels per acre. 3. " When the writer was a boy on the Genesee Flats fifty years ago, it was a common thing among farmers to obtain as high as 40, 50, and often 60 bushels of wheat per acre." f " In Assiniboia, fifty to fifty-five bushels of wheat per acre have been threshed from a field of one hundred acres and over in the Indian Head, Wide Awake, and Abernethy districts." $ *" Fields, Factories, and Workshops": Prince Kropotkin. f" Wheat Culture": D. S. Curtis. 1888, 4th edition, 1890. | Report of Angus Mackay, Superintendent Experimental Farm for the Northwest Territories, Indian Head, N.W.T., Canada, No- vember 30, 1901. 66 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT The annual yield of corn grown by Funk Brothers of Bloomington, 111., averages from 96 to 157 bushels per acre. 'Thirty-five bushels of wheat (per acre) will yield a fair remuneration for the work expended in production when prices are at the lowest. When they are high, the profits are two hundred and three hundred per cent." * But what is most noticeable in connection with these data is that wheat culture has not improved during the past fifty years. The methods of culture now employed at our Ex- perimental Stations were common knowledge among the best farmers fifty years ago; while the average maximum crop of 45 to 50 bushels now grown at our Agricultural Institutions was regarded by them also as an average crop. " The culture of wheat in the United Kingdom has decreased by more than half within the past thirty years; consumption, meanwhile, has been stead- ily increasing; and the situation now is that the English people, an insular nation, produces less than one-fifth of the grain that constitutes their chief "The Farmstead": Isaac P. Roberts. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 67 article of food, and are hence dependent for over four-fifths of their supply upon over-sea transporta- tion." * f What an Acre May Produce in Vegetables and Fruits " An area of 150 xioo feet [about two-fifths of an acre] is generally sufficient to supply a family of five persons with vegetables, not considering the winter supply of potatoes; but the area must be well tilled and handled. ... In other words, the produce that could be thus obtained from an acre of land well situated would abundantly supply with nearly all the vegetables named, nineteen families, comprising in all 114 individuals."! An acre will produce in vegetables: " Beets average crop is 300-400 bushels per acre. Carrots good crop is 200-300 bushels per acre. Cabbage 8,000 heads per acre. Potatoes The yield of potatoes averages about 75 bushels per acre, but with forethought and good tillage and some fertilizer, the yield should run * Crop Reporter, October, 1905. Washington, D. C. t For yields of wheat, corn, and potatoes, see Appendix, Nos. 5, 6, 7 respectively. For examples in Dry Farming and Date Raising in the Sahara Desert, see Appendix, Nos. 8 and 9. $" Principles of Vegetable Gardening": L. H. Bailey. 68 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT from 200 to 300 bushels, and occasionally yields will much exceed the latter figure. Rhubarb From 2 to 5 stalks are tied in a bunch for market, and an acre should produce 3,000 dozen bunches. Salsify Good crop 200-300 bushels per acre. Onions A good crop of onions is 300-400 bushels to the acre, but 600-800 are secured under the very best conditions." * What we may hope to get from an acre, respec- tively, in " Potatoes, 300 bus. at 75c. a bu $225.00 Cabbages, 20 tons at $10.00 a ton . . 200.00 Carrots and Beets, 200 to 400 bus. 150.00 Tomatoes, 200 crates at 75c. a crate 150.00 Early peas, 50 bus. at $2.00 a bu. . . 100.00 Turnips, 400 bus. at 25C. a bu 100.00 Spinach, 100 bbls. at 5oc. a bbl. . . . 50.00 Asparagus, 3,000 bunches at 2Oc. a bunch 600.00 Cauliflower, 100 to 300 bbls. at $1.50, say 450.00 Onions, 600 bus. at 75c. a bu 450.00 Cabbage seed, 1,000 Ibs. at 4oc. a Ib. 400.00 *" Three Acres and Liberty": Bolton Hall. THE LAND--ITS PRODUCTIVITY 69 Brussels Sprouts, 3,000 quarts at ice. a qt $300.00 Celery, 6,000 bunches, 50. a bunch 300.00 Parsnips, 300 bus. at $1.00 a bu. . . 300.00 Lettuce, 9,000 heads at 3c. a head . . 270.00 Lima Beans, 50 bus. at $5.00 a bu. 250.00 " * What we may hope to get from an acre, respec- tively, in " Blackberries, 10,000 qts. at jc. a qt. $700.00 Dewberries, 9,000 qts. at 7c. a qt. . . 630.00 Gooseberries, 250 bus. at $2.00 a bu. 500.00 Strawberries, 8,000 qts. at 5c. a qt. 400.00 Currants, 3,000 plants yield 6,000 bus 200.00 Raspberries, per acre , $200.00 to 600.00 Peaches, per acre 200.00 to 400.00 Pears, per acre 200.00 to 500.00 Apples, per acre ....... 100.00 to 500.00 Grapes 100.00 " * " One farm in the Sacramento Valley consists of one single acre of irrigated land, and gives a better home and larger net income for its owner than his neighbors enjoy on places of thousands of acres each. The little farm is at Orland, in Glenn County, and "Three Acres and Liberty": Bolton Hall. 70 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT is the property of Samuel Cleeks, who has grown old tilling it for the past thirty years. " Mr. Cleeks makes a comfortable living from this one acre and is able to save an average of four hundred dollars a year beside. " He has money to loan, as well as fruit, vege- tables, and poultry products to sell to those who are getting poorer every year in carrying on big farms without irrigation." *f " The average annual yield of Southern California orange and lemon groves," says Mr. Edgar French, " is 30,000 carloads. The gross value of the crop is considerably in excess of 30 millions a year. About 60,000 acres of citrus trees are in bearing. " Translated into human terms, these figures mean that about 6,500 families in Southern California live in beautiful orange groves of five to twenty acres apiece, upon a gross income of, say, $500 an acre a year. " This means not only the luxury of life in a gentle climate on a fragrant plain, hemmed in by inspir- ing vistas of mountainous ranges; it means that these people practice a species of horticulture that is at "Three Acres and "Liberty": Bolton Han. f For a list of what this farm contains, see Appendix, No. ib. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 71 once a fine art and a paying commercial investment; that they tend their groves with an informed intelli- gence that makes of rural life an intellectual enjoy- ment, and have, besides, the leisure and means for recreation, for travel, and for other uplifting ac- quirements of culture." * " California," says Mr. Bolton Hall, " is not the only place in the United States where a man can live on one acre of ground, by intensive culture and with irrigation. The Eastern and Middle States can pre- sent just as good, if not better opportunities, espe- cially where land in small tracts is available near the large cities. " At Hyde Park, a little village three miles north of Reading, Pa., there is a small farm owned by Oliver R. Shearer, who may be said to be one of the most successful farmers in the United States. ' This farm contains 3 1-3 acres, only 2 1-2 of which are cultivated, but they yield the owner annu- ally from $1,200 to $1,500. From the profits of his intensive farming, Mr. Shearer has paid $3,800 for his property, which, besides the land, consists of a modern two-story brick house, with barn, chicken- * " The Rediscovery of California ": Edgar French. The World's Work, August, 1909. 72 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT yard, and orchard, the whole surrounded by a neat fence. " He has also raised and educated a family of three children. There are no secrets, Mr. Shearer says, about his methods of farming. " A study of conditions, the application of com- mon-sense methods and untiring energy, he asserts, will enable any farmer to do what he has done." " Professor Thomas Shaw writes of a plot of ordinary ground in Minnesota comprising the nine- teenth part of an acre, which for years kept a family of six matured persons abundantly supplied with vegetables all the year, with the exception of potatoes, celery, and cabbage. In addition, much was given away, more especially of the early varieties, and in many instances much was thrown away." f The One-Acre Ranch The owner of this acre of land is Mr. Joseph Lipe, a resident of Clarkson, Wash. Previous to the purchase of the land, Mr. Lipe lived in " a small two-roomed flat in the crowded quarter of Minneapolis," and " for thirty years, with hardly a day's intermission, had piloted a locomotive." "Three Acres and Liberty": Bolton Hall. ^Maxwell's Talisman. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 73 " He was over sixty years old," and " in poor health. . . . He knew nothing of farming," but " was anxious to give up railroading for a quieter occupation." An acre of irrigated land in Clarkson was offered him. " On it was a square, six-roomed house, unpainted, one hundred and eighteen two-year- old fruit trees, a few vegetables, dying for want of attention, six half-starved chickens, and a huge rub- bish pile. Inclosing it was a rickety barbed-wire fence. That was all. " He paid fourteen hundred dollars for the land and ' improvements,' and an additional two dollars and a half to the former owner's son for clearing away the rubbish-heap. " From that day he paid not another cent for hired labor. . . . He read all that he could find upon the subject, talked with men who had made a study of irrigation farming, and went among those of his neighbors who were successful, working in the field with them. " He saw the results obtained through practical operation of scientific methods, and that intelligent effort and careful supervision were what counted, not the amount of land one possessed. " He pruned the trees and set out thirty others of different varieties; he plowed out the old vegetables 74 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT and vines, and planted new ones; he sold the half- dozen sick chickens, and replaced them by a thorough- bred Black Spanish rooster and three hens, and built them a chicken-yard, sowing it to wheat. " He soon learned in just what quantities each tree and vegetable required the life-giving moisture. . . . At the end of the first year, the sale of fruits, vegetables, and chickens had not only paid all living expenses, but had left a surplus as well. This was returned to the land for improvements. The house was painted, new chicken-houses were built, and the old fence was replaced by a neat wire one. ' While the husband experimented with every variety of fruit and vegetable, the wife experimented with her preserves until they became as famous as her husband's crops. ' To-day the One-Acre Ranch has reached its cul- mination. . . . Every inch of ground has its duty to perform. . . . The land, however, is by no means all given to agriculture. " The house takes up one corner. In front of it is a small, well-kept lawn and flower-garden. To the north of the house is a large storage-cellar, a tool- house, a dog-kennel, numerous chicken-houses, and several fenced-in breeding and feeding pens, covering one-half acre. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 75 " The orchard occupies one-fourth of the acre. In it are one hundred and thirty trees, including eight varieties of peach, seven of cherry, and four of apple ; also plum, apricot, quince, English walnut, Spanish chestnut, and almond. " Between the trees, and on the other fourth part of the acre, are grown berries and vegetables, thirty varieties or more, including potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, onions, squash, parsnips, asparagus, peppers, pickles, turnips, cabbage, straw- berries, grapes, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, and blackberries. " The one hundred and seventy-odd thorough- bred chickens last year laid over five thousand eggs." At the Lewiston Inter-State Fair the One-Acre Ranch was awarded thirty-six prizes. " In addition to an astonishing variety of fresh fruits and vege- tables, there were entered two hundred and sixty- seven cans of preserves, all of which were different, either in fruit or in the mode of preserving." * *" One- Acre Ranch: How to Make a Living from One Acre of Land": William Howard Kirkbride, Century Magazine, March, 1908. 76 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT 4 The London Daily News reports that in the year 1905, which was not a good year for all crops, on half an acre of land, Mr. Henry Vincent, of Brigh- ton, England, raised vegetables which gave him a net profit of 59 odd pounds, or about $300. Thus this yield is at the rate of $600 per acre.* " Mr. Vincent explains how he came to go into intensive cultivation : ' A few years ago the doctors said if I did not go out more I could not live. Very well, just at that time there was an outcry about the land not paying cultivation. ' I could not understand this, for as a boy at seven years of age I had to go out to farm-work, therefore, I never went to school. " ' Anyhow, I thought something was very wrong if the land did not pay; so, to compel myself to go out in the fresh air, I took an allotment on the Sussex Downs to work in the early morning before my daily duties began. " ' I might say that I am a waiter, and have been in my present situation forty years, so you can under- stand I could not know much of land or garden-work. I may add that, my duty at the hotel I am working in, means eighty hours a week, so I could not see my way clear in the few spare hours I get to take more * For list of products raised by Mr. Vincent, see Appendix, No. u. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 77 than half an acre of land to garden early, especially as I started knowing practically nothing about such work, but I can manage to do my half-acre all alone. ' My garden is situated on the Brighton Race Hill ridge, and twelve years ago it was but four inches of soil on chalk, but I now have a foot of soil on the whole of the half-acre, and year by year my profits in- crease. (( C Yes, get the men to stop on the land in this country. We ought not to have workhouses. Every man could live, and live well, if he could get the land, and would work it as it should be worked. ' Farmers and landowners grumble because the land does not pay. Now for the fault. It is quite evident it is not the land, therefore, it must be the fault of the man. * Very well, get the land from these landed pro- prietors, by sale preferred, and let it out to men, not by 1,000 acres, as no man can farm well a thou- sand acres in England; let the farms be greatly re- duced, and then the land can be treated as it should be. 1 Most of us have children, and we all know how we love and treat them. Treat the land in the same manner; feed it, and keep it clean, and you will have 78 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT no cause to complain. The land of old England is as good as it ever was. ' I have serious thoughts of opening a kind of school for people who would like to make $500 a year off an acre. It is to be done, and done easily. I do know that one man alone can manage two acres, and at the end of this year I shall be able to tell how much more he can manage alone, so under my system one can gain 4 a week off two acres and do all one's self. " ' If the land will produce over one hundred pounds per year per acre, is it not wrong for a man to have, say, 500 or 1,000 acres which in no way can he properly manage; as, in the first place, he can- not feed such an acreage, let alone keep it clean and gather in his crops?' ' *f So much for intensive soil culture and maximum crop raising; but for the benefit of all those who still question the productivity of the soil and the possibilities of agriculture, we refer to Appendix, "Three Acres and Liberty": Bolton Hall. t Information concerning the raising of game, pheasants, and other wild fowl, as well as the addresses of persons engaged in the business can be had from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Also information regarding fish and bee culture, the rearing of squabs, growing mushrooms, flowers, drug-plants, and other novel and profitable uses of land. See Appendix, No, 12. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 79 No. 13, for the history of " The Twenty-Acre Farm." " Our means," says Prince Kropotkin, " of obtain- ing from the soil whatever we want, under any cli- mate and upon any soil, have lately improved at such a rate that we cannot foresee yet what is the limit of productivity of a few acres of land. . . . Soil does not matter now, nor climate very much. ' There is quite a new science of agriculture which makes its own soil and modifies its climate. Corn and fruit can be grown on any soil on rock, on sand, on clay. " All we can now say is, that 600 persons could easily live on a square mile; and that, with culture methods already used on a large scale, 1,000 human beings not idlers living on 1,000 acres, could easily, without any kind of overwork, obtain from that area a luxurious vegetable and animal food, as well as flax, wool, silk, and hides necessary for their clothing." In conclusion let us quote from the address of James J. Hill, President of the Great Northern Railroad, delivered at the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul, September 3, 1906. 80 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Mr. Hill's words seem to be truly Inspired, and coming as they do from a man of his type, one of the most conservative representatives of Organized Capital, they may be classed among the most remark- able utterances made on American soil since the American Declaration of Independence. After referring to the prodigal waste and wanton destruction of our minerals and forests, and the im- poverishment of the soil by our deliberate neglect of it, Mr. Hill asks : " Where are our children to find standing room and the tens of millions of the future a place for wholesome industry? What are we to do with our brother, whose keeper we are? No nation in history was ever confronted with a sterner question. ' Within forty-four years we shall have to meet the wants of more than two hundred million people. In less than twenty years from this moment the United States will have 130,000,000 people. " Where are these people, not of some dim, dis- tant age, but of this very generation now growing to manhood, to be employed and how supported? " A generous estimate of competent geologists for the life of the better coal measures of Europe as a whole, is less than one hundred years. It is certainly THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 81 a moderate statement to say that, by the middle of the present century, when our population shall have reached the two hundred million mark, our best and most convenient coal will have been so far consumed that the remainder can only be applied to present uses at an enhanced cost which will probably compel the entire rearrangement of industries and revolutionize the common lot and common life. ' This is not a mere possibility, but a probability which our country must face. . . . Our available iron deposits have been carefully catalogued. All the fields of national importance have been known for at least twenty years. In the year 1950, so far as our resources are concerned, we will approach an ironless age. " For a population of 200,000,000 people our home supply of iron will have retreated almost to the company of the precious metals. There is no sub- stitute whose production and preparation for prac- tical use is not far more expensive. . . . The peril is not one of remote geologic time, but this genera- tion. And where is there a sign of preparation for it? " If any man thinks this prophecy of danger fan- tastic, let him glance at Great Britain . . . already there is a cry of want and suffering from every street in England . . . men are hovering together in her 82 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT cities, uttering that most pathetic and most awful ul- timatum, ' Damn your charity, give us work ! ' And this is only the beginning of that industrial read- justment which the unwise application of industry and the destruction of natural resources must force everywhere. " Every people is thus reduced in the final ap- praisal of its estate to reliance upon the soil. This is the sole asset that does not perish, because it contains within itself, if not abused, the possibility of infinite renewal. A self-perpetuating race must rely upon some self-perpetuating means of support. Our one resource, therefore, looking at humanity as something more than the creature of a day, is the productivity of the soil. . . . When we have added to the na- tional export trade $500,000,000 per annum, the country rings with self-congratulation and we demand the plaudits of the world. " If a process for extracting metallic wealth from rocks were to be discovered to-morrow, such as to as- sure the country an added volume of a $1,000,000,- ooo in wealth every year, the nation would talk of nothing else. Yet these things would be but a trifle when compared with the possibilities of agricultural development in the United States. " The official estimated value of all farm products THE LAND--ITS PRODUCTIVITY 83 of the country last year ( 1905) was $6,415,000,000. Discount this for high prices and generally favorable conditions by twenty per cent., and more than $5,- 000,000,000 remain. It is also officially recorded that, of the appropriated farm area of the United States, a little less than one-half is under cultivation. Utilize the other half and without any change in method, the output would be practically doubled. " We should be able, by the adoption of a system of culture in full operation elsewhere, greatly to in- crease this minimum present yield of $5,000,000,000 per annum of farm products. That is, we may add $10,000,000,000 or $15,000,000,000 every year to the national wealth if we so choose. " Only one-half of the land in private ownership is now tilled. That tillage does not produce one-half of what the land might be made to yield, without los- ing an atom of its fertility. Yet the waste of our treasure has proceeded so far that the actual value of the soil for productive purposes has already deterio- rated more than it should have done in five centuries of use. There is, except in isolated and individual cases, little approaching intensive agriculture in the United States. There is only the annual skimming of the rich cream, the exhaustion of virgin fertility, the ex- traction from the earth by the most rapid process of 84 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT its productive powers, the deterioration of life's sole maintenance. And all this with that army of another hundred million people marching in plain sight to- ward us, and expecting and demanding that they shall be fed. " The first step is to realize our dependence upon the cultivation of the soil. The next will be to con- centrate popular interest and invention and hope upon that neglected occupation. We are still clinging to the skirts of a civilization born of great cities. We at this very moment use a slang which calls the stupid man ' a farmer.' " Genius has shunned the farm and expended itself upon mechanical appliances and commerce and the manifold activities whose favorable reactions filter back but slowly to the plot of ground upon which stands solidly the real master of himself and his destiny. " Japan is a world's university for instruction in the art of agriculture. Of her 45,000,000 people, 30,000,000 are farmers. The whole body is sup- ported by a cultivated area of but 19,000 square miles ... the farmer is a specialist. For twenty-five centuries this people has turned to tillage as the basic industry of life. Her progress is in the right direc- tion; growth like that of the tree, from the ground up. THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 85 ' The Government should establish a small model farm on its own land in every rural Congressional district, later, perhaps, in every county in the agricul- tural States. Let the Department of Agriculture show exactly what can be done on a small tract of land by proper cultivation, moderate fertilizing, and due rotation of crops. ... It can be shown that an average of two persons or more may be supported on every acre of tillable land by the highest form of intensive farming. " But dismissing this as unnecessary, it has been shown that a people like those of Belgium to-day, raise from the soil food enough for the needs of 490 persons to the square mile. " Accepting provisionally that ratio as a point of departure, though the actual ratio of area to popula- tion gives a figure considerably higher even than this, 414,498,487 acres of improved farm lands in the United States on the date of the last official report, an area materially enlarged by the present time, would support in comfort 317,350,405 people. . . . Ap- plying the same ratio to the entire acreage of farm lands within the United States, both improved and unimproved, which was at the same date 838,591,- 774, the population indicated as able to live with com- fort and prosperity on the actually existing agricul- 86 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT tural area of this country, under an intelligent system and a fairly competent, but by no means highly scientific, method of culture, rises to 642,046,823. ' The conclusion is that, if not another acre were to be redeemed from the wilderness, if the soil were treated kindly and intelligently, and if industry were distributed duly and popular attention were concen- trated upon the best possible utilization of the one unfailing national resource, there would be produced all the necessary food for the wants of, in round num- bers, 650,000,000 people." Rational, or small farming, is indeed the salvation of the human race. Search where you will through- out the world, the deepest content and greatest pros- perity are ever found among the people who possess small farms who live upon and till their own soil. The Belgium farmer and those of the Channel Islands on their five- and ten-acre farms, like the farmers of New York, California, and Oregon, pos- sessing but ten- and twenty-acre farms, are far more prosperous than the farmers of the great English and Russian estates, or the ranch owners of the United States and Canada. Average crops never pay in the long run, since average land under present-day methods of cultiva- THE LAND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 87 tion yields only about one-fifth of what may be pro- duced by more intensive methods of cultivation. The true principles of soil culture can only be worked out and successfully exploited by single in- dividuals on small areas of land. The reason why men fail at small farming is because they are ignorant of such principles; without such knowledge, no one can engage successfully in small farming if depend- ent on present-day markets. The area of the Earth affords but a limited number of acres of arable land to be placed at the disposal of the individual, for which reason, intensive soil culture and raising of maximum crops becomes not only a necessity, but the inevitable end and aim of true agricultural science. " Give us the man with his little patch of ground, his bean-rows and bee-loud glades, his morning musi- cal with the lark and his evening full of the linnets' wings. " In his sinews is the strength of the good brave soil, and in his soul is the glory of the sun and the splendor of the stars. " God send him the singing rains, the day's tender warmth, gladness for his seedtime, and plenty for his harvests ! " VI THE ARABLE AREA OF THE EARTH "1T7E know what the soil will produce if intelli- gently cultivated; we also know that no limit can at present be set to the future possibilities of agriculture. It, therefore, only remains to be proved whether or not the arable area of the Earth is sufficient to nourish the human race. According to Ravenstein, the land area of the Earth is 49,402,099 square miles; its population, in- cluding the polar regions, 1,602,127,461, or 32.43 inhabitants to the square mile; and with present methods of soil culture and production the Earth could easily support 207 inhabitants to the square mile, or a population of 10,226,234,493. Again, according to Ravenstein, there are 28,269,- 200 square miles of fertile lands, and 13,901,000 square miles in steppes; making 42,170,200 square miles of cultivable land, not including 4,180,000 square miles of desert; a large portion of which, as 88 THE ARABLE AREA OF THE EARTH 89 has been proved, is also cultivable if properly tilled and irrigated. We have, therefore, at present 42,170,200 square miles, or 26,988,928,000 acres of arable land at our disposal; an average of over 16^ acres to each in- habitant of the Earth. The Earth is, then, not only capable of nourish- ing the human race to-day, but with our present knowledge of the possibilities of the soil and the application of scientific methods of cultivation, it could easily support, if necessary, a population of 26,988,928,000; one acre per capita.