ARE you coming to the Henry George Congress, to be held in San Francisco next September? If so, start early, and make the trip with me. Come in your own buzwagon or use the auto stage. There is little satisfaction riding on railroad cars.

A Single Taxer's viewpoint is different from that of the ordinary mortal. Man and his ways are more interesting to him than tall buildings, picture shows or any of the commonplace attractions for multitudes of tourists. You are probably familiar with conditions in the Mississippi Valley and the Single Taxers of Missouri can "show you" that State. When you get into Kansas you will find considerable turmoil over the tax question. That State is the "farthest East" limit of the territory between there and the Pacific where the privileged interests are taking advantage of the sleepy Single Taxers and tightening their tolls upon industry and enterprise.

Now we are in Colorado, the land of privilege, plunder and shotguns. I have already told the readers of LAND AND FREEDOM something about the State Land situation in Colorado. Remember, as soon as you get within the borders of that State, to call on the assessor of every city, town and county through which you pass, and give him a sworn statement as to all the property you have in your handbag or suitcase, and then pay to him the proportion of the annual taxes on that property, for the five minutes or one hour you may be in the particular place. Don't fail in this, for under the tax laws of Colorado, if you should you are likely to be sent to jail. The law provides also that if the assessor neglects to hunt you up, and make you pay, he is subject to a fine of fifty dollars. So, don't imagine it's a highwayman who holds you up on the main road, at the entrance to any County or town, and demands your money.

A delightful contrast to this statute affecting the common mudsills of society, is the statute providing for the assessment of the property of the privileged interests! Colorado's tax laws require all public utility corporations to file a complete statement of the property they possess there with the State Tax Commission. The law further provides that these assessments statements must be kept secret by the Tax Commission, and makes it a penitentiary offence for any one to divulge their contents to any person. A singular quirk in the statutes makes every business corporation doing business in two or more counties a public utility for tax purposes. Of course, this secrecy is not designed to promote corruption or to aid privileged taxpayers in hiding their property and avoiding their just share of taxation! I imagine some of the boy legislators of Colorado fear that inquisitive citizens might wish to know if the Rockefeller Colorado Fuel and Iron Works was fairly assessed, or some of the public utilities that have such peculiar dealings with Denver and other cities, pay all their taxes. Of course, such inquiring citizens are "trouble makers."

One feature of the economic life of Colorado, which I found most interesting, is mining. There, as in all the western States, you will hear universal complaint that mining is dead. Of course, the Government is held responsible for this condition. To tell the truth, it is so, partly. But before going into that subject you will probably be interested in knowing that in Colorado they have a State institution called the Mining Fund, which is controlled by a Commission, appointed by the Governor, consisting solely of men representing the largest mining interests in Colorado. It gains its revenue by a small tax levied upon the output of mines. I called at the office of this Mining Fund in the State Building, seeking to get information as to its purposes. Instead of being given information, I was subjected to a cross examination by the Secretary as to the why and what and wherefore of my inquiry, ending with the query, Do you favor the Leasing Bill? At first, I was puzzled, and then it occurred to me that he meant the Coal and Oil Land Leasing Bill, passed by Congress in 1920, and I replied, "I am opposed to it; because it permits one person to take up twenty-five hundred acres of coal and oil land. " He did not give me time to say that such an area ofttimes exceeds the boundaries of an oil dome, which might yield hundreds of millions of dollars in "black gold," but said to me, with much emphasis, "These conservationists are robbing the American people of their right to private ownership of land." He then entered into a tirade against those patriotic American citizens, who object to a few interests monopolizing the mines, forests and other lands of the nation.

I never heard a higher compliment paid Gifford Pinchot in my life. The attitude of this Secretary of the Colorado State Mining Fund should cause all Single Taxers, and every other good citizen, to get behind Gifford Pinchot in his patriotic endeavor to save our national resources from exploiting monopolists. Fortunately, the Geological Survey Department, in its administration of the Coal and Oil Land Leasing Bill, construes its terms strictly, and requires proper development under all leases. This good work has added to the anger of the land grabbers.

