But when Confiscation gets
through with these monarchs of all they survey, the town or section
through which these railroads run will not find themselves like a sucked
orange by the wayside.
Taking the Southern Pacific Railroad, we find that it runs through
Madera County, California, but it is doubtful if ten cents worth of its
securities are owned there. Madera County, then, has property within her
borders that earns an income, not one cent of which goes to the county
where it was earned.[1] The property is there, but the income from it is
taken elsewhere. This is the one great flaw in our present economic
life, and is the very root of our present troubles.
The income from property is taken from the locality where it was earned.
And the farmer's wagon sinks to the hubs for want of money to build good
roads. And the laborer is robbed of the income that his labor earned,
and he sinks his manhood at the soup-house door. We repeat it: The great
defect in our economic life is the taking of the income from the locality
where it was earned, and from the laborer, the source of of it all. This
does not mean that the laborer must spend his income or wages where it
was made.
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