* These are facts, not theories. And in the face of such facts it is hardly necessary to add that Malthus' economical theories are not tenable; especially when we take into consideration the additional fact that, if the Earth were as thickly populated as Great Britain and Ireland to-day, it would have, exclusive of desert and polar regions, but 15,300,846,254 inhabitants. Will anyone, in the face of these facts and figures, longer dispute the individual's right to his natural * The population of Europe has about doubled itself during the last century, but its general increase has already practically reached its maximum. There is, however, no reason to believe that the Earth will ever become over-populated, for so far as we are at present able to observe, there seems to be a natural law governing the higher evolutionary life whose energy is expended, not in the in- crease of reproduction, but in the quality of men. 90 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT portion of the soil, or the possibility of nourishing himself therefrom? Human economy, to be rational, must rest upon the soil the same as natural economy, for the reason that human and animal existence depends alike upon the productivity of the soil. Nature has given man the soil. If he allows him- self to be robbed of his natural portion of it, or if he fails to utilize its productivity by neglecting to increase its fertility, he has no one but himself to blame; especially if the land can neither be bought, sold, taxed, rented, nor taken from him. As a result of the above eduction of facts, every- body is to-day entitled to 16^4 acres of arable land, but in order that we may not be seriously inconveni- enced by any future increase in the world's popula- tion, we will withdraw 6-)4 acres from each indi- vidual's share for a reserve fund of land; in other words, about 10,814,360,361 acres, which, allowing ten acres to the man, represents a land area capable of supporting an increase of 1,081,436,036 inhab- itants, or 520,691,425 inhabitants less than the entire population of the world to-day; a reserve area of land more than ample to meet the demands of any rational estimate of the world's increase in popula- tion for centuries to come. THE ARABLE AREA OF THE EARTH 91 Knowing what we do of the productivity of the soil, it is no exaggeration to state that, the present area of farm lands in the United States, 841,201,546 acres, together with 500,000,000 acres of Canadian, and 100,000,000 of Mexican soil, a total of 1,441,- 201,546 acres, could furnish all necessities of life for the entire population of Asia, Europe, the United States, and Canada, a total of 1,303,841,666 in- habitants. And when it is further stated that the continents of North and South America could to-day easily clothe and feed the entire human race, it will perhaps be worth our while to consider seriously whether or not there is any justification for a con- tinuance of past and present policies. In fact, it cannot at present be accurately estimated just what amount of arable land man will have at his disposal in the near future. Ravenstein's figures, though accurate, are in a measure antiquated. Large areas of the Earth's sur- face have never been surveyed at all. With our ever increasing knowledge of agricultural methods, irrigation, and dry farming, the present area of arable land will be vastly increased. Regions that were once regarded as arid wastes and worthless, are no longer so considered. Even the pure desert sands are no longer looked upon as 92 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT hopeless, beyond the possibilities of reclamation, large areas of which must inevitably yield to superior methods of soil culture. There is no doubt that, once the Earth's surface has been properly surveyed, it will be found that there is much more arable land than we at present imagine and that the portion of land falling to the in- dividual might be greatly increased. But that does not alter the fact that ten acres of land are all that he should be permitted to hold, all that he can con- sistently use. Ten acres of land are not only a fair allotment, but a very generous portion of the Earth's surface to consign to the control of the individual during a lifetime, especially since it has been shown that a single acre of arable land under ordinary cultivation yields only one-fifth the amount of produce it is capable of yielding, were intelligent and intensive culture methods employed upon it. If one acre of land is capable of nourishing the individual, five acres would be nearer a fair average than ten to allot to single individuals; but as there is an abundance of land for everyone, it is not neces- sary to reduce the individual's holding to so small a portion. Ten acres, therefore, being ample not only for the THE ARABLE AREA OF THE EARTH 93 maintenance of the individual, but also for the aver- age family as well, every human being born into the Earth-life should be entitled to that amount of the Earth's surface (arable land), and should be allowed to continue in possession of the same until death, provided he makes use of it for pastoral purposes, or utilizes it to its full extent for some other useful purpose.* The farmer should be permitted to hold ten acres if single; if married, he and his wife twenty acres in common (two ten-acre plots adjoining) ; because he, like the nomad and the savage, is the only remaining member of the human family who still lives within the natural sphere of his earthly environment, and is, therefore, entitled to that portion of the Earth's surface which is necessary to yield him a comfortable living. This same law would also apply to the dweller of the city and to all those who acquire a living from other pursuits than that of husbandry were they not one step removed from man's natural condition. But having removed themselves from man's natu- * To-day three acres of land are commonly considered essential to provide the necessities of life for a single person, or the annual sustenance for one head of horned cattle or eight sheep; reckoning 9,000 Ibs. of hay to each horned head ; with intensive soil culture, one acre would more than suffice for the same. 94 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT ral condition to that of an artificial one of their own creating, Nature demands as a sacrifice from all those who have thus transgressed her laws, that portion of their original birthright which they have ceased to cultivate or occupy; or better, the whole of it; as the source from which their living is derived is no longer a natural one, but an artificial one. VII TOWNS AND CITIES T T has been seen that since the husbandman lives in harmony with natural law, drawing his main- tenance from natural sources, he is entitled to such a portion of the Earth's surface as is required to yield him a livelihood. This same law, it is evident, would apply in like manner to the town or city dweller had he not chosen to leave man's natural or normal sphere of existence, and create for himself more or less artificial condi- tions, lying outside the pale of that law. We say artificial for the reason that all institutions called towns and cities, and all phases of government, whether of a local or national character, which extend beyond those of a primitive people, are sustained, not from natural sources, but through the artificial means of taxation man's invention, not Nature's. Since, therefore, natural laws cannot be applied to towns and cities, a special method must be em- ployed for the distribution of such lands and property 95 96 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT in order that a system of equality may be established and maintained within them. The dweller in towns and cities who has chosen some one of the many artificial and more or less pre- carious methods of obtaining a livelihood in prefer- ence to the natural occupation of husbandry, has also, by that very choice, renounced his original birthright. He can no longer lay claim to that definite allotment of the Earth's surface which is the farmer's due and whose only valid tenure is its direct cultivation by the holder. He is, however, entitled to a residence or residences surrounded by such ground space within the ten-acre limit as he chooses to beautify and maintain as a garden. He is entitled, moreover, to such further ground space, still within his ten-acre allotment, as he is able to cover with buildings, including that which is re- quired for the purposes of his commercial, scientific, or artistic pursuits with free ground space for the storage or occupancy of raw materials, or for the clay used for making bricks, tiles, crockery, etc. But not another square inch of the Earth's surface beyond that which is necessary for his immediate require- ments within the ten-acre limit should the individual be permitted to hold, for the reason that he would TOWNS AND CITIES 97 otherwise monopolize land to the detriment of the Public. This restriction, limiting all persons not engaged in pastoral pursuits to that amount of ground space within the ten-acre allotment which they can cover with buildings, or which is essential to the immediate requirements of their vocations, will prevent effectu- ally any monopolization of vacant land on the part of the individual, while the provision that a man may surround his dwelling with but a single acre of ground unless he beautifies it, will likewise prevent him from monopolizing it under the pretense that he is using it for residential purposes when in reality he is using it for no useful purpose whatever. Buildings are not only subject to decay and destruc- tion, but they are valueless unless occupied. Conse- quently their erection is controlled by natural law, and no one in his right mind would erect a building unless it were for his personal use, or its occupancy by someone else were practically assured the owner beforehand. All persons, therefore, should be permitted to erect as many buildings as they choose within the ten-acre limit, it being evident that, apart from the shelter of the roof-tree and the immediate require- ments of pastoral, commercial, scientific, and artistic 98 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT purposes, they can have no value except in cities, towns, or small communities. And since such cities or towns occupy but an in- finitesimally small space in comparison with the country at large, the ground thus occupied by build- ings can in no wise seriously affect the area used for pastoral purposes. Since, however, the tenure of all property not used for pastoral purposes depends upon the fact that it is occupied by buildings, or is used in connection with the holder's vocation, that holder may remain in un- disputed possession of such property only so long as he owns the buildings erected upon it, or otherwise employs it for obtaining a livelihood. Should a building or other structure be destroyed, the privilege of continuing the occupancy of such property ceases, unless its owner erects another within a fixed time, and in case of his failure to do so within the time limit, the property in question reverts to the public domain and is again open to occupancy. This law of occupancy, however, applies only to city property, or other lands used for commercial, scientific, or artistic purposes. The right of occu- pancy of pastoral lands, depending as it does upon cultivation or other pastoral uses, is not affected in any way by the erection or non-erection of buildings. 99 It should be repeated, however, that those who wish to possess farms can do so only by making their permanent residence upon them and by cultivating the soil themselves. What they may do during their leisure hours is no concern of the world's, but their pastoral pursuits must come before all others if they wish to hold their full allotment of lands. On the other hand, those who have chosen some vocation other than that of agriculture, or other pas- toral pursuits, cannot hold pastoral lands. For example a physician, or manufacturer, or any other person not engaged in pastoral pursuits as a profession, and not living upon such land, cannot monopolize land within the ten-acre limit by hiring others to cultivate it for him, thus reaping a financial harvest not only from the land, but also from his own business or profession. The individual must make his choice. He may gain his livelihood directly from the soil or through some other calling, but he cannot at the same time hold pastoral land and pursue another independent vocation. In order, therefore, that the distribution of city lots may be a fair and equitable one, all those which are considered the choicest, owing to their location for residential, commercial, or other purposes, should TOO MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT be disposed of at public auction by the municipal authorities for the highest price the individual is will- ing to pay for the privilege of occupying them; the money or bonus thus paid going into the public treasury. The individual pays not for the land, which cannot be bought or sold, but merely for the privilege of occupying a certain piece of property within a city's limits, and he can hold or occupy it only so long as it is built upon, or is used in connection with the immediate requirements of his business or pro- fession. This bonus exacted by the Municipality for the privilege of occupancy should be paid but once, other- wise it would assume the nature of a tax on land, which is unlawful. If, on the other hand, there are no competitors for the occupancy of any city lots, the person desiring them for a residence, for the erection of buildings, or for other useful purposes in connection with his vocation, may make use of them without paying a bonus. This device, the purpose of which is to prevent as far as possible the erection of cheap or poor buildings in select city quarters, only applies to towns and cities. A number of persons desiring a particular [TOWNS AND CITIES 101 allotment of pastoral land must draw lots for it; the land falling to him who draws the lucky number. It goes without saying that all public buildings, parks, and institutions created and maintained solely for the benefit of the Public, may occupy as much land or ground space as is considered necessary for the purposes for which they are in- stituted. This law, however, does not apply to such institu- tions as hotels and clubs. Hotels being merely money-making institutions, should be treated like all other commercial institu- tions. They are not public, but private institutions, and must be limited to ten acres of land, no matter whether one person or a thousand be interested in their operation. If a hotel is erected in a town or city, the owner or owners thereof should be allowed only that amount of ground space which the hotel proper and its acces- sory structures occupy, together with such free ground space within the ten-acre limit as is necessary for its operation. If the hotel is erected in the country or rural dis- tricts, any free ground space within the ten-acre limit not occupied by the buildings, structures, etc., may be 102 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT used for a garden if beautified by the owner or owners of the hotel. No person can possess an interest in a hotel if such interest represents a ground space which, when added to his individual allotment, would make his holdings exceed the ten-acre limit. Clubs may be classed as limited public institutions if maintained by those desiring them solely for pleas- ure and recreation; but they cannot be so classified if used as money-making institutions. All clubs, whether in cities or in rural districts, should be permitted to occupy only that amount of ground space, within the ten-acre limit, which is re- quired for their various buildings, with enough free ground space for their proper operation. People who wish to indulge in golf or other out- door sports and pastimes may do so in parks or com- mons, maintained by the Public for purposes of recre- ation, or on any unoccupied land which is free to the Public. Our present-day clubs of the nature described could still, under the new dispensation, retain their exclusive rights and privileges in connection with all necessary ground space within the ten-acre limit; but all free and open lands now controlled by them or used for recreation, sports, or other pastimes should be sur- TOWNS AND CITIES 103 rendered to the Public and be controlled for the Pub- lic's benefit. And if there is found to be enough available free land in any community for such recreation grounds, they may be maintained by that community for the good of all. As all communities beyond the primitive form are sustained, not from natural sources, but by the arti- ficial means of taxation, all those wishing to enjoy the pleasures or benefits which towns or cities are supposed to bestow upon mankind must pay the reve- nues demanded for the privilege of living in them, or else move on to their free portions of pastoral land which cannot be taken from them. Since revenues are necessary to sustain all forms of government beyond the primitive type, every citizen enjoying the protection of the State or a Municipality should pay his due share of such revenues. And in case those enjoying such protection refuse to contribute that share, the State or Municipality shall have the power to take from the delinquents such parts of their personal property as it deems necessary to reimburse it for the loss of such revenues. But it cannot touch the land. For man and the io 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT land come before man's institutions. The soil is as essential to human existence as the air or the water, and to deprive man of that portion of the Earth's surface which is necessary for his maintenance is quite as illogical and unnatural as to deprive him of the air and sunlight. VIII FAMILY HOLDINGS AND INHERITANCE PERSONS engaged in pastoral pursuits cannot con- trol two separate allotments of land. They can control only the full amount or such part of their rightful portion of land as is in one piece. For example a single individual cannot control two separate five-acre tracts of land, nor can a mar- ried couple control two ten-acre tracts of land in common unless they are adjoining. Neither can a married couple holding two ten-acre tracts in common erect buildings on the line of their adjoining tracts. All buildings must lie wholly within the limits of one or the other of the separate holdings in order that no confusion may arise in con- nection with the redivision of the land should the couple separate or one of them die. In like manner any number of persons may culti- vate their lands in common if they so desire. In such cases they may either live on their separate tracts, or cluster in villages, forming a central point from which their fields radiate. 105 io6 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Or again, if on account of the individual's safety, or owing to sanitary reasons, it is found necessary and expedient for certain communities living in iso- lated regions to cultivate fields or lands lying at a distance from their towns, such communities should be permitted to exercise this custom. But such com- munities should be strictly pastoral in character, and the ground space occupied by the individual's dwell- ing must be included in the ten-acre limit. Such practices are in vogue, especially among primi- tive peoples, in certain unhealthy and desert regions throughout the world to-day, and should be respected wherever they are necessary. Like regard may be paid to the tribal customs of many communities in Asia, Africa, Asia Minor, and our own Pueblo In- dians which have been forced to adopt this method from earliest times and are still practicing it. But this practice must be confined to such communities only. Should a person living on a ten-acre tract, or less, of pastoral land marry, the couple or unit constituting the family, can increase the size of their farm up to the twenty-acre limit (ten acres to each person) only if the additional land adjoins their original tract. Otherwise they must be content with their present allotment or move to a larger tract within FAMILY HOLDINGS 107 the twenty-acre limit if such a one is available. And such tract must be equally divided between them. This will confine the family unit to one spot, as is fitting, and force everybody to utilize the land which he occupies. The children of parents living on pastoral lands can lay claim to their rightful portion of land only if they leave the shelter of the family roof and establish homes of their own. All youth should be considered eligible to pastoral lands at the age of sixteen; to city property at the age of twenty- one. A family or married couple engaged in pastoral pursuits may, as stated, hold twenty acres of land in common for the reason that unencumbered pastoral lands can easily be divided and redistributed upon the separation of husband and wife, or the death of either. But twenty acres of land encumbered with buildings, structures, &c., cannot be held in common by a couple engaged in other than pastoral pursuits, since such a redivision would be impossible. Therefore, in order that there may be no confusion arising from such cases, or from single individuals falling heir to property which encumbers more than ten acres of ground space, a husband or wife, or any io8 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT number of persons engaged in non-pastoral pursuits, should be permitted to use or build over only ten acres in common. A husband or wife, however, may make use of or cover with buildings, structures, &c., each in his or her own name and right, and in connection with his or her chosen vocation, the ten-acre tract which is the legal allotment of the individual. But such holdings must be kept separate; under no circumstances may they be held in common. The adjustment of such estates would be an easy matter upon the separation of a couple, or upon the death of a husband or wife. For example if one member of a married couple possessing ten acres in his or her own right (covered with buildings, structures, &c.), should die, the re- maining member of the family could inherit the whole or a part of the deceased's estate only on condition that he or she disposed of an equal part of his or her personal holdings before coming into possession of the new estate. If heirs already in possession of their full allotment of land encumbered with structures, &c., do not wish to exchange the whole or a part of their holdings for the property left them, the State must dispose of the deceased's estate at public auction. In which FAMILY HOLDINGS 109 case the proceeds of the sale must be rendered unto the deceased's heirs. These requirements of the law must be complied with within a given time fixed by law. It is immaterial whether or not such persons are obliged to dispose of their property, or property willed to them, at a loss; for no one, under any con- dition whatever, shall at any time be permitted to hold more than his rightful portion of land. If any person fails to comply with this requirement of the law, the property in question falls free to the State or Municipality, and must be disposed of at public auction; the proceeds of the sale going into the Public Treasury. If one member of a married couple occupying pas- toral lands should die, leaving no children, the sur- viving member of the family must immediately sur- render the deceased's land to the State if at the time of the latter's death their mutual holdings exceed the ten-acre limit. All structures, &c., encumbering such lands shall be disposed of by the State at public auction, the proceeds of which shall be rendered unto the surviv- ing member of the family. Should a person die without heirs or without will- ing his property or effects to anyone, his possessions no MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT fall free to the State or Community in which he dwelt. They must be disposed of at public auction, the proceeds going into the Public Treasury. All estates which have been left to heirs not of age, should be held in trust by the State until such heirs have reached the age of majority, upon which they should be permitted to come into control of their own. Also, heirs to property who cannot be found at the time they are lawfully entitled to come into posses- sion of said property, or, who cannot be found upon the demise of those who have willed it to them, should be allowed a reasonable length of time in which to appear to prove their right of claim to said property. All such property should be held in trust by the State during such lapse of time. Should no heirs appear during this lapse of time fixed by law, the State falls heir to the property. Again, if during his lifetime, an individual en- gaged in pastoral pursuits wishes to change or re- linquish his allotment of land for another, he is at liberty to do so. In which event, he surrenders all claim to the land he has hitherto occupied, which again falls free to the Public, or to the person who pays the highest price for the structures or improve- ments found upon it. The price paid for such im- FAMILY HOLDINGS in provements should be duly rendered unto the former occupant of the land. All structures or improvements occupying aban- doned pastoral lands must either be removed or dis- posed of by their owners within a given time specified by law, or the State falls heir to them, and may dis- pose of them at public auction. Should such improvements, occupying pastoral lands or city property, find no purchasers after the date set for the public auction has expired, lots shall be drawn for such property, and it shall fall to him who draws the lucky number. It will be seen that the individual remains in un- disputed possession of his lawful portion of land, whether city or pastoral, during his lifetime, or so long as he uses it in connection with his vocation; and upon his death his family or heirs may inherit and retain possession of any buildings, structures, &c., erected upon it, or may cultivate or use it for pas- toral, commercial, scientific, or artistic purposes as long as it pleases them, provided said land is not in excess of the individual's ten-acre limit. It will not be necessary to go into further detail concerning the right of occupancy of property en- cumbered with buildings, structures, &c., or used in connection with business and other professions. ii2 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT All buildings, edifices, mechanical constructions, devices, &c., of whatever character, should be bought, sold, rented, inherited, or disposed of on precisely the same principles as they are to-day. Ten acres, as already shown, are a very generous amount of land to consign to the agriculturist, and more than ample for the support of the individual if covered with buildings. In fact, only the few, the extreme rich, are to-day able to cover that amount of ground space with sub- stantial structures, or use it in connection with pro- fessions and pursuits not pastoral in their nature. The law, as here set forth, compelling the indi- vidual to use the land which he occupies for some good purpose or surrender it to the Public, will ulti- mately force him to make the best use of the ten acres of land at his disposal. IX WOOD "\T7OOD, like land, is one of the natural resources of the Earth. It should, therefore, be under the direct control of the State, and its distribution regulated by practically the same natural law as that which governs the land. The State should appoint the officials whose duty it is to attend to the preservation of the forests, to oversee the felling of the trees required by the public demand for timber, and to control also the distribu- tion of that timber. The State also appoints its officials in every city, town, and rural district where they are required to receive the timber, and to control its distribution to the Public. Not a tree within the radius of the public forestries, or on unoccupied land, can be bought or sold, or dis- posed of for remuneration by the individual unless it is felled by order of the State; and for felling the trees the State should employ laborers, paying them, "3 ii 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT as it does its laborers to-day, according to the current rate of wages. The State, therefore, assumes the responsibility of preserving the forests, felling trees, transporting tim- ber in its rough state, and distributing it after it has reached its destination. The trees, like the land, are free to all. The price paid the State for them is not for the trees, which cost nothing, but merely the actual cost of maintain- ing the forestry service and of distributing the timber. This point must be kept clearly in view: The cost of timber acquired after this manner is in no sense a revenue on wood, which would be unlawful, but is merely the actual or minimum expense entailed on the State by its production, preservation, and de- livery to the Public; a price fully one hundred per cent cheaper than that exacted to-day from the con- sumer who is obliged to pay the profits demanded by the owners of forests, and lumbermen, railroads,* and middlemen. It would be impossible to place wood within the reach of the Public at less expense. The State assumes no other responsibilities in re- * The railroads, like certain other public utilities, shall be owned and operated by the State, to the discussion of which a special chapter shall be devoted. WOOD 115 gard to wood than those already mentioned. All ad- ditional expense entailed by its removal from the State depots, or public wood-yards, as well as the cost of cutting and sawing it, &c., must be borne by the individual. The individual may ask any price he chooses for cutting and sawing such timber, for the prepared lum- ber itself, and for any articles manufactured from wood. It is only timber in the rough state which has been obtained from the Public Forestries that the individual is debarred from selling, bartering, or exchanging for something else. It thus becomes apparent that only those who pos- sess sufficient means for obtaining timber to sell again in the shape of lumber or other manufactured articles can acquire it of the State for such purposes. Those who are unable to pay the price demanded by the State cannot obtain a foot of timber to dispose of to others for money or any other form of compensa- tion. Everyone, however, is entitled to enough timber to supply his immediate and actual wants for fuel and for the construction of his dwelling, &c. ; this portion belonging to him by natural right or law as truly as does his free allotment of land. If he is too poor to purchase it from the State, he ii6 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT should be allowed to cut the timber himself from a public forestry, furnishing his own instruments for the purpose. And it will be the duty of the forest officials to see that he takes no more timber than he actually requires. When once he has cut the timber, he must carry it away as best he can, and he must also erect his dwelling, &c., without employing the help of anyone else. His friends may assist him in the work if they see fit, but such help must be given without remunera- tion, after the custom of primitive communities whose members voluntarily assist one another in the con- struction of their houses. Once this free portion of wood has been allowed the individual, he must henceforth obtain it from the State in the same manner as does his neighbor, or else go without. So much wood is free to the individual no more. Naturally this law of free heritage, the pioneer's and the frontiersman's right, can be of practical value only to those living in the immediate vicinity of a public forest. It goes without saying that trees, like everything else raised and produced on and from individual allotments of land, may be disposed of as their owners see fit. WOOD 117 With such conditions prevailing, no one would be able to monopolize a forest at the expense of the Public, while the absolute justice resulting from such an impartial distribution of timber is so evident, it is unnecessary to emphasize the fact that only those really desiring the privilege of felling their free allot- ment of trees would apply for it. The State, moreover, should discourage all unnec- essary use of timber by requiring the individual to use substitutes for it whenever possible. Thus, for example, stone, bricks, plaster, cement, and adobe are to be had in almost every part of the world as easily and cheaply as wood. These ma- terials, therefore, should, as far as possible, be sub- stituted for wood in the construction of houses. In like manner metal poles should be employed instead of wooden ones in carrying telephone and telegraph wires across country, while in cities those wires should be placed underground. Railroad ties should be of metal. Tanning and wood-pulp industries should be permitted to use only wood grown on individual allotments of land, to- gether with the waste products of public timber. X FORESTRY men realize the value of forests. " Our civilization is built on wood. From the cradle to the coffin, in some shape or other, it sur- rounds us as a convenience or a necessity. u It enters into nearly all our structures as an es- sential part. Over half our people live in wooden houses, and the houses of the other half require wood as an indispensable part in their construction. " It serves to ornament them, to furnish them with conveniences, to warm them, to cook the food. . . . The forest furnishes the cooperage to market our vintage, to store our flour and fruit. " The forest furnishes the plow-handle and the harrow-frame to cultivate, the threshing-machine and windmill to prepare the crops, the cart to bring them to market, the bottoms in which they cross the ocean to foreign marts, and even the tar and pitch needed to keep the cargo safe. " We are rocked in wooden cradles, play with 118 FORESTRY 119 wooden toys, sit on wooden chairs and benches, eat from wooden tables, use wooden desks, chests, trunks, are entertained by music from wooden instruments, enlightened by information printed on wooden paper with black ink made from wood. . . . Every pound of iron, every ounce of gold, requires wood in its mining, wood in its manufacture, wood in its trans- portation. ' There is hardly a utensil, a tool, or even a ma- chine, in the construction of which wood has not played a part, were it only to furnish the handle or the mold or pattern." * Many trees of the tropical and temperate zones yield tannin. Says Julia E. Rogers, in " The Tree Book " : " Among the products of native trees the nuts are important. Their food value is coming to be appreciated at home and abroad. The hickories include the pecan and two shagbarks, both nuts of commercial value. " Walnuts and chestnuts are secondary. Beech and acorn mast fatten hogs and furnish a living to innumerable birds and wild game, as also do berries, plums, and other tree fruits. Flowers of locust and basswood, plum, and cherry pasture honey bees. So *" Economics of Forestry": Professor Bernhard E. Fernow. 