The masterly logic of these reformers is the work of serene-tempered and
well-fed men, whose cosy library with windows facing to the south, and
the open fire-place with its soothing and cheerful glow, is conducive to
the developing of a red-tape reform that must be an inspiring subject
for discussion at an afternoon tea. Because they are well fed is the
reason why they can play a waiting game, but the despairing and maddened
people, for whose benefit this single tax contract, with its long
deferred payment, is being drawn up, will have as little use for it as
they will have for the plate-glass window when their bread riots begin.
The land owner alone is the one these one-horse-chaise reformers would
start their Dobbin after. The large landowner should be cut down in his
holdings, and their plan is just the one to fix him and make him let go.
They will tax him in such a way that he cannot pay, and then they have
got him, they tell us, as they leisurely jog along over their pleasant
highway.
Now, why this dilly-dallying with the large land-owner, or any one else,
that has something that he should surrender for the general good?
When the owning of 50,000 acres of land by one man is wrong, then it is
wrong to let him own it, and if there was one drop of the John Brown
blood in this crew of house-gown and plush-slipper reformers, they would
go into the enemy's camp, and never let up on their open warfare until
what belonged to the people was returned to them.
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