this
robbery, but it is simply reclamation of that which has too long been
lost or stolen. For the chief foundations of large fortunes, the chief
source of the great flood of accumulated wealth, has been the taxation
of the people by the monopoly of land and monopoly of mines--the
monopoly by private individuals of what justly belonged to the
commonwealth, but was captured by the sword or by law--aided by
cunning financial operations which stand on no higher plane than
gambling or fraud.

The British peerage draw an annual rental from their lands of
$66,000,000, and the American princes draw far more, but I have not
had time to find the statistics.[5] It will not be long before foreign
landlords shall draw $50,000,000 annually from the United States, if
they do not already, for they hold more than 20,000,000 acres, and on
these they may practise the eviction of tenants in the Irish fashion.
The wrongs of Irish tenants elicit universal sympathy, but they are
far surpassed now in America without outcry or comment. About
twenty-four thousand evictions occurred last year in the city of New
York, and this indicated more than a hundred thousand human beings
turned homeless into the streets, generally in a penniless condition!
The distressing evictions of the great cities, and the selling out of
thousands of western farmers under foreclosing mortgages, are
preparing a terrible mass of discontented population to whom a social
convulsion would not be alarming. Those who live under the pressure of
a terrible social system will not be sorry if it is overthrown by
violence.

[5] Parker Pillsbury mentions a Governor of Maine, who
owns in Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota,
and Canada, 691,000 acres.

A large portion of the city of New York is held at values ($50 a foot)
which would make its annual ground rental over $100,000 a year for a
single acre. When we think of the vast sums which have been
accumulating for centuries in the form of rent--say, for example, the
land rents of England, which, outside of mines, amount to $330,000,000
a year,--it will be apparent that the grand flood-tide of wealth,
which has passed into the possession of private individuals who have
been fortunate enough to acquire land titles long ago, and their
successors, exceeds by more than a hundred times all the wealth that
has not been squandered and remains in sight to-day.

But it is gone--squandered--and we nev