120 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT do many trees of less conspicuous inflorescence. Gums of balsam fir and other conifers, sweet gum and wax myrtle, berries of buckthorns, wild cherry and holly, roots of sassafras, twigs of witch-hazel, all yield drugs. " Our Southern silva furnishes valuable dyewoods. Sugar from the sap of maples forms an important and delicious food product. In the Old World and in the tropics are trees whose great value to the hu- man race is suggested by the mere mention of their names. The cinchona tree yields quinine from its bark. The juice of certain trees hardens into rubber. Lacquer varnish is the juice of a sumach in Japan. . . . Nutmeg and mace and cloves and all-spice grow on trees in tropical countries. The palms feed, clothe, and house people. It is an endless story the useful products of trees, cultivated and growing wild on the Earth. The tropical woods are full of undis- covered possibilities. Our own rich forest flora has but begun to show its value to man." Besides contributing in all ways to the service of man, forests create and maintain the climatic condi- tions most favorable to his existence. Trees cast a grateful shade, form windbreaks against hot and cold winds, and prevent the shifting of the soil. FORESTRY 121 The roots of trees are rock-breakers. They shat- ter even ledges of granite, and thus in the process of the years crumble rock into soil. Trees on hillsides and mountains prevent the flooding of valleys. They extract poisonous gases from the air, their leaves form soil. Waste land, swamps, and semi-arid regions may be reclaimed through the agency of trees. The supreme beauty and significance of trees in a landscape have from the earliest ages deeply influ- enced the minds of men. The Greeks humanized the forests, peopling them with dryads and hamadryads, exquisite creatures of the moonlight and the mist, who guarded each chosen tree and perished with it. So did also, in a measure, the inhabitants of ancient India, China, and Japan. The ancient Druids, Teutons, Celts, and Norse- men worshiped the oak, pine, and mistletoe, express- ing their veneration in secret rite and solemn cere- mony. The myths and songs, the legends and poems of all primitive peoples repeat over and over in vari- ous forms the veneration with which solemn wood- lands were regarded, a purifying emotion which we moderns share in varying degrees and after our mod- ern fashion. It should be the first object of every country to renew, increase, and conserve its forests. A treeless 122 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT land means a desert; the greatest calamity that can befall a people. In the same ratio that the forests disappear, the waters of a land diminish. Every tree is a perennial spring, small though the quantity of water may be which each one represents. Trees are not only the fountainheads or sources of springs and streams, but also the medium through which soil can be retained on sloping and precipitous ground. Mountains that have been denuded of their forests lose their soil. It is washed down into the valleys; the rains gradually diminish or cease altogether in such localities; the mountain sides become barren, hot rock reflectors whose intense heat renders the valleys in turn arid and non-productive. It is also a well-established scientific fact that where forests decrease, tornadoes increase. Without forests there can be little or no sources for irrigation in a land. 4 There are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Greece," says Mr. G. P. Marsh, " and even of Alpine Europe, where the operation of causes set in action by man has brought the face of the Earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon; and though, within that brief space of time FORESTRY 123 men call the historical period, they are known to have been covered with luxuriant woods, verdant pastures, and fertile meadows. . . . The destructive changes occasioned by the agency of man upon the flanks of the Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, and other mountain ranges in central and southern Europe, and the progress of physical deterioration, have become so rapid that, in some localities, a single generation has witnessed the beginning and the end of the melan- choly revolution. " It is certain that a desolation like that which has overwhelmed many once beautiful and fertile regions of Europe awaits an important part of the territory of the United States, unless prompt measures are taken to check the action of destructive causes already in operation." The reclamation through irrigation of the vast areas of arid land in the United States will be im- possible unless forests are re-established and per- manently maintained on its mountains and in all localities and districts throughout the country which are the head-waters or sources of its springs and streams. A permanent system of forestry should be estab- lished and maintained by the State, like that, for i2 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT example, which is maintained by the German Empire to-day. A quarter of the Empire of Germany is covered with forests whose cost of maintenance is met in great part by the mere thinnings and prunings of the grow- ing woodlands. For more than a thousand years the city of Zurich in Switzerland has owned a forest which has been so carefully tended that it has sup- plied a definite amount of lumber each year through- out the centuries, and yet it is in better condition to-day than when it was originally placed under a definite system of forestry. The highroads of the country, the courses of rivers and streams, and the margins of lakes and other bodies of water, natural and artificial, belonging to the State, should be lined with trees, while large areas of the plains and prairie-lands should be con- verted into forests. Artesian wells should be sunk wherever possible in arid districts; reservoirs and artificial lakes should be constructed by damming mountain gorges and natural water basins of the plains, thus catching and preserving the incalculable quantities of snow and rain water which are annually lost and wasted, owing to the lack of such storage basins. A beginning has already been made in this direc- FORESTRY 125 tion by the United States Government, but only a beginning. By such a systematic increase and preservation of the forests and by the storage of waters, the percent- age of moisture will be increased and more equally distributed throughout the length and breadth of the land. The vast arid regions of the country will be conquered, and the desert compelled to blossom with fruit and grain. The people of the United States cannot act too quickly in the matter of the preservation and the increase of their forests. " A third of this country was originally covered with what were, all in all, the most magnificent for- ests of the globe a million square miles of timber land. In the short time, as time counts in the life of nations, that we have been here, we have all but reached the end of them. " We have thought it unimportant until lately that we have been destroying by fire as much timber as we have used. But we have now reached the point where the growth of our forests is but one-third of the annual cut, while we have in store timber enough for only twenty years at our present rate of use. This wonderful development, which would have been im- 126 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT possible without the cutting of the forests, has brought us where we really face their absolute ex- haustion within the present generation. ... A tim- ber famine will touch every man, woman, and child in all the land; it will affect the daily life of every one of us; and yet without consideration, without fore- cast, and without foresight, we have placed ourselves in a position where a timber famine is one of the in- evitable events of our near future. " Canada cannot supply us, for she will need her timber herself. Siberia cannot supply us, for the tim- ber is too far from water transportation. South America cannot supply us, because the timbers of that vast continent are of a different character from those we use, and ill adapted to our needs. ' We must suffer because we have carelessly wasted this great condition of success. . . . Forest de- struction means far more than the mere loss of wood. . . . With the denudation of the forests the rain- fall, instead of being taken up by the earth and turned out again in perennial springs, rushes away to the sea, carrying millions of wealth before it. ... The soil which is washed from the surface of our farms every year to the amount of a billion tons, making, with the further loss of fertilizing elements carried away in solution, the heaviest tax the farmer has to FORESTRY 127 pay, may in the course of centuries be replaced by the chemical disintegration of the rock; but it is de- cidedly wiser to keep what we have by careful methods of cultivation. " We may very profitably stop putting our farms into our streams, to be dug out at great expense through river and harbor appropriations. Fertile soil is not wanted in the bed of a stream, and it is wanted on the surface of the soil of the farms and the forest-covered slopes of the mountains; yet we spend millions upon millions of dollars every year removing from our rivers what ought never to have got into them." * " Experts tell us that, aside from Alaska, the present forest remnants of the United States contain only about 1,300 billion feet of timber, broad meas- ure, which is less than seventeen times our annual consumption. From 1890 to 1900 the lumber busi- ness of the country increased 94 per cent. ... If the increase from 1900 to 1910 be anything nearly as great, where shall we be in 1920? Unless some- thing radical is done, and done at once, this nation will soon be at the summer solstice of its civilization. * An address to the National Geographic Society, January 31, 1908, by Gifford Pinchot. 128 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT " Nations die with their forests. The experience of the world goes to show that no civilized nation can live without timber. "Where are Phoenicia, Assyria, and Babylonia? One by one they sank with the setting shadows of their disappearing forests. As the forests were swept from the basins and water-sheds of the Tigris and Euphrates, the sands of the deserts were carried by the winds over the valleys, while the soil of the hills was swept by floods to the Arabian Sea. So too, Palestine and northern Africa were destroyed by de- forestation and erosion." * The same fate which overwhelmed the Ancients, and which is to-day overtaking Italy and Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, and vast areas of India and China, will overtake us also very shortly if the wan- ton devastation of our forests does not cease imme- diately. " In the home of the fir, the spruce, and the cedar, the song of the ax, the saw, and the hammer begins with the dawn and rests only with the close of the day. Go where you will, the crop of the centuries is * Professor W. G. M. Stone, President of the Colorado State Forestry Association. FORESTRY 129 being harvested. With each breath a monarch of the forest falls. " Engines whistle to engines, as the huge trunks of these noble trees are dragged to the water or to the railroad; the locomotive whistles to the mill, as it comes with long trains of the wealth of our forests; and the mill whistles back to the locomotive, as its saws sing while they work; steamers for coastwise and trains for eastern markets whistle back to the mill, as they hasten for its product; the deep-loaded ship spreads its sail, and the winds waft our lumber to the four corners of the Earth. . . . But is there no other note in the song? Do these people e^er think? 4 They are leaving nearly half of the crop in the woods to be burned, and burning, destroy more ; and for the half they are marketing they are obtaining no proper equivalent. They are leaving the ground a desolate, fire-swept waste, where fire will follow fire, until all things valuable have been destroyed. They are taking to themselves the whole of the heritage in- trusted to them, and in return are not even scattering a few seeds for the benefit of their children. ' They are vandals, but no law can reach them. They would be adjudged insane, except for the neces- sity which governs. The sacred right of property is 130 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT theirs, and they can do what they will with their own." * It has been noted in South America that clouds generally hang over forest lands. Thus in regions of the Cordilleras heavy clouds may frequently be seen, pouring their rain upon the forests beneath them, while over the neighboring agricultural lands the sky is blue and the sun is shining. The same phenomenon may be witnessed any time during the summer months in the semi-arid regions of our Western country. The great trees of the forest, for example, those of the Pacific slope, should not be cut down until actual decay renders such action imperative. They are the guardians, the well-springs, the life-givers of the forest, creating and preserving the greater quan- tities of water and moisture necessary to sustain the younger growth of trees. A comparison of the continent of North America as it is now, with the North America of the early explorers, covered with magnificent forests unsur- passed in the history of the planet, proves conclusively that the White Man and his modern inventions are * Colonel George H. Emerson, Vice-President Northwestern Lum- ber Company, Washington. American Forest Congress, 1905. FORESTRY 131 most destructive agents of natural conditions and of true civilization. Much unnecessary loss of timber is caused annu- ally by forest fires. Careless or malicious people are undoubtedly responsible for some of these conflagra- tions, but the greater number of them are directly due to sparks from railroad engines. The Public should insist that the railroads guard against such destruction. As far as possible, metals and other materials should be used in place of wood, since the chief value of the forests is for preserving moisture, conserving the fertility of the soil, and supplying man with wood for natural uses. XI WATER OTNCE water is as essential to man as the air he breathes, the individual should not be permitted to exploit it for commercial purposes. Like all the other natural resources of the Earth it should be declared free to all, whatever the pur- poses for which it may be employed. The State and Communities should control and dispose of all waters, gathering and transmitting them by means of aqueducts and canals erected and maintained through the medium of taxation for the purposes of irrigation, the supplying of towns and cities, &c. All special waters of whatever nature used for bathing, drinking, medicinal purposes, &c., should be under the direct supervision of the State; those making use of them being charged merely the nominal price which it costs to maintain establish- ments in connection with such waters, or for gather- ing or bottling and transporting them. 132 WATER 133 Those who wish to drink of and bathe in such waters without paying for such privileges demanded by the State, must go to them, drink of them and bathe in them as best they can. The individual cannot make use of or control the power obtained from natural bodies of water, or artificial bodies of water under State or Communal control. Only the State or Community should be allowed to use and control it for the common good. All acqueducts, reservoirs, canals, &c., built for the purposes of irrigation and the reclamation of arid lands, or used as highways of commerce, must be erected and controlled by the State. All systems supplying cities and other communities with water must be constructed and maintained by those com- munities. All such institutions must be self-sustaining and non-moneymaking institutions, the consumer being charged only the exact rate per cent it costs the State or Community to maintain them. Communities, farms, railroads, factories, and other establishments, wharfs and landing places used for shipping purposes excepted, should not be allowed to encroach on the immediate shores of streams or other bodies of water. Any establishment, however, which is erected and maintained by the State or Community 134 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT for the benefit of the Public may thus encroach upon the water. This prohibitive law would not only prevent the monopolization of any such bodies of water by the individual, but would also create what Nature origi- nally designed a neutral zone or highway, free and accessible to the Public. This is man's right by natural law; all natural bodies of water being the natural reservoirs and high- ways of a land. Since pure water is as essential to man as pure air, the contaminations of waters should be prohibited by the State. Most waters throughout the world to-day are so contaminated with refuse matter that it is almost certain death to drink of them. The freeing and purifying of Nature's highways and reservoirs, the springs, streams, and lakes, is in- dispensable to natural conditions. Towns and cities, factories, vessels, &c., must de- vise other means of disposing of their sewage and refuse matter than through the medium of streams and other bodies of water. The sewage of communities should either be col- lected in a common reservoir to be destroyed, or every house should be equipped with a special furnace WATER 135 for receiving all sewage and refuse matter, and de- stroying it daily by the mechanical means of fire or electricity. All vessels should be equipped with similar fur- naces. Such contrivances are simple enough; they should have been adopted long ago. ICE Ice, like water, being a natural product of the Earth, it should be equally free to all, and if obtained from natural bodies of water, or artificial bodies of water under State or Communal control, it should not be sold. The individual should be allowed to cut it freely from all such bodies of water for himself or for others; but the person who gathers ice for others receives merely the price they are willing to pay him for his labor with no remuneration for the ice itself. Anyone wishing to create an artificial pond on his lawful portion of land for the sake of the ice which he may obtain from it during the winter to sell to the Public, may do so. In all such cases, the owner may dispose of his ice for the highest price he can get for it in the market, just as he would sell any other products obtained from his land. 136 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT The State places no further restrictions upon the gathering of ice from natural bodies of water, or from artificial bodies of water under State or Com- munal control, than that of preventing individuals from monopolizing the supply. NATURAL GAS Since natural gas is available only in the locality or immediate vicinity where it is found, it should not be controlled by the State, but by the Community where it exists. Its supply cannot be exploited or controlled by the individual, but only by the Community for the Com- munal good. XII MINERALS / ~T~ S HE baser metals and minerals should be distrib- uted after the same manner as wood; but for the distribution of gold, silver, platinum, and other precious and semi-precious metals and minerals, a spe- cial method must be employed. Were it not for the fact that gold and silver are used as a circulating medium called money, and that man holds all other precious and semi-precious metals and minerals at a premium, their distribution might be effected in the same manner as that of all other natural products of the Earth. The assumption by man that they should be held at a premium is, of course, not justifiable. They should, in reality, be as free to all as are any other of the Earth's natural resources. But since the facts are as they are, and since the values placed upon them are purely fictitious and not in any sense intrinsic, it follows that, In order to control their supply, the State must dispose of them at the highest price they will bring in their rough state. 137 i 3 8 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Only the absolute necessities of life, such as land, water, wood, iron, &c., possess an intrinsic value. Nothing else viewed from a material standpoint has a value in itself. It is only the imaginative value we place upon a thing which raises it in our estima- tion. Gold as a substance possesses no more value than coal or iron. The beauty of gold as a metal is supreme, its utility but limited; while as regards its real worth or usefulness, a single bar of steel or a well-seasoned beam of oak is of more value to man- kind than a mountain of pure gold. But so long as men continue to place a fictitious value upon gold and all other precious and semi-precious metals and minerals, just so long should they continue to pay for the extravagance of their fancies, and procure them from the State only at the full market price they command in their natural condition. With this exception, their distribution should be the same as that of the other natural products of the Earth. All mineral deposits found on land already occu- pied by individuals, if they are in sufficient quantities to warrant their development, must be surrendered to the State. Other land should be provided for all such persons, and full compensation made them MINERALS 139 for any losses they may sustain in thus surrendering their land. Whenever necessary, the State should offer a lib- eral bonus for the discovery of new mineral deposits in sufficient quantities to warrant their develop- ment. Naturally these general laws concerning the dis- tribution and control of minerals apply only to such deposits as will reimburse the State for the expense entailed to work them for the convenience of the Public. Once the individual has obtained the raw product from the State, and has smelted it, or had it smelted by others, he may dispose of the metal or refined product as he pleases. He may turn it to such use as is necessary to supply his wants, or he may sell or barter it. The statement that he may sell or barter it may appear at first glance to contradict the preceding argu- ment; but that is not the case. The minerals are a part of man's birthright. He cannot buy, sell, rent, or tax them in their rough state. He may, however, dispose of metals and other min- erals after he has smelted or refined them from his free portion of minerals, just as he is permitted to dis- pose of the agricultural products which his portion i 4 o MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT of land yields him, or the bricks, crockery, tiles, &c., made from the clay of that land. The minimum price demanded by the State for minerals would practically mean free access for the individual to them, and would in turn have the direct result of reviving the hand-industries in connection with metallurgy, the craft of gold and silver smith- ing, and the work of artificers in iron, copper, brass, &c. As for mineral deposits not worked by the State, any person living in the vicinity of such deposits may take his lawful portion of minerals from them as freely as he supplies himself with his lawful portion of wood. But he cannot monopolize the deposits, nor can he sell or otherwise dispose of the raw prod- ucts. For example an individual without means who wishes coal and knows where to find it, is privileged to take enough to supply his immediate wants. Again, if he wants his free portion of minerals of whatever nature, from iron to gold, he must dig it, smelt or refine it himself without the assistance of anyone. Or, should anyone wish to follow the vocation of collecting precious and semi-precious minerals, he may do so. In which event, he can make use only MINERALS 141 of hand implements, and cannot accept or employ the aid of anyone else in connection with his work. And all minerals gathered after such manner cannot be disposed of in their rough state unless in the form of nuggets and stones. The individual may, therefore, dispose of the baser minerals which he has dug, in their refined state if he himself refines them. The precious and semi- precious minerals he can only dispose of in their rough state if found in the form of stones and nuggets, and dust or flakes. The amount of gold found in nuggets, panned and washed from the soil and streams with hand imple- ments, precious and semi-precious stones collected, or the amount of ore dug and smelted by a single person in a kiln of his own, would be infinitesimally small in proportion to the amount obtained from the State by the general Public. It would in no wise, as might at first be supposed, seriously affect general trade or industry carried for- ward through the medium of minerals obtained from the State. And this for two very good reasons. The individual could not control and hold as his own any mineral deposits from which he obtained his free portion of minerals, because they are as free to all others as to him. i 4 2 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT And secondly, practically only those living in the vicinity of unutilized deposits would make use of the privilege of exploiting their free portion of minerals. The position of all such persons would be practically the same as that of the individual who desired his free portion of wood. Besides, the more individuals assumed the respon- sibility of procuring their own free portion of min- erals without monopolizing the deposits, the better it would be, and the less the State would be burdened with the supervision of the same. One other consid- eration should not be lost sight of in discussing the use of wood and minerals; namely, the amount which may legitimately be placed at the individual's dis- posal for the purposes of trade and industry. The more commercialized man becomes, the more prodigal and wasteful he is with the Earth's natural resources. Nature places at his disposal wood and minerals enough to meet the requirements of a simple normal life. If the individual uses these resources for the exploitation of his commercial interests be- yond the amount required for the normal life of man, the supply must inevitably be exhausted; a fact which is already becoming apparent to man, owing to his present wastefulness and extravagance. Like the land, wood and minerals were originally MINERALS 143 designed for the nourishment of man, not for the exploitation of commercial enterprises beyond the simple necessities of life. All indications go to show that the Earth has reached the zenith of her development. That