However, the monopolists are indulging their greed to a greater degree in Colorado than in any of the western states. In the early days, eighty years ago, when gold was first discovered in California, it was the custom of the prospectors working on any creek or gulch or flat to organize a mining district, generally defining its boundaries by the ridges of the surrounding hills and the streams. They also provided laws to regulate the size of claims, their holding and the working of them. In the first districts, in 1848, a California miner had to get down on his knees, and strike out with his right arm as far as he could reach, to mark one corner of his claim. Then, pivoting on his right knee, he would in a similar manner mark the other three corners of his claim. When not working on his claim, day or night, he was required to leave his pick and shovel and pan on the ground, as evidence of possession. Later, the miners' laws provided that a claim should not exceed ten feet by ten feet, and that, on new diggings, five days absence, which had to be recorded with the mining district Recorder, would cause a forfeiture of the claim, and make it "jumpable."

Two years ago I spent my annual vacation along the Mother Lode mining section of California. I collected more than one hundred and fifty of these mining district laws, and made studies of the economic condition and viewpoint of the miners seventy and eighty years ago. The spirit of all these laws was, No Monopoly. Every American Citizen has an equal right of access to this natural opportunity for a living which God has given him. I found a mining district at Table Mountain organized by five men. The laws which they promulgated enabled them to file claims on the entire mountain. The files of a newspaper of that day showed that immediately the miners of the entire region were up in arms. They called a mass meeting, and organized a Tuolumne County Gravel Mining District, formulating new laws, limiting a claim to a reasonable size, and providing, as custom gave them a right, for the repeal of all the existing gravel mining district laws in that county. The addresses delivered by mining men at that meeting denounced the organizers of the Table Mountain District, saying that they would permit a few men to monopolize the entire Mountain; that it would take twenty years for a miner to work out the claims of 20 acres each, which they provided for themselves.

Later, in 1872, the Federal Government provided by statute that a mining claim might embrace an area six hundred by fifteen hundred feet, or nearly twenty-one acres. The statute also provided for certain work to be done on a claim, which I shall treat of later, and for the patenting of mining claims. That law was the doom of the mining industry. Today, no matter where you go in the mining states, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, you will find no opportunities for mining without paying enormous tribute to speculators, who secure their claims from the Government for a song, and make no effort to develop them.

After this explanation, you will better understand the Colorado situation. Among the many public offices in which I find valuable historical and economic data is the L T nited States Public Survey Office, generally situated near at hand to the U. S. Land Office. As the law requires every applicant for a patent to have his claim surveyed, I have examined the records in a great many of these public Survey Offices, in order to ascertain the amount of ground which a claimant might obtain. As I have already stated, the early miners in California limited a claim of virgin soil to ten feet by ten feet, and Congress allowed claims nearly twenty-one acres. Unfortunately, the liberality of Congress extended further, and permitted the taking up of any number of claims, and inclusion of any number of contiguous claims in one survey for patent. In the seventies, rarely would an application for patent exceed two claims, of twenty acres each. Even today the vast majority of applications in any state seldom exceed four claims.

But in Colorado I found a most remarkable situation. The dull spell in mining, since the war, has caused a great number of miners to abandon their claims. During the past few years new interests have filed upon these claims, and I found single applications for survey for patent including one hundred and fifty claims, or more than three thousand acres of mining ground! After diligent inquiry about the City of Denver, I was informed that the Gugenheim interests are taking up these claims, not only in one application of one hundred and fifty claims, but many of them.

