Confiscations; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918
Up among the peaks and valleys of the Sierra Nevada lies the town of
Mariposa, settled by gold seekers whose rich findings gave world wide
fame to this hamlet among the mountains. Aluvial gold and quartz bearing
gold was scattered with lavish hand through the surrounding hills, and
in the beds of the summer-dried streams. Generous laws of their own
making, gave ample room, and the eager workers toiled on, forgetting the
past hardships of the long journey where so many fell by the way, and
the rugged hills became endeared to them as they marked out the shaded
spots on their shelving sides where their coming dear ones could look
down on the busy scene below. But the camp follower with ready knife
never finished the wounded brave quicker than did the "land grant"
swindler finish Mariposa when her riches became the theme of every gold
camp throughout the world. And to-day the big hearted and stalwart miner
goes to fever-laden Africa and ice-bound Alaska, when there are whole
mountains of the best mineral bearing land in the world in his own
country, but which our present laws forbid him to touch.
Our people should no more bow to a Mexican land grant title than to a
superstition of their cave-dwelling ancestors.
What matters it, however, in what way these colossal robberies were
committed; by coffee-stained lie from Mexico, or perjured oath of
faithless citizen; it has been done, and it is time for the undoing.
Man developed the school house, and for this each is indebted to the
other, and the mutual debt is acknowledged by making the school free to
all.
The Creator developed the Earth from chaos to the habitable home of man,
free to all, but this debt is not acknowledged, and the many are driven
into the highway by the few.
Give us all the conveniences of modern life, railroads, telegraphs,
etc., etc., etc., but give us back the land, that is our natural
heritage as much as is the water we drink or the air we breath.
Give us back this birthright, or take your railroads, and so on, and
your civilization, and sink them deep in the depths of hell, for the
starving have no use for them, and we'll take the savage state that
knows no hunger except in the time of famine.
X.
Limit the ownership of land, be it arable, grazing, timber, or any other
kind, to 160 acres. As no one shall own more than $100,000 worth of
property all told, this 160 acres will have to be reduced as we get near
to the centres of population. This will still give the owner of such
convenient land an advantage over those living further out, who will
always be willing to exchange should the first rather follow the coarser
grades of farming to dairying or gardening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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