from now on, each day heralds that fate, remote though it may be, which must inevitably overtake her: the physical conditions existing on the Moon to-day. Therefore, the highest duty which man owes his race is to husband to the utmost the Earth's natural resources. XIII CONTROL OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE EARTH'S NATURAL RESOURCES /^ RANTING the distribution of the Earth's nat- ural resources in the manner here set forth to be fair and rational, the question naturally arises: How can the supply of these various raw products be so controlled that those possessing great wealth may not be able to monopolize them? The method is simple enough. Take the coal supply, for example. The output of coal mines being limited by their working capacity, the management of a mine or mines can pledge itself to supply only such orders in the aggregate as the annual output will warrant. This being so, the management through its various agents should accept advance orders only for such an amount of coal as equals the monthly production of the mines. If this monthly production of the mines, or the monthly supply of coal on hand at the State depots, 144 CONTROL OF EARTH'S RESOURCES 145 covers the full amount of coal represented in the applications of those desiring it, their demands should be satisfied in full. If, however, the supply proves insufficient, the agent of the State should allow each applicant only a proportionate amount of the entire supply according to his order. A demand for one or for a thousand tons of coal could thus be met at one and the same time, whether in whole or proportionally in part, according to the annual production of the mines. This same method should be applied to the dis- tribution of all other natural resources of the Earth, land, of course, excepted. Under such circumstances the monopolization by the individual of the Earth's natural resources, no matter how great his wealth, would be impossible. It will be seen that the amounts of raw products ordered by the individual would be a matter of record, and that, therefore, if anyone appeared to be ordering greater quantities of such products than were required by the legitimate and actual demands of his profession or business, it would be easy for the State officials to investigate the matter. A further advantage resulting from the State con- trolling in such fashion the distribution of the Earth's natural resources, would lie in the fact that no branch i 4 6 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT of trade or industry could monopolize the raw sup- ply to the. detriment of the general Public, should a shortage occur in any such products. The natural resources of the Earth were designed for all the People, not for any special groups of individuals engaged in particular industries. Under such a system as has been described the State would be obliged to safeguard this natural right of the People. The State should be empowered, upon the consent of the majority of the People, to appropriate ade- quate sums from the National Treasury whenever required for the development of forests, mines, &c., and for the construction of public utilities; but it may not acquire a penny's worth of revenue from the control of the Earth's natural resources or from public utilities. Otherwise, the State itself would become a tyrannical monopolist. The national revenues should be raised through the medium of voluntary taxation on the part of the People, not by the unlawful method of bartering away the Earth's natural resources, which cannot be bought, sold, taxed, or rented. As already stated, all public utilities and institu- tions, as well as the control and distribution of the Earth's natural resources, must be maintained at a minimum cost. CONTROL OF EARTH'S RESOURCES 147 Naturally the guarding and preservation of the Earth's natural resources would require the strictest vigilance on the part of the State. All persons found guilty of monopolizing or de- stroying the Earth's natural resources, or of con- taminating or polluting waters, should be punished with a fine or imprisonment or both for a first offense, with the confiscation of their entire personal property, and imprisonment for a second offense, and with death for a third offense. The penalties inflicted upon all such transgressors of the law should be severe, for the reason that he who robs man of his birthright, by that very act proves himself an enemy to society and to the human race. XIV PUBLIC UTILITIES A LL public utilities, such as railroads and canals, with the express, telegraph, and telephone sys- tems which, like the postal service, have become con- venient and necessary means of communication and transportation, should be owned and controlled by the State. They should be thus owned and controlled for two reasons. First: because of the magnitude of their operation which would require more ground space than any individual could hold, and second: because, as all experience teaches, such institutions, when left in the hands of private individuals, inevitably become excessive forms of monopoly. In like manner the water-works and lighting plants of towns and cities, together with all other merely local public utilities, should be owned and controlled by the Communities which they serve. State or Municipal ownership of these various utili- ties has already been adopted to a limited extent in 148 PUBLIC UTILITIES 149 different parts of the world. They have been man- aged, however, not for the benefit of the Public, but merely as sources of revenue for the State or Com- munity. If the Public is to derive from the Communal ownership of such institutions the full benefit to which it is entitled, the State or Municipality should charge merely such rates as will enable these public utilities to be equipped and maintained in the most complete and serviceable manner. Otherwise they would as- sume the form of monopolies, and the State and Municipal monopoly of a public utility is hardly more desirable than the private monopoly. Were these institutions treated as mediums of public convenience only, the necessary means of com- munication and transportation could be secured by the Public at a minimum expense. The railroads, for example, could deliver to the consumer all raw and refined products of the Earth, as well as all other articles of trade and commerce, at much lower rates than would be possible if the roads were maintained by the State for the purpose of obtaining revenue. There can be no question regarding the justice of this argument. Railroads have become as much pub- lic necessities as the highroads of a country, and 150 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT should, therefore, be no more regarded as sources of revenue than the latter. The maintenance of railroads, &c., as simple me- diums of public convenience, dependent entirely upon public patronage for their support, would free the Public of any unnecessary burden or expense con- nected with their management. They would stand or fall according as the Public patronized or neg- lected them. The object of this work is to show how easily man may create and maintain for himself a natural earthly condition, entirely self-sustaining and independent of all complicated inventions, provided he possesses the simple implements necessary to clothe and nourish himself. When once such natural conditions prevail, the present overcrowded centers of population, trade, and commerce, will become decentralized, and the popula- tion will be more equally distributed throughout the country. Large cities will be reduced to normal size, and towns and villages will increase in number. Owing to this normal distribution of population and the resulting centralization of communities, the markets for both agricultural products and manufac- tured articles will lie nearer their sources of pro- duction; and, as a consequence, the highroads of PUBLIC UTILITIES 151 the country will assume greater importance and use- fulness as natural mediums of communication and transportation, while the railroads will be used chiefly by travelers, for carrying the mails, and all products requiring swift transportation, and for long distance freight hauls. XV WILD ANIMALS /"\NE of the surest signs of a nation's decay is the wanton destruction of its eagles, for with them perish the ideals which the eagle has symbolized through all the centuries of recorded history. " The world," says Kipling, " will be ghastly and unpicturesque if ever man succeeds in being the only beast left to range up and down the planet." Yet that day is not far remote unless an end is speedily put to the present reckless destruction of animal life by fur companies, sportsmen, and game-dealers. Only those who have journeyed from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, or from the Mexican border to the Saskatchewan River during the early days of our civilization can realize the high carnival of slaughter which has been directed against the wild animals of the North American continent during the last century. Where are the deer, elk, buffalo, antelope, moun- tain-sheep, and wild horses which once roamed the mountains and prairies in countless numbers? Where 152 WILD ANIMALS 153 are the martin, mink, beaver, and otter which in- habited the forests and streams? Where are the grouse, quail, duck, geese, wild-swan, pigeon, and turkey which were once found in all parts of the land ? Thanks to commercial enterprise, to fur companies, and sportsmen, to " tourists and pistol-flourishing cowboys who emptied their Winchesters or Colts at a retreating herd for the fun of the thing, without even taking the trouble to go a step out of their way to put wounded beasts out of their misery," they have been reduced to the verge of extinction. Where once the presence and the voices of the wild flocks and herds enlivened the wilderness, the silence of death and wail of the wind now reign in their stead. Only game-dealers and those interested in the fur- trade know the actual number of wild animals that are annually killed for the markets. Their methods are so systematic that not a feather or a hair escapes them. They regularly employ thousands of men equipped with the latest improved weapons who fol- low the game constantly, even the migratory flight of birds, year in and year out, giving it no rest. " While it is true that in certain specially favored localities, such as Long Island Sound, Chesapeake 154 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Bay, and certain Southern waters, wild fowl still con- gregate in very large numbers, it is beyond question that in recent years their numbers have notably and painfully decreased in most localities, and over vast areas have all but disappeared. " In our Eastern and Middle States several species of ducks which once were common are now practically gone. Such are the blue-winged and green-winged teals, also shoveler, bald-pate, gadwall, buffle-head, ruddy, and wood-ducks. This last species is declared by the Department of Agriculture to be on the verge of extinction. " Within my own recollection several of these were common in Massachusetts in the fall flight; now the hunter can hardly find a flock or two during the en- tire season. In many inland localities where not very long ago there was good shooting, all the edible ducks have become so scarce that it is hardly worth while to hunt them. Men will wait for days in the best gunning-stands, hardly seeing a duck. "To keep our wild-fowl from further decrease; and better, to increase their abundance, it is vir- tually necessary so to regulate shooting that there shall always remain each spring a sufficient breeding stock to these wilderness ' nurseries,' certainly in no less numbers than the year before. WILD ANIMALS 155 ' Various restrictive measures which are now in force are none too many and are eminently neces- sary. But there are the best of reasons for believ- ing that the thing most emphatically needed at the present time is the absolute stopping of spring shoot- ing in all parts of the country . . . spring shooting adds a most destructive element. ' The birds become tamer and tamer as the breed- ing season approaches, and decoy more readily, so much so at times that I have known good sportsmen declare that it was no better than murder to shoot the poor love-lorn things. But this is the harvest time for the pot-hunter and the game-hog. " Moreover, if even one member of a pair be shot, it is believed by naturalists that the survivor is liable not to secure a mate; and so a pair is prevented from breeding, even by the killing of one bird."* The nature of this work and a lack of space alike forbid that any adequate record of the destruction of wild animal life should be recorded in these pages. But the following instances, all well authenticated, will serve to show something of the havoc that is being wrought. * Herbert K. Job, Country Life in America, Vol. IX, No. 6, April, 1906. 156 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT In the report of the American Ornithologist's Union, published some years ago, it was estimated that about five million birds were annually required to fill the demand for the ornamentation of the hats of American women. The slaughter is not confined to song birds; everything that wears feathers is a target for the bird butcher. "The destruction of 40,000 terns in a single season on Cape Cod for exportation, a million rail and reed birds (bobolinks) killed in a single month near Philadelphia, are facts that may well furnish food for reflection." * " About 10,000 deer, 200 moose, and countless birds and small animals were killed in Maine in the season that ended at midnight Tuesday, December 15, 1908," f The reports for 1909 are about the same. Reports show that 3,235 deer, moose, and cari- bou were killed during the open season of 1903 in Ontario, Canada. There are five thousand men annually engaged in seal hunting in the North Atlantic off the coasts of * Report of the American Ornithologist's Union, t " Bangor, Me. Special Despatch to New York Herald, Decem- ber 17, 1908. WILD ANIMALS 157 Newfoundland and Labrador. The catch averages from 250,000 to 300,000 seals annually. " The seal herd of the Pribiloff Islands, which numbered approximately 4,700,000 in 1874, has been reduced to 224,000.* ' The chief special agent of the Department of Commerce and Labor confesses that the startling loss of 58 per cent of virile male life since 1904 on the breeding grounds of this fur seal herd is so great as to threaten the existence of the species itself." The salmon of the Pacific Coast is also surely doomed to extinction owing to the salmon canning industries and the methods employed in catching this noble fish. There are no less than five thousand boats em- ployed in catching salmon at the mouth of the Co- lumbia River alone during the height of the season, and these boats represent so many great seine nets spread across the mouth of the river, barring ingress to the fish which, before the days of the canning industry, ascended the river some 1,200 to 1,300 miles to their spawning grounds, to the source of the river at Upper Columbia Lake. * Mr. W. G. FitzGerald in the Technical World Magazine, January, 1908, places the number at about 180,000. 158 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Immense quantities of salmon are annually caught in these nets, but the wholesale destruction of the fish does not cease at the mouth of the Columbia. The greater number of the fish that escape the nets fall victims to the innumerable traps or salmon-wheels which ensnare them on their way up the river to their natural spawning grounds. In 1905 thirty-five million fish were shipped from Alaska. When to this wholesale destruction is added the immense catches of the Columbia River and other Pacific salmonries, it is evident that unless means are taken to restock the rivers, the salmon supply will soon be exhausted. Mr. W. G. FitzGerald estimates the annual fur production of the world at $25,000,000. " Consid- ering the untold millions of skins taken annually, one is apt to wonder whether the supply can be main- tained? True, the buffalo as a fur yielder has gone, and the beaver is practically extinct. The sea otter, too, that once yielded 100,000 pelts every year, has now dwindled to a few hundreds (400). And the fur seal is fast on its way to extinction. . . . The swamps of New Jersey and Delaware alone yield three million muskrats in a fairly dry season." Every year are taken from the woods of Maine "over 200 bears; 300 loups-cerviers; 700 otters; WILD ANIMALS 159 2,000 fisher cats; 50,000 foxes; 75,000 skunks, and hundreds of thousands of muskrats. " In one season there will come on the market 260,- ooo English foxes; 300,000 Siberian; 625,000 Ger- man; 400,000 from Russia in Europe; 120,000 American red foxes, and some 60,000 Alaskan foxes of all varieties. " Over 600,000 nutria skins come to New York every year from Brazil alone " ; while " 700,000 mink are exported from Canada and the United States to European markets. ... Of raccoon, over half a million are sent from our Northwestern States to the London market. . . . Then comes the badger, wolverine, and opossum. In the case of the last named, we send another half million pelts to Europe annually. Muskrat, squirrel, and rabbit are sold literally in millions." * A formidable array of figures, and yet the voice of the People is not raised against the destruction of Nature's herds the Public's stock of wild animal life! Truly the White Man has been well styled the most savage and destructive of all sentient beings. *" Romance of the Fur Trade": W. G. FitzGerald. Technical World Magazine, January, 1908. 160 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT " Allow me to revel this day," he cries, " and pos- terity with all things else may perish." This reckless destruction of wild life brings, in many cases, still other evils in its train. Deer and elk are the greatest known destroyers of weeds, while owing to the slaughter of grouse, wild turkeys, sage-hens, and other birds, the crops and pastures of many of the Western States and Provinces of the United States and Canada are annually threat- ened with destruction by insects. " It is clearly established that a fruit-grower can- not expect to successfully combat insect rivals without the help of his winged allies. The more we improve our agricultural methods and reduce the land to gar- den crops, the more we stimulate the development of predatory insects. A recent writer says, ' We believe that not only is the success of our farmers dependent upon the help of birds, but we believe that without them man would have to vacate the land.' ' " The economic value of birds to man," says Mr. Frank M. Chapman, " lies in the service they render in preventing the undue increase of insects, in de- vouring small rodents, in destroying the seeds of *" Orchard and Fruit Garden": E. P. Powell, 1905. WILD ANIMALS 161 harmful plants, and in acting as scavengers. . . . While the chickadees, nuthatches, wood-peckers, and some other winter birds are ridding the trees of myriads of insects' eggs and larvae, the granivorous birds are reaping a crop of seeds, which, if left to germinate, would cause a heavy loss to our agricul- tural interests." " Sparrows are not the only birds that consume the seeds of weeds. The eastern quail, or bobwhite, is a confirmed eater of weed seeds. A bevy or two of quail on a farm is an asset the value of which no thrifty farmer should overlook. Doves also are seed eaters, especially the turtle-dove. . . . Many birds, as fly-catchers, warblers, swallows, and chimney- swifts, live exclusively, or almost so, on insects, and very many more, as blackbirds, orioles, and some hawks, depend on them for a considerable part of their livelihood. ' The little sparrow-hawk lives largely upon grass- hoppers, crickets, and beetles . . . the Swainson hawk destroys enough of these injurious insects, to- gether with small rodents, to save the Western farmer upwards of a hundred thousand dollars a year. . . . The popular idea regarding hawks and owls is that they are nothing but robbers and bold maurauders. 162 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT The fact is that the great majority of our hawks and owls are beneficial, and spend the greater part of their lives in killing small rodents, most of which are always and everywhere noxious." * Hawks, owls, crows, blackbirds, and jays, which have usually been counted among the farmer's ene- mies, have proved worthy of the wages they exact in corn and chickens by the services they render the agriculturist. The State of Pennsylvania awhile ago offered a bounty for the heads of owls and hawks because farmers complained of the loss of their chickens. Such quantities of these birds were killed that the field mice and other vermin which they had kept in check increased so rapidly that the State lost, through their depredations, upwards of four million dollars in a year and a half. The law was quickly repealed, but it will be years before the balance can be restored. A like plea may be made for the much abused cherry- bird, which has rescued whole villages from the elm worm plague and, in so doing, has certainly earned the right to a little fruit. " Differing widely as they do in structure and * Henry Wetherbee Henshaw: The National Geographic Maga- zine, February, 1908. WILD ANIMALS 163 habits, birds collectively are able in man's interests to police earth, air, and water. The thrushes and other ground-feeders scour the surface of the earth and hunt under leaves for hidden insects. The war- blers, titmice, nuthatches, creepers, and others search among the foliage and in the crevices of bark for all manner of creeping things. " The woodpeckers perform a service no other birds are equal to. " They dig into wood and drag forth the hidden larva? that prey on our forest monarchs. . . . The waters too and their shores have their feathered deni- zens which exact tribute of the insect world. So that, quite aside from questions of sentiment, birds must be adjudged to play an active and important part in keeping nature's balance true." Many of our leading entomologists estimate that insects and other vermin cause an annual loss of at least five hundred million dollars to the agricultural interests of the United States. This statement seems incredible, but it is based upon well authenticated statistics. Why, indeed, should the sight of wild creatures breed in man the lust to slaughter them? Man, too, is an animal, and they, like him, are 164 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT sentient beings, only different. They form a body politic, as truly as man does. They have their habits of life as man has his social scheme of existence. Their life is different from man's, but is as perfect in its way. ' They are our fellow-mortals. They are im- meshed in the same mighty process as we are. They came from the same source and are destined to the same end. They lived, moved, and breathed on primeval land fragments when the continents we creep over were asleep in the seas. They are our ancestry. They are the forms of being that have made you and me possible." It is a well-established fact that animals have added directly and indirectly more to the civilization of man than science or art. Without the domestication of the wild horse, ox, and dog, the camel, elephant, llama, buffalo, deer, the wild jungle fowl of India, and the bee and silkworm, man to-day would possess neither the advanced means of locomotion nor half his knowledge of agriculture and husbandry. Shall a handful of individuals styling themselves fur-traders, milliners, sportsmen, and game-dealers WILD ANIMALS 165 be permitted to exterminate within a few years that which it has taken Nature uncounted ages to bring forth through the process of natural growth or evo- lution ? Man will indeed do well to consider seriously this question. At the present time laws are enacted and clubs and societies are formed for the supposed pro- tection and propagation of game ; but in reality those laws are merely a means for enabling sportsmen and game-dealers to kill off the annual increase of wild animals. It is not proposed that man shall abstain altogether from killing wild animals, for argue as we may, life to sustain life must devour life. The existence of all phases of life from the lowest to the highest on the earth-plane depends on the mutual destruction of the one by the other, but not on their extermina- tion. In order, therefore, that man may still continue to hunt, and the different species of wild animals now existent be preserved, the following laws should be enacted and observed: All traffic in wild animals, birds, and fish, not caught in the sea, shall be forever prohibited by law. Only fish caught in the open sea shall be allowed i66 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT to be sold in the markets, since only such fish have a chance to escape extermination. Once they enter bays, rivers, lakes, or other land- locked waters they cannot be bought or sold, or bar- tered, or used for any commercial purposes what- ever, but like land animals are only for the personal use and consumption of those who catch them. Seal, walrus, sea-otter, or other fur-bearing animals inhabiting the sea must be protected like land animals. The law shall prohibit the use of nets, traps, or snares at or near the mouth of rivers emptying into the sea, lakes, or other rivers. Again, it shall be unlawful to kill or take fish or any other sea animals by means of fire-arms, auto- matic or air-guns, or missiles mechanically discharged from machines. Steamships or vessels impelled by motive powers other than those of wind or oars shall not be allowed to fish in any waters for commercial or other pur- poses. The modern steam trollers in use to-day ex- terminate the fish and deprive the fisherman who uses the sailing vessel of his living. Again, the use of shotguns, air guns, automatic and repeating guns shall be prohibited in the chase. Only the single-shot rifle (no silent guns), and primi- tive weapons shall be used. Neither shall individuals be allowed to catch fish or destroy any form of animal life for mere pleasure. Destroying wild animal life for pleasure is virtually the same as setting fire to a forest for the pleasure of seeing it burn. The true object of hunting and fishing for men who no longer live by the chase is not the game that is killed, but the benefits derived from the free life in the wilderness. They should, therefore, limit their destruction of wild animals to the amount necessary to supply their immediate wants in camp. So much Nature permits, it being in perfect accord with her universal and fundamental law, all life dependent upon life. But the wanton destruction of wild animals for mere pleasure or for traffic in them is an inglorious thing, unworthy of civilized man, and contrary to the law of life. The penalties imposed for violation of the game laws should be the same as those exacted for the transgression of any other laws governing the Earth's natural resources. Naturally there should be no pro- tection for venomous reptiles and skunks. Even the claim that people have a right to kill wild animals because they trespass on their fields and herds cannot be freely allowed. There is no law higher than that of self-preserva- i68 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT tion, and back of such a condition of affairs lies the undoubted fact that man has deprived wild animals of their natural food by driving them to the deserts and barren fastnesses of the mountains, and that, therefore, these wild creatures occupy the same posi- tion as does the man who, owing to unjust circum- stances, is forced to steal to save himself from star- vation. Nature takes no cognizance of the shallow laws and formulas invented by man to endow the indi- vidual with rights which enable him to live while his neighbor starves, thus placing that neighbor outside the pale of universal justice. Whenever the national welfare of a country is threatened by the invasion of an enemy, the State un- hesitatingly seizes both the citizen and his property if necessary for the public defense. So also when, owing to the monopolization of land and the destruction of natural food products, men or animals are deprived of their natural means of ex- istence, they are justified in taking their subsistence from those who possess it in exactly the same manner as an army takes from the citizen, whether with or without his consent, whatever is needed to supply its immediate wants. The national welfare is imperiled the existence WILD ANIMALS 169 of the State is at stake. Soldiers must have food to fight ; animals food to preserve the species. Wild animals cannot thrive properly without ex- tensive range. The deer, elk, buffalo, mountain sheep, and other wild animals which formerly sought their summer pasturage among the mountains, always descended to the foothills and plains at the approach of winter, thereby escaping the deep snows of the mountain ranges and the severe cold of the high alti- tudes. And it is because their winter pasturage is now occupied by ranchmen and farmers that so many of these creatures perish during seasons of long drought or in severe winters. The free range of wild animals which should form a part of the new order would minimize this evil. Furthermore the land should be restocked, not only with animals which formerly abounded in the various sections of the country, but also, when possible, with desirable species from foreign countries. Man may barter and sell any wild species which he raises on his own private preserves, but upon the wild animals at large he has no claim. They, like the land or man himself, form a part of the Earth's natural products and cannot be destroyed wantonly or monopolized by the individual. All rivers, streams, and lakes, and all artificial 170 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT bodies of water under State control, as well as moun- tains, forests, and free lands, should be fish and game preserves in which wild animals should be allowed to range at will. When man's birthright is restored to him, and wild animals are allowed plenty of free range in which to thrive and propagate, and are properly pro- tected by the law, their increase will be a hundredfold over that of to-day, and there will be an abundance of game for everyone so long as this planet is habit- able. XVI GOVERNMENT / ~|~ V HE North American Republic was believed by many, at the time of its establishment, to pre- sent the ideal earthly form of government, but time has shown that the very conditions from which the founders of the Republic sought to escape the tyranny and misrule of individuals have been brought about once more by the growth and misrule of wealth, and the formation of a plutocracy which is now riding roughshod over the Public. A condi- tion no better than that of social institutions founded upon a landed aristocracy whose hereditary rights were originally established upon the hereditary line- age of conquerors who seized the lands and main- tained their positions by force, distributing the com- munal lands among those who aided them. Already as far back as 1883, Mr. W. G. Moody * pointed out this menace to the State. * " Land and Labor." 172 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT " Within the last twenty years," he says, " we have taken immense strides in placing our country in the position in which Europe is found after a thousand years of feudal robbery and tyranny of capital with the lands concentrated in large tracts in the hands of the few, and cultivated by a people who are the slaves of the few. . . . The effects growing out of this state of things are of the most serious character and will inevitably bring upon our people the most ter- rible revolutionary conflict." The picture is merely reversed. The European aristocracy of heredity is no worse than the American aristocracy of wealth. In some respects, indeed, it is more desirable. The one holds by force that which its ancestry seized by force, the other holds by force all that money can purchase. Both represent the unbridled and unscrupulous misrule of power vested in the individual, and both are incompatible with the future development of the human race. The United States Government, like all other gov- ernments to-day, rests upon territory or property, not upon persons; upon the township as the unit of a political system, not upon the gens which is the unit of a social system. GOVERNMENT 173 A political organization which rests upon territory, not upon persons with the individual as the unit of its political system, cannot be otherwise sustained than through the power of an hereditary aristocracy or an aristocracy of wealth. The Constitution of the United States might indeed have been the greatest thing of its kind, as Glad- stone asserted, had not its framers committed the fatal error of vesting the will or power of the People in its body of National Representatives. Instead of establishing, as they thought, a govern- ment for the People and by the People, they in reality created merely a government for its Representatives and by its Representatives. The disastrous effects of thus vesting National Rep- resentatives with the supreme powers of the Nation are too evident to require illustration. All history, both past and present, shows that individuals, with but rare exceptions, prove themselves the world over unworthy and incapable of directing the affairs, or shaping the destinies of Nations. A People can commit no greater folly than that of permitting a handful of men, its Representatives, the majority of whom are swayed by every petty passion and ambition, fanatical and mercenary sentiment, to 174 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT settle questions of national importance the life or death of a Nation 1 Only a Nation itself should have the power to decide such questions by the direct vote of the Peo- ple; for or against such measures. The National, State, and Municipal Representatives of a country should be merely a presiding council with power to originate and mature public acts of national or com- munal importance, but the People only should have the power to give those acts vitality. The Representatives of a Nation may be empow- ered to mature and decide all measures of secondary importance, but those directly affecting the Public at large, of such magnitude, for example, as the declaration of war, the creation and increase of armies and navies, the creation of taxes and tariff- systems, the disposition of the public revenues, &c., should be decided by the People alone. The people of the United States have been living in a fool's paradise of imagined self-government long enough. It is high time they began to govern them- selves by stripping their National, State, and Muni- cipal Representatives of the supreme powers which they hold, and vesting those powers in themselves, the People. A State patterned after the present Republic, but GOVERNMENT 175 with direct government by the People substituted for representative government, and such communal ownership of the Earth's natural resources as is set forth in these pages, would be indeed a Government for the People and by the People ; a State worthy to serve as a proper medium for the creation of Democ- racy's ideal. XVII LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT FT is better to have no Government at all than a Government that is too weak to enforce the laws. It will be impossible in a work of this nature to give more than a slight outline of what the ideal Government (if we may employ the term), should be; but meager though it be, it will serve to point the way to the simplification of government, and to true Democracy. The least governed people are the best governed people, and there is no reason why all nations should not be governed by the simple laws of the primitive community. In fact, no nation is thoroughly civilized until it can dispense with the complicated and unnecessary machinery of modern Governments, and every man becomes a law unto himself, bearing the responsibili- ties of citizenship without other restraint than that which is necessitated by the observance of a few sim- ple laws. 176 LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT 177 1. True Democracy admits of no discrimination in persons. Women shall enjoy equal suffrage with men. 2. There shall be no authority in the land but that of the majority of the People; no court, no per- son, or number of persons not constituting a majority of the People shall interfere with the right of the People. 30. The People are everything the Law, the Government, the Supreme Court, the President, the Cabinet, the Congress, the Legislature, the City Council, the Mayor, the Police, &c., the power or machine that makes or abolishes at will all public acts, institutions, and offices. b. The approval or disapproval of any measure or policy by the majority of the People shall stand supreme, and there shall be no appeal from it. c. The decision of a judge or a jury, or of any tribunal in the land shall count for naught if at any time it meet with the disapproval of the majority of the People. d. The People create their entire Government, and direct it themselves from day to day. 40. There shall be no arbitrary enactment on laws. b. There shall be no laws on the Statute Books 178 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT that are not placed there by the wish and consent of the majority of the People. 5. The majority of the People shall have the power to place any law they wish upon their Statutes, or to instantly repeal and remove it if they so desire. 6. Any law that has been annulled with the ap- proval of the majority of the People shall become null and void in the same instant that the said major- ity of the People so decide, even before it has been removed from the Statutes. 70. No person shall be eligible to any public elec- toral office who has not been duly elected to that office by the majority of the People. b. Any person may present himself as a candidate for any public electoral office; but in order to be eligible to that office he must have received a majority of all the votes cast for that office at the election. The present dictation of party bosses will thus be eliminated. c. All chief National and State Representatives, and all Municipal or public officials shall be elected to office by the direct vote of the People. d. All public officials, excepting the President and National and State Representatives, shall main- tain their offices until the age limit of active service is reached. LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT 179 e. The holding or occupancy of a public office depends entirely upon the good behavior and efficiency of the individual. /. Any person shall be entitled to hold the office of the Presidency as often as the People elect him to said office. g. Only a native-born citizen can be elected to the office of the Presidency. 80. No person shall be permitted to hold or retain any public office whose position has been made by appointment by a public official if the majority of the People object to his incumbency of the said office. b. The People shall have the Power of Recall, and it shall apply to all public offices. ga. The Right of the Initiative and the Referen- dum shall stand supreme. A small percentage of the Community or People, from five to ten per cent, may at any time suggest to the Public anything that pleases or displeases them concerning the public welfare. b. Whenever such a percentage of the People sign a petition demanding that a question be submitted to popular vote, the Government, National, State, or Municipal, shall be obliged to submit the question to the Public within a specified time for popular approval or disapproval. i8o MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT c. The operation of this Initiative and Referen- dum shall be permitted at any time or place. d. This same Initiative and Referendum shall apply alike to State, Provincial, and Municipal Gov- ernments. 10. As the least governed People are the best gov- erned People, the State shall offer a perpetual and liberal standing reward to any person who shall suc- ceed in showing why any law should be simplified or abolished, or why any official office should be abol- ished. n a. No person shall be eligible to vote until he has attained the age of twenty-one. b. A foreigner may become a naturalized citizen if, after a five years' permanent residence in the country, he is able to pass successfully such examina- tions as the State demands of him, and also takes the oath of allegiance to the country. c. All persons shall enjoy freedom of speech and action so long as they do not in any way interfere with the life, liberty, welfare, and property of the in- dividual. d. The individual shall work for as long or short a time, and for as great or small a wage daily as it pleases him. e. Child labor shall be prohibited. i2a. All questions of international dispute which the Nations are unable to settle amicably themselves shall be referred to the International Peace Tribunal at the Hague for settlement. b. Immigration shall be controlled by an Inter- national Commission appointed and maintained by the Nations. c. The State shall accept such immigrants only as it can provide with land; otherwise it cannot accept any. d. The State shall own and maintain its Legation Houses. e. The State shall provide its foreign Representa- tives with such salaries as will enable them to repre- sent their Country with dignity and in a becoming manner. 13^7. All public institutions, utilities, and charities shall be maintained by the National Government, State, or Municipality. b. All such institutions shall be maintained at a minimum cost. 140. All children as regards primary education shall be wards of the State. b. Education in the Public Schools shall be com- pulsory for all children. c. Boys and girls shall enjoy co-education. i8i MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT d. No child shall enter school before the age of ten. e. The State shall not permit any child to attend any other than a Public School until that child has completed the elementary course in the Public School. /. The curricula in the Public Schools shall in- clude thorough courses in the Liberal Arts and Domestic Science. Every child shall also be required to take a course in general Agriculture and Hus- bandry in order that he may become self-sustaining and be equipped for the ordinary duties and require- ments of life. g. All necessities required for pursuing this course of study in the Public Schools shall be furnished the child by the State free of cost. h. Courses of instruction in the higher institutions of learning, such as the Universities, shall not be compulsory, but shall be free. i. The ordinary requisites for instruction in the Universities must be supplied by the individual; they will not be furnished free by the State. 150. The State shall provide for all homeless, destitute, and orphaned children until they have reached the age of sixteen. b. All State institutions for orphans, homeless, and destitute children shall be situated in the country. LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT 183 c. The State provides all such children upon at- taining the age of sixteen, as well as all destitute but able-bodied grown persons, with ten acres of arable land, together with free transportation to said land, and all the necessary requisites for a pastoral life; seeds, trees, implements, &c., two horses with harness and wagon, and a modest house and stabling. d. The State shall confer this favor upon such persons but once; if they prove unworthy of the trust confided in them, they must shift for themselves. i6a. The State shall provide for all persons who are incapable of self-support. b. All State institutions maintained for such pur- poses shall be situated in the country. i 1 -] a. The State shall compel all persons, married, unmarried, divorced, or separated to support any children they may possess until such children attain the age of sixteen. 1 8. No person shall receive any compensation whatsoever for breach of promise in connection with marriage, nor for alienation of the affections, nor shall any alimony be granted. 19. The State shall prohibit and suppress prosti- tution. 2oa. The State shall inspect and exercise strict supervision over all foodstuffs. i8 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT b. The State shall punish all persons found guilty of misrepresentation concerning articles of use and commerce, and adulteration of all foodstuffs, drugs, medicines, &c. 21. The State shall prohibit the sale of all poisons to individuals without a written prescription from a Physician. 22. Vivisection shall be prohibited by law. XVIII REVENUES ia. The Nation shall be self-sustaining. b. The revenues of the Nation, National, State, and Municipal, shall be derived from an Income- tax. c. The rate of taxation shall be fixed by the ap- proval of the majority of the People, and this rate of taxation shall be subject to change at any time according to the wish of the majority of the People. 2. The State shall not contract foreign loans. 30. The Income-tax shall be the sole source of permanent revenue. b. Whenever there is insufficient money on hand in the National, State, and Municipal Treasuries for the construction of Public Utilities which are used for the Public's convenience only, such as railroads, canals, city water-works, lighting-plants, &c., the National Government, State, and Municipality, re- spectively, shall be empowered by the consent of the majority of the People or Community to issue inter- 185 i86 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT est-bearing bonds for the construction of such Utili- ties. c. When said Utilities have paid for their initial cost, the bonds shall be canceled. d. The per cent charged for the use of such Utili- ties shall be fixed at such a rate as shall cause them to pay off their initial cost as speedily as possible. e. All such loans for the construction of Public Utilities can only be national loans; foreign capital cannot invest in them. /. The above-mentioned law does not apply to the construction and maintenance of State Institutions of learning and charity, &c., but only to those which can strictly be termed mediums of public convenience. The means for the construction and maintenance of all other State Institutions must be drawn from the National Revenues obtained through the medium of an Income-tax. 4. The Government shall issue monthly state- ments in its official gazette concerning the exact state of the entire public revenues of the Country Na- tional, State, and Municipal. 5. This statement shall specify the amount re- ceived; the amount expended; the purposes for which it was expended, or is to be expended; and the amount of revenue on hand in the several treasuries. REVENUES 187 6a. Notices of the intended expenditures of the public revenues must be published not later than six months prior to the date set for such expenditures in order that the People may be duly apprised of the proposed disbursements of their revenues. b. If the majority of the People agree to the proposed expenditures, they shall be duly made, but they shall not be sanctioned, permitted, or modified without such consent. XIX CORPORATIONS 1. Any stockholder in a corporation shall at any time have the right to examine its books and to obtain any information he desires in regard to its affairs. 2. Any corporation wishing to increase its capital stock must first give ample notice of its desire by publication, and then present the matter before an open meeting of the stockholders who shall have the right either to approve or reject the measure. 3. Every corporation, large or small, public or private, must publish at regular intervals an exact and detailed statement of its condition; every detail of its operations, receipts, expenditures; the amount of business transacted, its profits or losses, the disposition of its profits, &c. These reports must appear in an official periodical provided for the purpose by the State, and any corporation or stock company not listed in this official periodical shall be immediately confiscated by the State, and the directors and officials of the same punished for violating the law. 1 88 XX PENSIONS I a. Only unfortunates who are mentally or phys- ically incapable of acquiring a livelihood shall be pensioned by the State. b. Persons who have wrecked their lives through dissipation are not included in this category. 2. All pensions cease with the death of the pen- sioner. b. The right of a State pension cannot be in- herited. There will be no occasion for pensioning anyone else, since with ten acres of arable land at the dis- posal of every individual, it would be at once needless and senseless for a People to burden itself with the taxation required to maintain a larger pension roll. All persons in the employ of the State who have completed their due term of service shall be retired at the age of fifty or sixty, as the State may determine in the individual's case. All such persons shall be privileged to retire at the 189 i 9 o MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT age of fifty if they wish. At the expiration of their active terms of service, the State shall provide all such persons with ten acres of arable land, together with free transportation to said land, and also all the necessary requisites for a pastoral life: seeds, trees, implements, &c., two horses with harness and wagon, and a modest house and stabling. Wherever possible all such persons shall be allowed to choose the location of their land. Such a method of providing a pension only for those who stand absolutely in need of it, will effectu- ally prevent the formation of a permanent bureau- cratic class, one of the most dangerous elements with which the State, regardless of its nature, has ever had to contend. Furthermore, no amount of argument can prove that the State should pension one able-bodied man, unless it pensions every able-bodied citizen, or, in other words, adopts Karl Marx's conception of the Socialistic State, and enthrones the Common Man. XXI THE ARMY AND NAVY / "T A HE universal trade and exchange, and the swift means of communication which are fast bind- ing all nations of the Earth into one brotherhood, render war incompatible with future human develop- ment. It is true that primitive tribes and nations emi- grated in ancient days from one country to another, but there is not a single instance in history of a People or Nation as a whole deliberately going to war. It will always be found that the Nation has been led to take such a step by ambitious chieftains or statesmen, or other leaders who have urged the Peo- ple to war purely for the accomplishment of their personal ambitions and desires. Wars are unworthy of a civilized People, and men should no longer furnish either themselves or money for the furtherance of such schemes, which are nothing more than gigantic undertakings of greed 192 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT and aggrandizement instigated by individuals, not by Nations. The armies and navies of the world should not be maintained for the conquest of Nations, but should be reduced to their original and proper spheres of action and usefulness, namely, the policing of the land and seas. A small international fleet consisting of the swiftest battleships should be formed out of our existing navies for the purpose of an international sea-patrol, and should be maintained jointly by the Nations of the Earth for the suppression of piracy and the maintenance of peace on the high seas nothing more. The armies of the Nations should be transformed into national patrols, after the manner of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police of Canada, or the Rurales of Mexico, and should be limited to such numbers as will form an effective body of men for the preserva- tion of peace within the borders of their respective Countries. THE RECONSTRUCTION 'T^HE People of the United States and of Switzer- land already possess the requisite governmental machinery for the creation of the economic conditions proposed in ihis volume. Naturally such a reconstruction can be brought about only by the most sweeping reforms, but let it not be forgotten that we are entering upon a new era of civilization; that we have worn dead men's shoes and followed dead men's footsteps long enough; that posterity ever inherits the full measure of our lives, the evil as well as the good, and must bear the burden of our short-sightedness should we neglect to prepare for it that economic condition which will in- evitably lead to Democracy's ideal. We are all to blame for present conditions. The children of the rich and the poor alike will inherit the blight of our ignorance, unless both rich and poor alike make such sacrifices as are necessary to accomplish the end in view. 193 194 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Such sacrifices, however, need not be so great as would at first thought appear. No sudden reaction- ary or revolutionary measures will be required. It will not be necessary to destroy existing commercial systems and relations in order to establish the new social order. The change can be accomplished through the grad- ual and peaceful acquisition of the Earth's natural resources by the People through the medium of their revenues. It is always easier to return to normal conditions than to estrange ourselves from them. That which we have failed to attain through arti- ficial means during centuries of endeavor, namely, a condition which grants a priori to the individual a material footing of equality, the People of the United States, or any other country, may easily bring about without loss of life and within a reasonably short space of time. It will not do to beggar the rich in order to enrich the poor. Neither will it be necessary to pauperize the Nation by buying back the Earth's natural re- sources at speculative values from those who hold more than their rightful share of them. Indeed it would be an impossible task for the State to attempt to cope with such speculative value? THE RECONSTRUCTION 195 since there would not be enough gold in the universe to handle them. It should settle with individuals on a purely nominal basis of economic values. The justice of such a course is apparent since, when once our present artificial economic basis is replaced by a natural one, all speculative values will be either en- tirely destroyed or reduced to their legitimate worth, while actual and intrinsic values will increase in the same ratio. But how is this to be accomplished? First. The Nation shall set a time during which the transition shall take place. Possibly fifty years, not more; as fifty years represents two generations and a half of human existence, an ample time in which to accomplish the end in view. Second. The individual shall be permitted to ac- quire only ten acres of land, pastoral or city prop- erty, through present means of acquisition. Third. All citizens or non-citizens holding land in excess of ten acres shall be obliged to dispose of all their excess lands during said period fixed by law. Fourth. The individual shall not be permitted to acquire forests, minerals, or waters. Fifth. All persons possessing mineral deposits, forests, waters, &c., shall surrender their holdings to the State at the expiration of the first twenty years of 196 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT said period set for the reconstruction. The State takes this step on the grounds that the wealth amassed by individuals from such holdings is out of all propor- tion to that acquired through the channels of legiti- mate finance. Sixth. During said period the State shall place all such holdings under partial State supervision in order that such natural resources may not be unnecessarily wasted or injured by the individual holder. Seventh. The State shall also, during said period, undertake the reforestation and preservation of all such natural resources. Eighth. All excess land, pastoral or city property, held by the individual at the expiration of said period shall be immediately surrendered to the State. Ninth. During said period no foreign capital shall be invested in the country wherever such capital con- flicts with the People's rights. Tenth. Wherever possible all foreign capital in- vested in the country which conflicts with the People's rights shall be withdrawn during said period. Where not possible, all representatives of foreign capital invested in the country, as well as all non-citizen holders of United States Bonds, shall be reimbursed dollar for dollar for the full amounts involved during THE RECONSTRUCTION 197 said period and thereafter until such obligations have been discharged. Eleventh. The State and Municipalities shall, as far as possible during said period, acquire all Public Utilities, purchased from the individual at nominal though liberal prices. Twelfth. Those who possess nothing beyond their daily wage will be furnished by the State, if they so desire, ten acres of arable land with the necessary trees, seeds, implements for the cultivation of the soil; two horses with harness and wagon, a modest house and stabling, and free transportation to the land. All vagrants, destitutes, and dwellers in city slums will be forced to accept this latter proposition, the State furnishing them free instruction in the simple forms of agriculture, thus assuring them a fair start in life. All such persons should be exempt from taxation during the first two years of their occupancy of the land, after which they should be taxed the same as other citizens. They will be placed on land in the country and given an opportunity to nourish themselves from the land. If they leave it, they will be obliged to shift for themselves as best they can. 198 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT They cannot return to their former wretched lives in city slums for there will be no more city slums, no more vagrants or gutter-wolves tolerated in cities. Neither will they be permitted to interfere in any way with the peace and welfare of the Public. The State will be quite justified in taking this stand toward all such people, for it is far better that those who refuse to work and acquire an honorable living should starve in the country than in the cities. Naturally the present systems of revenues should remain in force until the foreign capital invested in the country has been paid off, since without them it would be impossible for the State to meet its obliga- tions to foreigners. The method proposed for the reconstruction would undoubtedly be treated with contempt by the ex- tremely rich whose fortunes range from ten to two hundred millions or more. The craze for money-getting has so taken posses- sion of men's minds that, those who in our Fathers' time would have considered themselves well off in the possession of a few thousand dollars, now look with indifference on anything short of hundreds of thousands or a million; while the multimillionaires regard a million dollars as little more than a bagatelle THE RECONSTRUCTION 199 and the presence of its insignificant possessor hardly worthy of social toleration. But in order that we may form an adequate idea of the power represented by the enormous wealth centered in the hands of single individuals to-day, and at the same time create a standard by which we may measure a man's wealth, let us take a million dollars as an illustration. $1,000,000, drawing y z % interest, yields an annual income of $ 5,000 $1,000,000, drawing i % interest, yields an annual income of 10,000 $1,000,000, drawing 2% interest, yields an annual income of 20,000 $1,000.000, drawing $% interest, yields an annual income of 30,000 A million dollars without drawing interest at all will yield an annual income of $20,000 for fifty years, or $10,000 for one hundred years before it is con- sumed. A million dollars, therefore, will provide in mod- eration the average family with every luxury the world has to offer, permitting that family to travel annually to any part of the globe, and this without any labor from any member of it during the lifetime of the average man. A million dollars is a tremendous sum of money 200 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT more money than a man should possess a sum so vast that, under natural conditions, only a few men would be capable of amassing it through the channels of legitimate finance. So it will be seen that it is not without reason the State adopts arbitrary methods in settling with in- dividuals and putting an end to the commercial brigandage which has fastened itself upon the world. In consideration of what will be secured in return, liberty and prosperity, the like of which civilized man has never yet known, the individual can well afford to be content to abide by the decrees of the State. For unless the signs of the times count for naught, the people of the United States will have to face this problem at no distant date. Therefore, those who might complain that they are getting too little may well be reminded of a salient truth, too often demonstrated in history to be any longer questioned, namely : that revolutions usually make short shrift of those who oppose the common good, whether high or low, rich or poor, and that it is better to sacrifice a part of one's pos- sessions and yet remain comfortably off in life, than to lose everything one possesses and perhaps one's head as well. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that it is THE RECONSTRUCTION 201 our children who will reap the direct benefits result- ing from the change, and that, therefore, it should be the first consideration and duty of every citizen to make such sacrifices as may be demanded of him to bring it about. " If," as Carlyle says, " the poor and humble toil that we may have food, must not the high and glorious toil for him in return, that he may have Light, have Guidance, Freedom, Im- mortality? " This is one way of accomplishing the transition from the old to the new condition. The method proposed is at once simple, economi- cal, and workable. When once the State has ad- justed its affairs on this basis it will become econom- ically self-poised. All citizens will be free to begin life anew on a footing of equal opportunity; there will be no poor except those who insist on remaining poor. If any man has a better method to propose let him come forward with it. XXIII THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE "The Golden Age, which a blind tradition has hitherto placed in the past, is before us." SAINT-SIMON. REE the land and the Earth's natural resources by placing them within the reach of everyone, and humanity will adjust itself to the new order as easily and freely as water seeks its own level. The accumulation of wealth will become a sec- ondary consideration. Men will instinctively and unconsciously simplify their lives; will cease grubbing in the dust for superfluous riches; will no longer bur- den themselves with the thousand and one useless possessions which now add to their responsibilities and cares. They will become independent units and stand on a natural footing of material equality. No one will possess arbitrary power over another. The man living in the city will not dictate to the man living in the country, nor the man in the country to the man in the city. The high will not dictate to 303 TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 203 the low, nor the low to the high. Each member of society will be relegated to his natural sphere of action by the natural laws of supply and demand. The individual will go and come, think and act, work for as long and short a time, and for as much and as little hire, or will refrain from working alto- gether as he pleases. There can be no oppression when such conditions prevail. The organizations which to-day intimidate and control mankind will be effectually broken up; for the State or Community will then be in a position to say with perfect justice to the individual all things which the Earth has to offer are as accessible to you as to your neighbor, use them or not as it pleases you, tut if you interfere with that neighbor's rights, you do so at your peril. Then indeed will men be in a position to practice the Golden Rule in daily life, not merely theorize upon it as they are doing to-day. Man is the highest order of animal inhabiting the Earth, and is subject to the same natural and physical laws as are the lower orders. Nature supplies him as she does them with that portion of her bounties which is necessary to sustain him, but with nothing more. 204 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT If, therefore, man refuses to sustain himself, whether directly from the Earth's natural resources or through his higher intelligence, let him perish. The State would not be called on to take cogni- zance of drones or idlers, nor should it be obliged to maintain other charities than those necessary for the care of helpless children and adults whom misfortune has rendered incapable of self-support. When man reclaims his birthright, and every able- bodied member of society is welcome to his rightful portion of Nature's bounties, he will be obliged to sustain himself therefrom or the rigors of Nature will sweep him from the face of the Earth which is as it should be. Vagrancy will practically become a thing of the past, and poverty a matter of individual choice. There will be no wretchedly poor people in the cities, since the laws will force them, if work is not ob- tainable, to move on to their free portions of land where, provided by the State with the requisites for a pastoral life, a livelihood will be assured them. This is not the " political economy " of luxury and extravagance which is everywhere taught and prac- ticed throughout the world to-day, and which permits those in power to rob and burden the Public with debts, obtaining the most by giving the least. It is TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 205 the fundamental, underlying principle of life the working out of the natural laws of growth, supply, and demand, visible on every hand throughout Na- ture, by which and through which men will be placed in a position to acquire a livelihood from natural sources and conditions. Verily, he who does not work shall not eat ! This is justice to all. The farmer or husbandman will possess his lawful portion of land; the city dweller, his residence surrounded by an ample garden and such further plots of ground within the ten-acre limit as his business or profession requires or as he can cover with buildings. This will effectually destroy all speculative values in land and other natural resources. It will render money powerless to injure humanity seriously since the land cannot be bought or sold, taxed or rented, or taken from man, nor can wood, water, or minerals be controlled by individuals. There will be enough for all. It will prevent the overcrowding of cities, and will bring about the proper diffusion and concentration of populations in agricultural districts. When a livelihood is secured to all, and the pres- ent mad scramble for money is ended, there will be fewer thefts, fewer crimes against property rights, 206 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT and so fewer prisons. Men and women will no longer be driven insane by want and the dread of want, and so there will be fewer insane asylums. None but the physically or mentally unfit need ever suffer for the necessities of life, and so there will be fewer alms-houses. And thus the demand on public charity will be reduced to a minimum. The farmer will be especially benefited by such conditions, and will become a husbandman in the true sense of the term. The first step in human economy and the first consideration in regard to a man's welfare should be to render him self-sustaining and independent of the outside world. But the farmer of to-day is abso- lutely at the mercy of the capitalist who controls at once the fluctuations of the stock market and the railroads. Under the new conditions, if he possesses a fair knowledge of husbandry, he will be in a situa- tion to render himself self-sustaining and independent of railroads, capital, or the uncertain prices which his products command in the markets. Where to-day he raises only a single cereal, or a few fruits, and is forced to devote his entire time to them, owing to the large tracts of lands which he possesses, under the new conditions he and his fam- ily will be able to devote their energies not only to TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 207 all that pertains to the farm, but also to those hand- industries which are as much a part of husbandry as is the cultivation of the soil. On a farm of ten acres or less, a family endowed with average intelligence will be able to raise a small amount of stock, poultry, and such grains, vegetables, fruits, and flowers as the climate and location permit. From the animals are obtained milk, butter, eggs, meat, wool, hides, tallow, soap, feathers, &c. From the grain, flour and meal; from the fruit and vege- tables, preserved and dried fruits and vegetables for winter use; from the flowers, honey, perfume, and flowers for the market ; from the wool and flax, home- spun cloth and linen, rugs and hangings; from the trees, shrubs, and other vegetation, fuel, wood for general use, brooms, baskets, dyes, &c. The man who, with the knowledge that the tenure of his land is secure, and that he cannot be taxed if his crops and income fail him, is yet unable, under such circumstances, to become self-supporting and independent of the world, will have nobody but him- self to blame. If he cannot maintain himself on his little domain with such resources at his command, he will have no further excuse for existence on Earth. The greatest boon, however, which must result to humanity from such conditions is, that all phases of 208 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT monopoly resulting from the accumulation of capital can easily be broken or reduced to the normal and legitimate limitations of trade and commercial enter- prise by the return of the People to the soil which lies free for them to appropriate, and to a life in which the individual is liberated from the conventions and laws governing society in cities. Viewed from a material standpoint, this is the only logical solution of the social question which preserves the personal liberty of the individual without a return on the part of society to the nomadic state, or that of the clan. It is universal in its application, from the primitive to the civilized man; a condition that will stand with or without government. If it were not the rational distribution of the Earth's surface and its resources, a natural law com- pelling animals, savages, and aboriginal peoples to pass their entire existence struggling for the posses- sion of bits of the Earth's surface would prevail throughout Nature. Such a law, however, does not obtain. The animal struggles for his food and den or nest only; the primitive man for his food and the ground space which his tent or hut occupies; the hus- bandman for the plot of ground that will nourish him. 209 This is the universal law governing the Earth-life ordained by Nature. It is idle to dispute it. Were it otherwise, were the individual entitled to more than his natural portion, then indeed, both men and animals might well struggle together even as the so-called civilized nations are struggling to-day for square inches of dirt. And the Earth, to meet the full requirements of such a struggle and the laws of inequality, should of necessity be flat instead of round, with the law of gravitation ceasing at its margins, and the chief aim of man and beast to push his weaker fellow nearer and nearer the danger-line and over the brink into space. But the Earth is round and limited in area, and escape from it impossible. The conditions of material inequality which exist to-day are solely the result of man-made laws and institutions, while those of equality prevailed a priori before the human race dreamed of framing thought into words, before the first eye opened on a universe of worlds. Again, such a distribution of the Earth's surface and its resources is according to the evolutionary laws of Nature, upon which all Earth-life is dependent for its development. It is true that all forms of life, from the lowest to the highest, prey upon one another for their main- 210 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT tenance and development, but their decay, like their growth, is a natural one, not the unnatural one carried forward by man into every phase of his existence even to the extermination of his own species. Every form of animal and vegetable life appears upon Earth at a given time prepared for it by the laws of growth or evolution, and although every form of life is destined to be preyed upon by that of a higher or more vigorous form, its decay and final extinction under normal conditions proceeds no faster than did its original growth and development. The various forms appear upon the Earth, flourish their alloted time, then gradually disappear to make way for new forms of life which, obeying the laws of growth, come to replace them during the succeed- ing eras of earthly development brought about by the aging of the planet and its attendant climatic changes. But the encroachment of new and vigorous forms of life upon those of a less vigorous nature is a gradual one; the struggle for supremacy between them is not one of extermination. It is the gradual and natural displacement of the one by the other or- dained by the irrevocable and creative laws of the universe. This gradual process of change prevailing through- out the Earth-life is Nature's definition of natural TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 211 selection, or the survival of the fittest on a material plane ; a very different matter from man's brutal and unnatural extermination of any and every living thing for the mere pleasure of satisfying his whims and insatiable mercenary desires. Were Darwin still alive, he would certainly re- pudiate this false and unscientific conception of natu- ral selection which the majority of men hold to-day. A law which would have made the human type impossible by limiting forever the development of the animal kingdom to the brute type subject to the domination of the strongest brute species. A rule of life which is contrary to human reason, which neces- sitates the stifling of man's noblest sentiments, love, sympathy, and pity, and which, if carried to its logical conclusion, would result in man's retrogression to lowest barbarism. " All men are created free and equal," reads the American Declaration of Independence; whereas the real truth is that all men are created intellectually unequal. Nor can they be born free and into con- ditions materially equal until the Earth's natural re- sources are recognized as communal factors by man and are equally accessible to all. Wars must inevitably cease when the truth of this fact becomes thoroughly established in the minds of 212 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT men, and is recognized as the dominating principle in life, a principle leading to true civilization, and to the peace and material and spiritual welfare of the human race. For, since communal rights, like char- ity, begin at home, no one acknowledging the rights of his fellow-man to his share of the Earth's natural resources, could engage in war or advocate it without relinquishing his own communal rights. The history of the world shows that man's life cannot be regulated by man-made laws, but only by the fundamental principle of equality. ' The growth of wealth, and with it the concep- tion of private property, brought on certain very definite new forms of life; it destroyed the ancient system of society based upon the gens, that is, a so- ciety of equals founded upon blood-relationship, and introduced a society of classes founded upon differ- ences of material possessions; it destroyed the ancient system of mother-right and inheritance through the female line, and turned the woman into the property of man; it brought with it private ownership of land, and so created a class of landless aliens, and a whole system of rent, mortgage, interest, etc.; it introduced slavery, serfdom, and wage-labor, which are only various forms of the dominance of one class over an- TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 213 other; and to rivet these authorities it created the State and the policeman." * History shows that individual ownership of land and the Earth's natural resources resulted from the seizure of the communal lands by ambitious chieftains or primitive conquerors who, in order to legalize or make their possession secure, distributed them in turn to those who served them. But all this was in direct opposition to the laws of Nature, which never de- signed that the land, wood, minerals, and waters of the Earth should become merchandise and be monop- olized and exploited by the individual for greedy commercial purposes. The Earth is man's and the fullness thereof. It cannot be too often repeated that every human being born into this Earth-life is as much entitled by natural law to enough arable land and wood and water and minerals to supply himself with the necessities of life as he is to the sunlight and the air he breathes. This free portion of the Earth's natural resources will not only provide the individual with a livelihood, but will also make him independent of commercial competition if he wishes to remain aloof from it. It will assure him freedom, permitting him to think * " Ancient Society": Lewis H. Morgan. 2i 4 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT and act, and go and come at will without hindrance or restraint. It will render the question of a liveli- hood purely one of simple and natural effort de- manded by Nature to sustain life within the body. It will fix the responsibility of individual develop- ment upon the individual himself. This is the basic principle of Nature's economy upon which worlds and celestial systems are formed and sustained the fundamental principle upon which a lasting condition of human economy may be based, creating a natural source of nourishment for all living things in conformity with the universal law of life " live and let live ! " Man's undisputed right to the soil beneath his feet and the Earth's natural resources is an inalienable and eternal one. It is as essential and as much a part of himself and the sphere he inhabits in the Universe as the skin with which his body is clothed, and should come before all forms of government and other human schemes and institutions. Man can no more escape from the truth of this argument than he can escape from or transcend the laws of gravitation. These facts remain established and beyond dispute: There is enough land for the nourishment of every TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 215 inhabitant and for the normal increase in population of the planet Earth, and all forms of government and human institutions which deprive man of his portion of the Earth's resources are merely schemes devised by the few to rob the many. They are as unscien- tific as they are unnatural, and have not the slightest claim or foundation for their further continuance. XXIV THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE ALL that has thus far been said concerning govern- ment and the distribution of the Earth's natural resources, those things which must serve as an indis- pensable basis for the untrammeled and free develop- ment of man, will in themselves merely prepare the way for the realization of Democracy's ideal. That condition which must inevitably bring forth a race of free-born men who will laugh at man-made laws and institutions, and will govern themselves as much as possible in their own persons and as little as possible by deputy; a condition in which the individual will be privileged to live in great measure independent of governments and of most human institutions. So long as the individual respects the life and property of his neighbor, refrains from monopolizing the Earth's natural resources, and preserves and hus- bands them, his life shall be what he ivishes it to be, not what others wish to make it. The social revolution which is now clearly dis- 216 TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 217 cernible on the horizon has for its aim nothing less than the enfranchisement of the human race. Not imaginary freedom, but actual freedom. A condi- tion which cannot be attained through the preserva- tion of present institutions or by the creation of new ones, but only, so far as possible, through their elim- ination. Life as it appears to the majority of men to-day is merely the conception of life entertained by the city man who naiVely imagines that all things should be arranged to meet the requirements of his limited artificial existence, while in reality, there is no more reason why a person should not be a nomad, if he wishes to be one, than he should be a merchant, a farmer, or a philosopher. Once and for all let it be understood that the ques- tion of human or natural economy is not one of cap- ital and labor, of capital and income, of commercial production and demand, or of the distribution of wealth resulting from them, but solely one relating to that part of a man's life which is concerned with get- ting a living. Since it has been shown that the area of arable land on the Earth's surface is more than ample to support the human race, allowing for a normal increase in population, the paramount issue confronting man to- 218 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT day is not one of governments and schemes of reform, which are merely incidentals in human development, but the prolongation of the habitableness of this planet through the preservation and proper distribu- tion of its natural resources. Nature compels both man and animal to exert themselves for the supplying of their material wants. If they refuse to do so, they perish which is as it should be. Beyond this point in existence man may enjoy as much or as little freedom as he likes. It lies entirely with himself. If he wishes to maintain and perpetuate that con- dition which is conducive to the greatest freedom of action and thought, it is only necessary that men (a), preserve and hold in common the Earth's natural resources; (b), adopt a rational educational system which shall include instruction in agriculture and all that pertains to husbandry, the industrial arts, and the rudiments of natural science; (c), and lastly, keep the land well stocked with wild animal life for the consumption of the individual while enjoying life in the open. The few simple communal laws and institutions requisite for the maintenance of such conditions will weigh feather-light upon man. The more institutions we possess, the more we must TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 219 toil and slave away our lives to maintain them; for which reason the least governed People are the best governed People. This beautiful Earth the Garden of Eden lies spread out about us. Liberty and happiness, life's greatest prize, are ours to enjoy to the full if we wish it. This is the rational exposition of the Golden Age on Earth all that it offered man during the childhood of the race, all that it can offer him when the manhood of the race is attained. The Golden Age, the City Beautiful, Utopia, or the Ideal State, as conceived by various political econ- omists, statesmen, and poets, will not bear analysis, for if any one of these could be translated into reality the liberty of mankind would be the price paid for a Golden Age of Bondage. Nothing can compensate man for the loss of lib- erty. Trace back the stream of civilization until it is lost in the dim obscurity of an irrevocable past, and the one assurance ever forthcoming concerning the secret of human happiness in all times and for all men has ever been liberty. Owing to the folly of allowing individuals to own and control the Earth's natural resources, man to-day occupies the painful position of a modern Atlas. He bears the burden of the Earth upon his shoulders, 220 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT whereas the proper function of the Earth is to bear him. And yet, notwithstanding the terrible retribu- tion which Nature has brought upon him in conse- quence of his violation of her laws, men still continue to bring children into the world regardless of the fact that present civilization denies the individual's right to existence unless he pays a toll for that privilege. It is indeed astonishing that man should deliber- ately perpetuate the slavery of his race by failing to recognize the fact that he is born into the Earth-life for the purpose of spiritual development, not that he might conform to human schemes and inventions of materialistic tendencies. Civilization as it is conceived and practiced by man to-day spells slavery; it is an institution fit only for barbarians, not for savages or civilized men. Had his Satanic Majesty, the Devil, meditated for a thousand years on how he might best vex and afflict mankind, he could not have devised a better or more successful scheme than that human institu- tion known as modern civilization. The North American Indian, before his contact with the White Man, held the Golden Age with its untold possibilities in the palm of his hand, but was TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 221 quite as ignorant of the fact as were the first dis- coverers of the American Continents. Ask yourself which is the better, the more rational earthly condition: One of continual war and oppres- sion, of disease, degeneracy, suffering, and want; one in which the Public is ever at the mercy of ignorant, unscrupulous individuals who, by means of the monopolization of the Earth's natural resources, seize the reins of government, make and alter the laws of the land to suit their own convenience, and under the protection of these same laws and imagi- nary rights, govern by might? Or, one in which the individual has no control over the natural re- sources of the Earth or his fellow-beings; a country where every man is welcome to his rightful share of these resources enough to supply his wants enough for the supreme development of his ideals? A country where there is an abundance of life's neces- sities for all, where wild animal life abounds, and where the waters teem with fish and are free of con- tamination? A country where life is long, where there are few crimes, few prisons or asylums or other institutions, and few taxes? A country where honor prevails and men are beholden unto God alone; where men are free to go and come at will; where they may work as much or as little as they please; 222 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT where there is no drudgery except what is self- imposed; where the simple material necessities of life are within the reach of all, and men may devote the greater part of their days to the development of their minds and bodies, making of them the sacred shrines and temples which the Supreme Being intended them to be? This is no idle fancy, no chimerical dream. It is the actual and normal earthly condition which Nature intended man should inherit through the process of his evolutionary development on Earth. Indeed, it is the actual condition which the Amer- ican Continents originally offered Europeans who, instead of availing themselves of its advantages, con- tinued to follow in the footsteps of their degenerate forefathers. The North American Indian not only held the land, forests, waters, and minerals in common, but the wild animals as well. Every Indian was welcome to enjoy his rightful share of them but no more. He was not even permitted to slaughter game pro- miscuously or for pleasure. A common law existed among all the tribes which permitted the punishment of any such offenders. For a first transgression of the law, the offender's entire personal effects were either destroyed or taken from TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 223 him; for a repetition of the same offense, the death penalty was promptly meted out to him. This, of course, before the coming of the enlightened White Man, who was not slow to instruct his red brother in the art of wasting Nature's bounties. By restricting the individual to his rightful share of natural necessities there was ever an abundance for all. Only thus was it possible for the individual to maintain his freedom, or for the planet to nourish him properly. Trace this thought to its logical conclusion, and we must inevitably arrive at the only sane deduction : That only a fool would erect a larger house than was necessary for his comfort, or slave away his life, year in and year out, to maintain superfluous institu- tions ; that only a fool would waste his time cultivat- ing a larger area of land than sufficed to yield him a living; that only a fool would destroy the natural food supply of the land, the wild animals, or devote his time to rearing more domesticated animals than were necessary to supply his needs, especially when the latter, if shared in common, will thrive and mul- tiply equally well if permitted to run free. We may adopt the same maxim for ourselves, but place a more enlightened interpretation upon it, namely he who is satisfied with enough works least, 224 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT and, therefore, has the greatest amount of freedom to devote to his spiritual development. Naturally the mere suggestion that the poor, un- tutored savage led a saner existence than does his white successor will be greeted with derision by the world, and especially those economists who pass their days within four walls, inventing and dreaming of complicated governments and other institutions. We know, however, whereof we speak. This is not at all a question of what you would like or what I would like, but the exact exposition of things as they are. We are viewing both sides of the mirror. The tribunal before which we now stand is open to the savage as well as the civilized man. The application of the fundamental principle of natural economy set forth in these pages is not de- pendent upon theory, but upon the observance of the divine law prevailing throughout the sphere which we inhabit. Search history from the days of Soldene of Egypt to those of the present, and we will not find a single theory or philosophy of life which does not conflict with this law. Indeed, what has thus far been said concerning government should be regarded merely as a means to an end to bridge over that transitory period which TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 225 must intervene until the state of true Democracy has been attained. But when we have crossed that gulf and entered into the land of promise, living in accord- ance with Nature's divine economic law, we too can easily afford to dispense with our little man-made theories of government. Not until then, until man has reached the goal of true civilization, recognizing the right of his fellow- man to his share of the Earth's natural resources, shall man be in a position to govern himself by the simple communal laws of the clan. We may scoff at the idea, but our arrogance of thought and extravagances and excesses of our daily lives cannot conceal from us the fact that complicated institutions are merely imaginary necessities, not the basic necessities of life required for the free and natural development of man. In spite of that wonderful edifice, Civilization, to which we refer with so much pride, every stone of which represents a human soul, disease and misery are on the increase, and the struggle for life becomes ever more difficult. What, of paramount importance, has this civiliza- tion really given us? Has it lifted us any nearer the stars? Can we really say that we are more accurately informed concerning the why and where- 226 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT fore of existence, or of life after death, than is the savage? On the contrary, universal unrest and the wish not to live is permeating all races subject to the influences of modern civilization. The idea that life is a thing to be endured is fast supplanting the natural desire to live which was so intense in early civiliza- tions. What then, after all is said and done, do our in- stitutions, our literary, scientific, and artistic achieve- ments amount to if they deprive us of our liberty- entail the everlasting misery of the human race by making slaves of men? Is this the end, the culmination of human develop- ment? Have all our strivings, sufferings, longings, and yearnings, our triumphs and our failures been for naught ? Must we then disregard our inventions, our literary, artistic, and scientific attainments, our customs and modes of everyday life? By no means. Nothing could be more absurd on the part of man than to attempt to limit the manifold manifestations of the human intellect. Man shall invent and create to his heart's content; but he should do so alon^ rational lines. He should not be permitted forcibly to subject his fellow to the results of his investiga- tions. TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 227 We have merely confounded mechanics with ethics; have mistaken mechanical laws for natural laws; have conformed our lives to artificial instead of natural conditions. " All real and wholesome enjoyments possible to man," says Ruskin, " have been just as possible to him since first he was made of the earth as they are now : and they are possible to him chiefly in peace. ' To watch the corn grow and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over plowshare and spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray; these are the things to make men happy; they have always had the power of doing these they never will have the power to do more." Mechanical progress is not ethical progress. All branches of science, art, and mechanics which do not tend to increase happiness or alleviate the suffering of the world, or which cause the destruction of life, are at once useless and unworthy of a civilized people. Most of the preventives of disease in use through- out the world to-day are of little value. They do not prevent, but only temporarily arrest the spread of disease, whereas the observance of strict sanita- tion and the leading of a simple and natural life on 228 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT the part of man effectually destroys or eradicates the germs of disease which is the end to be attained.* In the same ratio that modern medical and hygienic science progresses, disease increases throughout the world; nor will science ever triumph over the latter so long as men maintain their present modes of life and imperfect sanitary conditions; poisoning the air with fumes of minerals and unnecessary clouds of smoke, contaminating the waters with refuse matter, and passing the greater portion of their lives shut up in houses, breathing the foul, congested atmosphere of large cities. Many of our modern inventions, such as the tele- graph, telephone, and some others, are valuable; but the advantages derived from most of them are very much overrated. Take, for example, the railroads. They are, undoubtedly, indispensable to the times, since it is important that both persons and certain commodities should be transported from one place to another as speedily as possible. But, apart from this advantage, railroads have done little to benefit or increase the happiness of mankind. Before railroads came into use the highroads of * This was the condition of the North American Indian and many nomadic tribes of Africa and Asia before their contact with Europeans and degenerate civilizations of the East. Hereditary diseases were practically unknown to them. TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 229 Europe and America were lined with prosperous, self-sustaining communities. Whereas to-day the greater number of these communities no longer exist, or are in a condition of stagnation ; the railroads hav- ing in effect depopulated the country by transferring both its wealth and population to their terminals the large cities. The depopulation of villages throughout England and Continental Europe affords a striking example of the disastrous effects railroads have had upon them. The railroads destroyed the great freighting and coaching industries which were carried forward over the country at large. Neither are railroads essential to the settlement of countries. The whole of Europe was settled be- fore railroads were invented. Mexico and the great unknown regions of the North and West, both in the United States and Canada, were pioneered and colo- nized without them. It is quite true that, after their advent, railroads aided in the work of coloniz- ing young countries, but history shows that they were not absolutely essential; the work would have gone forward without them just the same. Some idea may be formed of the great freighting industry carried on during the pioneer-days of the West in the United States when it is stated that the 230 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT floating population of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains during that period averaged anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000. " The firms engaged in this business," says Mr. Randall Parrish, " were many, and their employees an army. From Fort Smith, Independence, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Atchison, Council Bluffs, and other less known points of departure, the great wagon streams swept forth into the Plains, their aggregate number beyond any possible estimate of to-day. " The greatest firm in the trade, that of Russel, Majors, and Wadell, at one time employed 6,250 huge wagons, and 75,000 oxen." As regards staging and passenger transportation : " From Placerville, Cal., to Atchison, which in the regular run required seventeen days, the distance being 1,913 miles, a trip was made by Holladay in twelve days and two hours. When one considers the lonely, dangerous country through which this long road ran, the isolated sta- tions, the expense of equipment, the difficulty of transporting supplies, the rates charged for overland travel were comparatively low. " The old Butterfield fare of one hundred dollars for 2,759 miles almost, if not quite, equals present railroad rates. ... In 1859, counting the Panama TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 231 steamer, there were six established mail routes to California." * A historian of this era, in referring to Mr. Holla- day, says: " No other man anywhere has owned and managed a transportation system at once so vast and so diffi- cult. He had sixteen first-class passenger steamers plying the Pacific from San Francisco to Oregon, Panama, Japan, China. At the height of his over- land business he operated nearly 5,000 miles of daily mail-stages, with about 500 coaches and express wagons, 500 freight wagons, 5,000 horses and mules, and a host of oxen." Concerning the Pony Express, mail was carried be- tween St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Cal., a distance of nearly two thousand miles, in nine days and less. The news of Lincoln's inaugural " was borne from rider to rider to the Coast in the marvel- ous space of but seven days and seventeen hours. . . . It was a Pony Express rider who made the most won- derful straight-away ride ever made by man. . . . The rider was Francis Xavier Aubrey, and he rode on a bet that he could cover the distance between * " The Great Plains." 232 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Santa Fe and Independence (800 miles) in eight days. . . . He made it in five days and thirteen hours." Modern civilization, the product of the human mind, is without question a marvel of human ingenu- ity, but regarded as a whole, it is a colossal expression of wasted effort. We struggle, toil, and worry at the price of health and happiness and the grandeur of life in order that we may some day become rich or famous. We usu- ally fail in our endeavors, and even if we succeed, success and riches are comparatively worthless be- cause they come too late. We are too old to enjoy them. We have wasted our youth in years of toil only to realize how valueless they are as instruments of happiness when we possess them. The only real justification for modern civilization would be that it make mankind happy; but since it does not, it is a failure. Nor is this civilization the fulfillment of human destiny. It is merely the culminating outgrowth of the artificial conditions prevailing throughout the world, sustained and upheld by individuals whom society permits to hold the balance of power. Again, present civilization as a whole serves no TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 233 useful purpose. It is merely a tremendous force of misdirected human energy that makes slaves of men ; its institutions and inventions being the fetters that bind them. Independent action on the part of the individual can hardly longer be said to exist; we are all slaves to one another from the millionaire to the day-laborer. We pass the greater portion of our lives shut off from the pure air and light of heaven in stuffy offices, miserable, dingy garrets, filthy workshops, and the unhealthy, smoke-tainted atmosphere of huge, hide- ous cities merely to maintain those soul-killing insti- tutions which we so highly prize. It is so easy to accustom ourselves to the common- place by calling it the practical. But let a man be the faithful servant of some corporation, or the un- tiring member or director of some colossal profit- making enterprise for twenty or thirty years without so much as taking a single holiday, and when he dies, he is eulogized by the press and the community, and his life of stunted growth and wasted opportunity is held up to our youth as one to imitate. We are daily so accustomed to hearing this drivel that we no longer recognize the cheapness of it. What can a race of men, begotten under such con- ditions, know of freedom and happiness, whose days 234 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT are filled with ever increasing cares and worries who shrink from the light of the sun who tremble at the thought of the morrow ? What can they know of the great, divine message of life of the Universe? What, we may well ask, is the good to be derived from large cities and most of our inventions and institutions if they do not make us happier? From a point of ingenuity, they are marvelous cre- ations of the human intellect, but at what a price are we forced to maintain them ! Spiritually, they do not advance the race; neither do they insure per- sonal safety. Statistics show that the annual de- struction of life caused by our machines and inven- tions exceeds that of any battle or campaign of ancient or modern times. Many of our institutions, scientific discoveries, and inventions do unquestionably tend to enlarge our men- tal vision if classed as mechanical and scientific dis- coveries solely, but become distinctly harmful when used for material ends, since they make life more complicated and difficult to live. An invention or machine is good if used for a good purpose to accomplish the end for which it was cre- ated, but is harmful to man if he uses it for the accumulation of wealth to the exclusion of everything else. And yet we foolishly imagine that there is TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 235 nothing greater conceived of in Heaven and Earth than this institution of men, present civilization, with its shallow, artificial ordinances, its playthings, toys, and baubles called inventions which enslave us to such an extent that we no longer have time in which to think or live. * These boasted arts," as Emerson says, " are of very recent origin. They are local conveniences, but do not really add to our stature. The greatest men of the world have managed not to want them. New- ton was a great man, without telegraph, or gas, or steam-coach, or rubber shoes, or lucifer matches, or ether for his pain; so was Shakespeare, and Alfred, and Scipio, and Socrates. ' These are local conveniences, but how easy to go to parts of the world where not only all these arts are wanting, but where they are despised. The Arabian Sheikhs, the most dignified people on the planet, do not want them; yet have as much self- respect as the English, and are easily able to impress the Frenchman or the American who visits them with the respect due to a brave and sufficient man." These things are merely the froth of civilization; their importance and significance are purely imagi- 236 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT nary. To assume that they are essential to the in- tellectual and spiritual development of man is childish. Compare the thoughts of Plato with those of Spencer, Nietzsche, and Haeckel, products as they are of this age of gas and electricity, artificial heat- ing, railroads, telegraph, telephone, explosives, and innumerable other inventions and scientific discoveries. Then ask yourself whether or not these thinkers, with the advantage of the accumulated knowledge of past ages in their favor, are Plato's superiors? Turn on our lights, and set all our mechanical de- vices in motion, and add thereto the scientific dis- coveries of the past century, and what do we behold? Spencer and Nietzsche and Haeckel still seated at the feet of Plato, and the hands of the human race outstretched toward the grandest figure on the stage of human destiny the Christ, who knew nothing of these trifles, and before whose conception of life all things pale into insignificance. XXV THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE "1T7HAT, then, is culture progress? Is it ma- terial prosperity, the accumulation of wealth, or is it the broadening of the mental and spiritual horizon of the human race? A drama by .^Eschylus or Shakespeare, an opera by Wagner or Verdi, a chant of Pergolese, a Beethoven symphony, a painting or statue are expres- sions of true civilization; but the shriek of the steam- whistle or other discordant noises are the distinct marks of barbarity. Legitimate trade and industry spell civilization; a stock-exchange, barbarism. Cities are a good thing within reason, but, as Bernard Shaw says, " The imagination cannot conceive of a viler criminal than he who should build another London like the present one, nor a greater benefactor than he who should destroy it." The great dam at Assuan in Egypt, and the Sho- shone dam in Wyoming, through means of which 237 238 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT thousands of acres of waste land are reclaimed, stand for civilization ; the neglect of the land for vandalism. A reasonable portion of a country converted into orchards and fields of grain, is more useful than an entire land of unbroken steppes. But cultivate the entire surface of a land and fence it off into sections, and what have we? Nothing but a damned checker- board; a condition fit only for slaves a race of men of petty aspirations who live close to the earth. Cultivated fruits and flowers are more useful to man for certain purposes than their primitive types; a vineyard is more beautiful than a barren, rocky hillside. The practice of scientific methods of for- estry produce a more useful forest than the primeval forest itself. An explosive used for blasting purposes is good; but it is bad if used for the destruction of life. To maintain intact the natural beauties of the Earth aids civilization; to destroy or deface them for commercial purposes is barbarism, as is illustrated by the present gradual destruction of Niagara Falls, a desecration which could only be tolerated by a race of peddlers. " Horses and carriages, as means of locomotion," says Tolstoy, " houses and clothes as means of shel- TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 239 ter, good food as means of maintaining the strength of one's organism, are all very useful. But as soon as people begin to regard the possession of such means as ends in themselves, believing it to be good to have as many horses, houses, clothes, and foods as possible then these things become not only not use- ful but distinctly harmful." The accumulation of such things to excess is the mark, not of refinement or culture, but of vulgarity; it is a sign not of progress, but of retrogression. " It is for man to tame the chaos, to scatter the seeds of science and song, that climate, corn, animals, men may be milder, and the germs of love and bene- fit may be multiplied. As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter, and our wine will burn our mouths. Only that good profits which we can taste with all doors open and which serves all men." Our superfluous possessions stand betwen us and God. We are smothered by them, as the Roman maiden was choked by the golden bracelets for which 2 4 o MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT she betrayed the city. " Men, not walls, not empty ships, are the city," said Nicias to his army. Ma- terial prosperity, culture, and learning count for little if a nation fails to develop that spiritual quality which transcends all other possessions. " ' Iceland,' said William Morris, ' is the Greece of the North.' It produced in the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries a literature unparalleled after Rome before the golden age of England and France, in character drawing, in passionate dramatic power, in severe, noble simplicity, in grim humor. " All characters of the Sagas live and move to- day. . . . The Icelander of to-day knows them by heart. It is as if every Englishman, from pauper to king, knew Shakespeare's historical plays and could retell them more or less in his own words. . . . It has preserved the language almost untouched by time and foreign intercourse. u Nowhere is the contrast between man and his surroundings so glaring as in Iceland. Buried in snow and darkness, deprived of every comfort, liv- ing on rancid butter and dried fish, drinking sour whey and milk, dressed like servants, seeking in a little boat his food, yet a cultured mind, possessing an intimate knowledge not only of the history of his TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 241 own country, but of Greece and Rome; a poet fond of throwing off satires, intellectually and morally the equal of his European guests, considering himself your equal and refusing to be ordered about by a rich Englishman, owner of several square miles of land and hundreds of sheep, with a pedigree going back farther than that of his visitor; a jack-of-all-trades, a blacksmith in his smithy, boat-builder and carpenter, an artist in filigree work, a carver in wood, an eager reader in books, he has universal education up to the degree to which it is useful for a man. " There are no schools in Iceland, yet every child at 12 can read, according to parish statistics. In no country in Europe are so many books printed and sold in proportion to the population. " A population of only 76,000 scattered in many hamlets, has twelve printing presses, the earliest being established as far back as 1530; about 100 books annually, 14 newspapers, and 8 periodicals are pro- duced to satisfy the literary needs of this little nation. Yet this literary people still live in a pastoral Homeric civilization, which is a modern lesson of the health- fulness of human life lived in close contact with the free, wild life of Nature, such as would have de- lighted the heart of Rousseau or Thoreau." * *" Iceland; Its History and Inhabitants": Jon Stcfansson, Ph.D. 242 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT This does not picture the ideal existence, but it will serve to illustrate the fact that the supporters of modern civilization have no grounds whatever upon which to base their claims. It proves that a civilized community is quite capa- ble of transmitting its attainments to its offspring without the maintenance of those institutions which we consider so indispensable to the civilizing process. That, if civilization means the perpetuation of these institutions, it is a delusion. That the man or woman who cannot, without the aid of schools or other in- stitutions, instruct his or her children in all that is necessary to meet the demands of life, is an uncivil- ized person, and shows the folly of maintaining in- stitutions which do not really civilize us which can never civilize us. Even Captain Roald Amundsen, in " The North- west Passage," " records the melancholy conviction that the Eskimo, living absolutely isolated from civili- zation of any kind, are undoubtedly the happiest, healthiest, most honorable, and most contented peo- ple." It requires but little imagination to see how easy men can make life for themselves, if they hold the Earth's natural resources in common, and how few institutions they are actually dependent upon for their TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 243 happiness. As every man under such circumstances will stand on his own feet, he may be anything he likes, from a scientist to a nomad, without disturbing the life of his neighbor. Then, and then only, will he be in a position to enjoy the largest measure of freedom possible to man. The reason why the truly civilized man rebels against present institutions is, because they are forci- bly saddled upon him, and he is obliged to bear the burden of that which does not benefit, but which, instead, makes a slave of him. This fact is clearly illustrated by Tolstoy in his masterly criticism of modern science set forth in his discussion of Edward Carpenter's essay on the same subject. Carpenter proves that neither Astronomy, nor Physics, nor Chemistry, nor Biology, nor Sociology gives us a true knowledge of actual facts, but that all the " laws " discovered by these sciences are only generalizations, which have but an approximate value as laws. " Each science," he says, " has been (as far as possible) reduced to its lowest terms. Ethics has been made a question of utility and inherited ex- perience. Political Economy has been exhausted of 244 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT all conceptions of justice between man and man, of charity, affection, and the instinct of solidarity; and has been founded on its lowest discoverable factor, namely, self-interest. Biology has been denuded of the force of personality in plants, animals, and men ; the ' self ' here has been set aside, and the attempt made to reduce the science to a question of chemical and cellular affinities, protoplasm, and the laws of osmose. " Chemical affinities, again, and all the won- derful phenomena of Physics are emptied down into a flight of atoms; and the flight of atoms (and of astronomic orbs as well) is reduced to the laws of dynamics." " It is supposed that to reduce higher questions to terms of lower ones will explain the higher. But this explanation is never attained, and what happens is that, descending lower and lower in its investigations, from the most essential questions to those of less essential, science at last reaches a domain quite foreign to man, and only adjacent to him, to which domain it confines its at- tention, leaving without any solution all questions most important to man. " But without settling beforehand the question whether the method of the experimental sciences can or cannot achieve a solution of the problems of life TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 245 most important for humanity, the activity itself of the experimental sciences, considered in relation to the eternal and most legitimate demands of humanity, impresses one by its fallacy. " Men must live. And in order to live they must know how to live. All men always well or ill- have learnt this, and in accordance with their knowl- edge, have lived and progressed. And this knowledge of how men should live was always, since the times of Moses, Solon, Confucius, considered a science the very science of sciences; and it is only in our time that it has begun to be regarded that the science of how to live is not a science at all, but that true science is only experimental science, beginning with Mathematics and ending with Sociology. And a strange misunderstanding arises. " A simple and sensible workingman according to the old sense and common sense as well supposes that if there are men studying all their life, and who think for him in return for being fed and provided for by him, then these men are probably engaged in studying what is needful for man, and he expects from science that it will solve for him those questions on which depend his welfare and that of all men. . . . And what does our science reply? It tri- umphantly announces how many millions of miles the 246 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT Sun is from the Earth, how many millions of undula- lations of ether per second are produced by light, and how many undulations of atmosphere by sound; it tells of the chemical composition of the Milky Way; it tells of a new element, Helium : of micro-organisms and their excrements, of the points in the hand where electricity concentrates, of X-rays, and so on. 4 But all this is not at all what I am in need of knowing,' says the simple, sensible man. 4 I want to know how to live.' ' I don't care what you are in need of knowing,' replies Science, 4 what you ask for refers to Sociology. But before answering these ques- tions of Sociology we must settle questions of Zoology, Botany, Physiology in short, Biology. And in order to settle these questions it is first neces- sary to solve questions of Physics, of Chemistry . . .' And men, chiefly those who sit on the backs of others, and who can, therefore, conveniently wait, are satis- fied by such answers, and continue sitting and yawn- ing, awaiting what was promised. But the simple and sensible workingman, he on whose back the men studying science are sitting, the great mass of people, humanity at large, cannot be satisfied with such re- plies, and naturally asks in wonder, 4 But when will this be? We cannot wait. You yourselves say that you will find out all this after several generations. TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 247 But we live, we are alive to-day and to-morrow we die, and, therefore, we must know how we are to live the life we are in now. Teach us, then.' " ' The stupid and ignorant man ! ' answers Sci- ence ; ' he does not understand that what science serves is not utility but science. " ' Science studies everything,' and men of science ' have invented for themselves a theory of science for science's sake,' according to which science studies not what is necessary to men, but everything. And all those sciences whose object is to make life better and happier religion, moral and social sciences are not regarded as sciences by the reigning science. . . . Our method is the only true one, ours the only true science. . . . One part of it, that which should study the means of making human life good and happy, is occupied in justifying the existing bad order of life, and the other is absorbed with the solution of questions of idle curiosity. ' How idle curiosity? ' I hear exclaimed by voices indignant at such blasphemy. ' How about steam, electricity, telephones, and all our technical improve- ments? Not to speak of their scientific importance, observe the practical results they have achieved. Man has conquered Nature, subjected its forces to himself. . . .' 'But,' replies the simple and sen- 2 4 8 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT sible man, ' all the practical results of man's victory over Nature from long ago up to the present, are applied to manufactures injurious to the people; to means for exterminating man, to increasing luxury, dissoluteness; and, therefore, man's victory over Na- ture has not increased the welfare of men, but, on the contrary, made their condition worse.' ' Thus the exact relation which the mass of human- ity and science and our innumerable institutions bear to one another becomes obvious. The civilized man has no objection to the indi- vidual's investigation of any and everything so long as the latter does so on his own account, and not on his, the civilized man's back, who knows that he can exist quite comfortably without these investigations. The civilized man's indifference to them means not the abolition of all things, but merely the relegation of science and our institutions to their proper spheres of action the same as in the case of the individual. When Christ said: "Consider the lilies of the field," and " take no thought of the morrow," he knew exactly what he was talking about in spite of all modern assurances to the contrary. The civilized man has no quarrel with the world; he merely refuses to allow his rights to be encroached TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 249 upon. " A sufficient quantity of the Earth's natural resources are at your disposal to insure your exist- ence, freedom, and development," says the civilized man. " Pursue your investigations within your own sphere, but do not insist upon dragging me against my will under their influence. " I am the product of past centuries of human travail, and stand above my institutions my art, my science, my philosophy, and my religion. I welcome all forms of real progress, but bear in mind that I am the ideal of which the race has dreamed, and I prefer to choose my own methods of climbing toward the stars." Science and our institutions, like the individual man, must stand of themselves or fall. The civilized man, the true representative of the race and the per- fect product of past human development, has at last arrived, and he sees things as they are; not as semi- civilized men are trying to make them appear. He is fully cognizant of his divine rights and mis- sion, those things which have made him what he is, and which alone hold out hope to future humanity. And he will no more surrender his liberty and birth- right to science, art, philosophy, and man-made re- ligions, than he will to anarchism, socialism, plu- tocracy, or corrupt democracy. 250 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT A cycle of human development has drawn to its close. Humanity now stands knocking at the portals of human destiny; they must open shortly. Which will it choose a life of freedom, conducive to the supreme development of man, all that the Earth has to offer, or a continuance of the slavery and drudgery bequeathed to it by past generations of semi-civilized men ; a condition in which individuals or classes rule, not the community, and ignorance and never-ending misery necessarily prevail? This is the turning-point in every civilization the problem that confronts every nation at some stage or other in its development. Society must either leap forward with renewed strides toward a higher life, or sink back into the barbarous conditions of a more primitive state. Political differences being no longer matters of principle, but merely a question of the price set upon them by plutocracy and the demigods in power, it is plain that the present social organization cannot endure because of its corrupt moral founda- tion. A people whose chief interest is that of material gain, invariably cheapens its outlook upon life, and sows the seeds of future revolutions. " The poor and powerless of the present may become the wealthy TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 251 and strong of the future, and vice versa. Perpetual disturbance is their doom." It seems incredible that the majority of the hun- dreds of millions of men inhabiting this planet should any longer allow themselves to be subjected to the suffering and inconvenience occasioned by the cupidity of ignorant, unscrupulous individuals representing the minority, who are able to maintain themselves in power through their purely imaginary right of con- trol over land. " It is somewhat surprising," says Sir Oliver Lodge, " that it is quite legal and ordinary for a person to be able to sell a portion of England for his own behoof. It does not seem to be reasonable, in any high sense, that a bit of the country itself should belong absolutely to some individual, so that he has the right to cut down trees on it, to dig up the minerals in it, to sell either it or its coal, to lay it waste and desolate as a deer forest, or a cinder- heap, if it so pleases him, and to levy a tax on build- ing enterprise; to do, in fact, what he likes with his own, and live elsewhere on the proceeds in idleness and luxury . . . that is the system under which we have grown up, and are absolutely accustomed to. . . I do not think that matters of such vital im- 252 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT portance should be left to the caprice of an individual, nor that any abuse of his rights should be permis- sible." Again, says the Right Honorable Chief Justice Longfield " Property in land differs from property in any commodity produced by human labor. The product of labor naturally belongs to the laborer who pro- duced it. But the same argument does not apply to land, which ... is the gift of the Creator to Man- kind. Every argument used to give an ethical foundation for the exclusive right of property in land has a latent fallacy ... a state of law under which a country would exist not for its people, but for a mere handful of them, ought to be instantly and absolutely set aside." It is idle longer to temporize with sophistries. The great First Cause, the necessity of Creation, is the dominant law of life. The peace and wel- fare of the community lie in the common unity of individuals and classes, not in their estrange- ment and separation, for what wrecks one, wrecks all. TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 253 The disastrous effects of class-dominance every- where apparent throughout the world to-day prove conclusively that the over-civilization of man is quite as disastrous to the further progress of an intellectu- ally developed race of men as a complete state of sav- agery would be were it forced upon them. But why these privileged classes? Why should the interests and welfare of any class of society be suppressed to please the whim or suit the convenience of an- other? The fact that a certain class of individuals desire certain conditions that are distasteful to others is no reason why the rest of the community should accept them be forced to live according to others' ideas of life. Think of men, intelligent beings, inhabiting a globe in space of but limited area, from which there is no escape, and with no precise or accurate knowl- edge of the why and wherefore of their existence, from whence they came or whither they are going, permitting individuals to buy and sell the surface of the planet Earth, the ground beneath their feet, to destroy forests, to control mineral deposits and water- courses ! Think of the absurdity and idiocy of allowing individuals living in New York, London, or Paris, 254 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT to control the destinies of people living thousands of miles distant in Africa, India, China, California, or Canada! The Earth was not especially created for groups of individuals for financiers, soldiers, merchants, farmers, mechanics, artists, scientists, or nomads, or any other conceivable class of men, but for the human race to enjoy in common, regardless of racial or class distinction, in order that the individual, man, might develop freely and naturally. The Earth was not created in order that men might inclose or fence off greater or lesser portions of its surface to suit the individual's whim, hindering the free development of the race. It was intended that it should be free for man to roam over from Pole to Pole, from the rising to the setting Sun, independent of human institutions and inven- tions created by individuals solely for pecuniary ends. Tragic and pathetic as man's present situation is, it nevertheless borders on the ridiculous. For think of a race of sentient, intelligent beings situated as man is in the Universe, and possessing a vast amount of scientific knowledge and data concerning this Uni- verse, quietly sanctioning an individual's right to talk of his land, his forests, his minerals, his waters, while TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 255 knowing full well that it would be quite as na'ive, absurd, and irrational for him to sanction the indi- vidual's right to talk of his Sun, his Moon and Stars, his Heaven and Hell, his Universe, as something ex- clusively his own. XXVI THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE TT is not necessary to become nomads and live in tents in order to secure the greatest things in life liberty and happiness. ' The first man was a gardener, we are told. Cer- tain it is that the first men were tillers of the soil, after they ceased to be wandering warriors. That is where we get our love of Nature; that is why we build parks and have flowers clambering about our premises; that is why we are strangely at peace when we get out into the mountains and lose ourselves among the fragrant woods; that is why we loathe at times the smell of paint that is on civilization and long for the perfume of the life that is close to the green leaves and the wild flowers." Wandering warriors, the vision of the Red Man beneath the cedar tree, the flight of wild fowl in the spring and autumn, the laughter of children 356 TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 257 and humming of wild bees the wind-tossed ocean, the broad expanse of Heaven and Earth what latent memories, what emotions do they arouse within us ! The migratory habit the desire to roam afield is strong within us, for it is natural. It will not do to fence or inclose the entire surface of the Earth, preventing the free movements of the individual; sedentary habits, if indulged in too long, are death to man. He must be free to develop naturally like any other creature; otherwise he suffers the loss of his primal instincts as do domesticated animals. He becomes subject to every form of disease and degeneracy, and lacking his original capability of sustaining himself from natural sources, he is com- pelled to nourish himself by artificial means. His life, like his methods of self-support and his environ- ment, becomes thoroughly artificial. " I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated," says Thoreau, " any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated, part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest. ... In Wildness is the preservation of the world. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men 258 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT plow and sail for it. From the forest and the wilder- ness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind. " Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has arisen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It is because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were. I be- lieve in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows. We require an in- fusion of hemlock-spruce or arbor-vitae in our tea." " Man," says Alexander von Humboldt, " is a product of soil and climate, and is brother to rocks, trees, and animals. The finest flowers grow where there are the finest birds, and man separated from birds, beasts, and flowers could not possibly survive." The grand, enduring epics of a people originate among its mountains and forests, its fields and streams, not in its cultivated areas of land. The hot-house rose, the crow of the barn-yard cock, or the patient plodding of the domesticated ox are indeed subjects for eulogy, but those grand flights of imagination which lift a nation to the supreme TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 259 heights in art and science, and which alone survive when its material forces pass away, have ever found their origin in the flight of the eagle and the bounding of deer; in the breath of wild flowers, in the voices of the winds and waters, and in the soft shining of the stars. Nothing, we repeat, can compensate man for the loss of liberty. We should open our souls to the influence of every wind that blows. We must come in touch with Nature to develop naturally physic- ally and spiritually. We must come in direct con- tact with the soil from time to time; its magnetic currents are essential to supply the waste of the chem- ical elements of the body occasioned by dwelling too long in houses and cities, where walls and pavements cut man off from the life-giving, magnetic influence of the Earth and the pure air of heaven. This is quite as essential to the higher development or civilization of mankind as are the rudiments of true culture to the further advancement of the savage. Such a state can only be attained by freeing the land by creating and maintaining a free as well as a cul- tivated zone the normal condition of the natural man. Man's return to Nature does not mean the idiotic things that most people assert. It does not mean the stripping of one's clothes from one's back 26o MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT and running naked, but merely the simple conform- ance on the part of man to those laws which were ordained from the beginning for his natural develop- ment, and which are as much in force to-day as they were then. By the natural man is not meant the savage, the farmer, or the mentally half-developed nomad, but man in his fullness. The man whose intellectual and spiritual development to-day are the product of the direct influences of the religions, arts, sciences, and philosophies of the past. But since these religions, arts, sciences, and philosophies have practically reached the limits of their usefulness as instruments of instruction for the further advancement of man- kind as a whole, it becomes necessary for man to recognize and free himself from these limitations if his psychical unfoldment is to continue along natural lines, and to create that state or condition which will permit the further development of human knowledge without making himself subservient to that condition. We are returning to first principles or Nature, not for the realization of material ends and aims, but with a more distinct idea of the purpose of man's sojourn on Earth and of his relationship to God and the Universe. And it is high time for humanity to free itself from the superstitious, hypnotic influences TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 261 of these arts, sciences, and philosophies which have served their purpose as instruments for the advance- ment of the race as a whole. The human mind is still so stupefied by the in- fluences, tendencies, and prejudices of the past that it is only half awake. We think, live, and act as did our ancestors, and like them still permit ourselves to be ruled through the power of organized violence, called law, or the immoral persuasion of unscrupulous individuals, and the superstitions of outworn institu- tions established by those who have lived before us. " The skeleton hand of the past," says Ibsen, " throttles the throat of the present. We not only live in dead men's houses and read dead men's books and enjoy dead men's fortunes, but we believe in the religions and conventions which dead men in- vented, and we inherit the diseases that dead men have bequeathed to us. Government, municipal and demo- cratic, is a legacy from the past. The relation of the sexes and of parents and children are based upon outworn creeds. We do not follow our own rules of morality, and those rules are the product of a pre- scientific and semi-savage period." Are the majority of men incapable of grasping this truth, of realizing that the greatest crime a man 262 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT can commit to-day is to leave as a legacy to his children our present social conditions which as we know full well can only be maintained by deceit, subterfuge, force, and violence, and which in the end must make rogues of men ? The fact that our ancestors bequeathed these con- ditions to us is no reason why we should continue to uphold them bequeath them to our children. Our lives are no more a part of their lives than our times are a part of their times. Nor will coming genera- tions of men be any more capable of accepting our threadbare conceptions of life, and enduring the de- basing influences of present conditions than we would be of returning to the social conditions of the Middle Ages. Under existing conditions, the success of one means the ruin of another. It cannot be other- wise. This ancient conception of creation's purpose, that the Earth was intended for a toy, that it and its re- sources might be seized and controlled by individuals while the rest of humanity went begging, is still held by the majority of men. And just so long as we con- tinue in this belief, and fail to assert our incontestable right and title to all things which our bountiful Mother Earth holds in store for us, just so long must TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 263 the human race continue to be crushed and broken on the wheel of life. Why then a continuance of this agonized, fruitless struggle, whose soulless, purposeless aims must ever fall short of all sane attainment? Shall the famous lines of Campanella with which he stigmatized humanity forever stand a witness to our stupidity: " The people is a beast of muddy brain That knows not its own strength, and therefore stands Loaded with wood and stone ; the powerless hands Of a mere child guide it with bit and rein; One kick would be enough to break the chain; But the beast fears, and what the child demands It does; nor its own terror understands, Confused and stupefied by bugbears vain. Most wonderful ! with its own hand it ties And gags itself gives itself death and war For pence doled out by kings from its own store. Its own are all things between Earth and Heaven; But this it knows not; and if one arise To tell this truth, it kills him unforgiven." Perhaps, after we have eaten grass with Nebuch- adnezzar and the ox a while longer, and our ideals of 264 MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT life begin to rise above our longings for cheap beer and tobacco, we shall arise and reclaim our birthright ! Man is the maker of his own destiny. The Uni- verse is his. It is his heritage, and contains no secret which he shall not grasp. u No man," said Canon Farrar, " can pass into eternity for he is already in it. The dead are no more in eternity now than they always were, or than every one of us is at this moment. " We may ignore the things eternal; shut our eyes hard to them; live as though they had no existence nevertheless, eternity is around us here, now at this moment, at all moments; and it will have been around us every day of our ignorant, sinful, selfish lives. Its stars are ever over our heads, while we are so diligent in the dust of our worldliness, or in the tainted stream of our desires. The dull brute globe moves through its ether and knows it not; even so our souls are bathed in eternity and are never conscious of it." There is no escape from life's eternal May; like eternity it is measureless, timeless, nameless. Then why not live to-day as we would live to-morrow? Verily, the way of the transgressor is hard, for Nature invariably avenges herself on him who vio- TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE 265 lates her laws. Of the cup of bitterness which man has prepared for himself, and which is now held to his lips, he shall drink. Ay, he shall not only drink of it once, but twice and thrice over even to the dregs until he is again willing to return unto his Mother, the Earth, the birthright which She bestowed upon him in the beginning. The sacred birthright which She lent him for use only, but which he has seized and bartered away for that miserable mess of pottage, individual ownership and control of Her natural resources. EPILOGUE CHILDREN of Earth, you have been robbed of your Birthright through the iniquities of your Fathers, who like yourselves were not without sin. But in order that the sins of the Fathers may not again be visited upon the Sons, see that you follow not in their footsteps. Children of Earth, you have been robbed of your birthright; reclaim it! APPENDIX INDEX TO APPENDIX PAGE 1. Domestic Consumption of Flour per capita. . . . 267 2. Estimate of per capita Consumption of Wheat in Certain Countries 268 3. The per capita Annual Consumption of Wheat in the United Kingdom 270 4. Small Farms from One to Twenty Acres 270 5. Yields of Wheat per Acre -..,.. 271 6. Yields of Corn per Acre 273 7. Yields of Potatoes per Acre 277 8. Examples in Dry Farming with and without Ir- rigation in the Semi-arid Regions of the United States 281 9. Raising Dates in the Sahara Desert 284 10. List of what a One- Acre Farm contains in the Sacramento Valley, California 285 11. List of Products raised by Mr. Vincent, Brighton, England, on Half an Acre of Land 286 12. Information Concerning the raising of Game, Also Information Concerning Fish- and Bee- Culture, the rearing of Squabs, Drug-plants, and other Novel and Profitable Uses of Land 288 13. History of "The Twenty- Acre Farm" 301 APPENDIX No. i "The census [Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Vol. VI. Agr. Part II, p. 32] estimates the domestic 367 268 APPENDIX consumption of flour to be equal to 5.31 bushels of wheat per capita in 1900, as compared with 5.29 bushels in 1890. As it takes 4.77 bushels of wheat to make a barrel of flour, this is i.i barrels of flour per inhabitant. About 1.4 bushels per acre, or about 1 1 per cent, of the normal crop, is estimated to be required for seed. This makes the total requirement, aside from its use as food for domestic animals and such secondary uses as breakfast foods, 6.29 bushels per inhabitant, or about 475 million for the United States in 1900. . . . For the five years ending in 1902, the production of wheat in Europe has been 4.1 bushels per capita. The net import of wheat has been something less than one bushel per capita. This does not, however, represent Europe's total bread requirement, as large quantities of rye bread are used by the inhabitants of several European countries." ' " Yield per acre. . . . The two countries which produce the most wheat have the smallest yield per acre. The average yield of wheat in bushels per acre, 1894-1900: ' United Kingdom 31.8 Germany 26.0 France 19.4 Hungary 17.1 Austria 16.4 United States 13.4 Russia 9.0 " APPENDIX No. 2 " An estimate of the per capita consumption of wheat in certain countries was presented to the British Royal Com- " The Cereals in America": Thomas F. Hunt. 1905. p. 126. APPENDIX 269 mission on Supply of Food and Raw Material in Time of War, by Mr. W. S. Patterson of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association. The estimate and remarks prefacing it are as follows : * 'It is possible to make a fairly accurate estimate of the per capita consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom because by far the largest proportion of the whole comes from abroad and can be exactly ascertained. This remark would also apply to Belgium, Holland, and possibly one or two minor countries. . . . The quantity used for reseeding, which varies somewhat in different coun- tries and must to some extent be estimated, and also any small quantity used for farm-seeding or sizing for manu- factures, must be deducted. Taking all these things into consideration, and after consulting the figures for a few years past, I beg to submit the following estimates for food consumption per capita in bushels of 60 pounds: I. In Importing Countries II. In Exporting Countries Bu. Bu. United Kingdom 5.6 United States 4.7 Germany 3.2 Canada 5.5 Belgium 7.2 Russia 2.6 France 7.8 Balkan Provinces . . 4.3 Holland 3.9 India 0.7 Italy 4.4 Australia 5.5 Spain 5.3 Argentina 4.0 ' ' Portugal 2.5 Sweden 2. Greece 3.3 Austria-Hungary , 3.6 Switzerland 5.7 * Crop Reporter, September, 1905. 270 APPENDIX APPENDIX No. 3 A more recent report shows Mr. Blatchford's figures to be somewhat in error. According to Thomas F. Hunt, the average yield of wheat in bushels per acre from 1894-1900 for the United Kingdom was 31.8 bushels. According to the Crop Reporter, Washington, D. C., September, 1905, the per capita annual consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom is 5.6 bushels. Allowing 6 bushels for the per capita consumption of wheat, the 40,000,000 inhabitants would consume annually 240,000,000 bushels of wheat. At 31.8 bushels the acre, 8,000,000 acres would produce 254,- 400,000 bushels of wheat. This gives 240,000,000 bushels required for the annual consumption of the United King- dom, also allows 11,200,000 bushels annually for reseeding, and still leaves 3,200,000 bushels over and above require- ments. APPENDIX No. 4 United States * Farms under 3 acres 41,882 Farms of 3 acres and under 226,564 " " 10 " " " 407,012 England Farms above I acre and not exceeding 5. . 87,055 " 5 " " " " 20.. 108,145 France Farms less than 2.47 acres 2,235,405 " of 2.47-12.35 " 1,829,259 Germany Farms less than 2.47 acres 2,529,132 " of 2.47-12.35 " 1,723,553 * Statistics for 1892 and 1895. Number of small farms in the United States is steadily increasing. APPENDIX 271 APPENDIX No. 5 WHEAT Northeast Sub-Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota : 1898. White Russian 61 bushels per acre. 1899. " " 54.6 " " " Michigan Board of Agriculture. Upper Peninsula, Sub- station, 1 90 1 - 1 902 : * Fall Wheat Dawson 41 bushels per acre. Agriculture Experiment Station, Stillwater, Okla.f Vari- ety, Fulcaster 1901 : Early Plowing 43.6 bushels per acre. Medium " 38.2 " " " Late " ... 40.2 " " " Wheat 1879 % Producer Locality Variety Yield per Acre Bushels C. H. Daun Warsaw, N. Y. Clawson 46 N. W. Dean Madison, Wis. Red Winter ... 45 A. E. Blout Fort Collins, Ool. Australian 59 John McClellan Minneapolis, Minn. Red Winter ... 61^ Ed. Short Salina, Kan. " " ... 56 E. L. Russel Tecumseh, Mich. Deihl 42^ Geo. Lester Raisen, Mich. " 47 James Penrose Coatsville, Pa. Fultz 54 James H. Hess Columbus, Ohio " 46^ W. H. Colcord St. Joseph, Mo. Clawson 49 R. Johnson E. Groveland, N. Y. Clawson & Wicks 60 *L. M. Geisraar, Superintendent, Special Bulletin No. 2O. f Bulletin No. 65, June, 1905. Table 3, p. 13. $" Wheat Culture": D. S. Curtis, 1888; 4th Edition, 1890. 272 APPENDIX (1) Pullman, Wash:* Plat No. 14. Planted Nov. 20-21, 1894 Theiss, 57.5 bushels per acre. Plat No. 20. Planted Nov. 20-21, 1894 White Track, 57.1 bushels per acre. (2) igoi.f Spring Wheat Sown Ripe Yield per Acre Bushels Red Fife May 2 Aug. 27 48 Preston "4 " 16 45 Huron "4 "22 45 1904-t Red Fife Apr. 29 Sept. 5 39 Preston "28 Aug. 26 38 (3) The Experimental Farm at Brandon, Manitoba, Canada: $ Variety Yield per Acre Bushels Red Velvet Chaff 40 Turkey Red 39 Abundance 39 American Banner 38 Karkov 38 Imperial Amber 37 Red Chief 36 The yield per acre is expressed in bushels of sixty pounds. * Fifth Annual Report of the Washington State Agricultural Ex- periment Station, June 30, 1895. Pullman, Wash. W. J. Spillman, Agriculturist. t " Experimental Farms Report": William Saunders, Director. Ottawa, Canada, December i, 1904. " Experimentalist ": Charles E. Saunders. APPENDIX 273 Macaroni Wheat * Variety Yield per Acre Weight per measured bushel after cleaning Roumanian ............... 39 bus. 63 Ibs. Velvet Don ........ ....... 36 " 63^2 " Goose ................... 35 " Spring Wheat 1904 f Varieties Yield per Acre Weight per bushel Monarch .............. 50 bus. 20 Ibs. 63^2 Ibs. Advance .............. 49 " 45 " 59 " White Russian ......... 48 " 50 " 60^ " Power's Fife [Minn. 149] 48 " 40 " 63^ " McKendry's [Minn. 188] 45 " 30 " 62^ " Minnesota No. 163 ..... 45 " 20 " 62 l / 2 " Australia No. 19 ........ 44 " 20 " 62 " Red Fife .............. 43 " 5 " 62^ " Laurel ........... ..... 42 " 50 " 62 " Wellman's Fife ........ 42 " 50 " 62^ " Stanley ............... 42 " 25 " 64 " Benton ............... 42 " 15 " 63 " Clyde ................. 41 " 50 " 62 " Australia No. 9 ........ 41 " 40 " 63^ " Huron, Old Land ...... 42 " 47 " 63 " APPENDIX No. 6 CORN " In 1902 the high protein plat produced 74.6 and 86.4 bushels per acre. * " Experimental Farms Reports." Report of Mr. Angus Mackay, Superintendent. f Experimental Farm, Indian Head, N.W.T., Canada, 1905. 274 APPENDIX " In 1904 rows 22 and 21 produced 79.2 and 96.4 bushels per acre." * " In 1889 Zachariah Jordan Drake, in Marlborough Co., South Carolina, grew 255 bushels of shelled corn from one acre. " Drake's crop was harvested November 25 before several reputable witnesses. " It gave 254 bushels, 49 Ibs. of shelled corn at 56 Ibs. to the bushel." f " Let us follow the progeny of a high yielding and Grand Champion mother ear into the second or third generation. " In the spring of 1901 in connection with several thou- sand other ears of corn, all gathered and selected with the utmost care, a certain ear, whose record number shows as No. 12 a., yielded at the rate of 64 bushels per acre. That year being an exceedingly dry year, the yield of 64 bushels was considered quite large when we took into account the average yield under field conditions for that year. " Following the high standard and rigid selection in the seed, only two ears were found which could qualify as good or better than the mother ear. 'These two ears were given the numbers 24 and 120 of this particular variety of corn and they were planted in in- dividual rows, not side by side, but along with other pedigreed ears of high merit, in two separate fields. Both of these ears proved to be the Grand Champions of their breeding block; yielding 91 and 90 bushels respectively, and from each of these, seed was selected. " From ear 24 we have five ears whose yield the following * C. J. Hopkins, L. H. Smith, E. M. East. Illinois Station. Bul- letin No. 100. f'The Book of Corn," Orange Judd Publishing Company, 1903. APPENDIX 275 year was respectively 123, 93, 118, 117, and 137 bushels per acre; and from No. 120, five ears yielding 133, 117, 144, 126, and 132 bushels per acre." * FUNKS YELLOW DENT Strain No. 140. Protein 1902 1903 1904 "*:Ear No. 237.. J **Ear No. 388, yield 100 bu. yjeld 96 bu cS at Ear No. 135. . . yield 114 bu. : Ear No. P3I2, yield n6bu. Ear No 318, yield 99 bu. No ' PS**! yield 99 bu. Ear No. 227 yield 101 bt i r^ . - _ Ear No 371, yield in bu. This strain averaged 101 bushels in 1904, and the seed we sell from this strain averages 12.03?* in protein. Strain No. 103. Oil 1902 1903 1904 ' Ear No. 320, yield no bu. Ear No. 335, yield 105 bu. Ear No. 325, yield 102 bu. Ear No. 328, yield 100 bu. ~ Ear No. 308, yield 105 bu. 5 Ear No. 305, yield 101 bu. _ Ear No. 304, yield 120 bu. g Ear No. 351, yield 120 bu. <; Ear No. 0312, yield 102 bu. This strain averaged 107 bushels in yield in 1904, and the seed we sell from this strain averages 5.20$ in oil. o, Ear No. 207 . \ J " ui yield 144 bu. i- Ear No. 225. j Ear No. 103 yield 117 bu. 1 yield 91 bu. Analyzed 5.95^ ~ Ear No. 234. 3 yield 126 bu. o> J i? ID in oil. bo rt b Ear No. 201 . . yield 133 bu. APPENDIX 277 GOLD STANDARD LEAKING Strain No. 201. Protein 1903 1904 ff Ear No. 313, yield 117 bu. o'-^ o ^ Ear No. 326, yield 117 bu. &; Ear No. 201. . J eu Ear No. 355, yield 112 bu. I <5 M z)o i UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A A 000007685 1