The Gugenheim interests chiefly control the smelters in the west. They and other interests have brought about the adoption of so called High-Grade Laws which prevent storekeepers and others from buying gold or ore from prospectors, because of the heavy license tax and numerous restrictions imposed. Thus prospectors are compelled to send gold and ore long distances, and at a great expense, to the smelters, which make their own assay, and pay the miner according to their own account of the values. By this means the smelting interests become familiar with the richness of the ground in every mining camp. As dull times have forced the miners to abandon their claims, . these interests are now taking advantage of their knowledge and this opportunity, to grab up all the good mining ground in the country. In a few years there will be no opportunity, even by lease or purchase for any person, other than these interests, to develop a mine. If Single Taxers are interested in preserving the "margin of cultivation" in our country, which enables American workmen to maintain their present high standard of living, they will immediately urge Congress to repeal the existing mining laws, and not allow any person a patent for mining ground ; and further, that every holder of an unpatented claim must actually work his claim, say with similar regulations to those imposed by the Geological Survey Office, under the Coal and Oil Land Leasing Bill. Let use, development and working, be the only title which a man may have to public mining ground. If those Single Taxers who now devote their lives to the Wailing Wall, and our Howling Dervishes, will only come out of the deserts of New York City and Chicago, and devote their energies to prevailing on Congress the repeal of these monopolistic mining laws, then some real good may be accomplished to preserve for future generations these natural opportunities for a livelihood.

We cannot leave Denver without calling on our good Single Tax friend, Barney Haughey, and John McGauran. We will find Barney Haughey down at Larimer and 16th Street, the heart of the workingmen's lodging house district, in an old time office building. He has a twelve- dollar-a-month office in which he also lodges. From here notwithstanding the winters of many years have made his hair and beard as white as their snows, he keeps Colorado, and especially Denver, continually thinking about Single Tax. John McGauran is the same enthusiastic, vigorous and able advocate of Henry George's philosophy as he has been known universally to Single Taxers for the past forty years. That the attention of thinking people in Denver has been called to the Single Tax by these leaders is best evidenced in the Denver Public Library, where as large an assortment of Single Tax Literature will be found as exists in almost any library. And there is hardly anyone in Denver with whom you may discuss Single Tax principles, who will not immediately ask you, Is not that the Single Tax?

But to return to mining. The Federal Statutes, since '72, have provided that a person may hold nearly twenty- one acres of mining ground by filing his claim and delineating its boundaries, with a County Recorder. One hundred dollars worth of work must be done annually. In the seventies, the work amounted to about thirty days for the one hundred dollars. Unfortunately, many technical and unfriendly constructions of these laws have developed since that time, so that today the laws are practically worthless. By filing this claim at a certain date a speculator may hold it for two years almost before he does any work. A speculator may do one year's assessment work and never do any more; yet there is no means of proving that he did not do the work unless he is watched day and night during the entire year; furthermore, the law provides that if a claimant fails to do his work, and I, learning of that, take my tools and start out to the claim to work it, if the old claimant can get there before I do with his tools, all his rights revive, although he has not worked the claim for two, five or ten years, or more. I have been told that where parties take up large groups of claims, like the Gugenheims in Colorado, it is the practice to contract the assessment work. They tell me that these con- tractors juggle their statements so that in the end they do an average of one day's work for each claim, and put in their bill for ten days on each claim. One of the worst features of the Federal law is that it allows one person to take up any number of claims five, ten or a thousand. I know of an instance where parties have held mining ground for thirty years, until an adjoining owner who was developing a mine was compelled to buy out the speculator and pay him a high price.

Single Taxers who are puzzled by the query of objectors that there would be no permanency of tenure under the Single Tax, can point to Government mining claims as a complete answer to it. Literally, tens of thousands of valuable mines have been held and worked for years merely as claims, their sole title being the filing of the original claim and continual working of it. I was told of one claim in Arizona which, after having been worked for many years, sold for $1,500,000; and of another in Nevada that sold for $1,000,000.

The patenting of mining claims, or Government land of any kind, should be stopped immediately. When a patent is issued the Government loses title, and has no means of compelling any development work. When speculators or land grabbers, like the Gugenheims in Colorado, patent mining or other land, they get absolute control over it, and can keep it out of use until doomsday. Single Taxers should use these facts, and others easily learned, to prevail upon Congress to make the necessary changes in our mining laws. It must be remembered that Congressmen from mining states cannot be depended upon to bring about these changes. Their constituents are largely mining speculators, or their sympathizers.

In Colorado, the State Board Land Commission issue a "Special Prospector's Permit" to prospect State land for minerals for 120 days free of charge. If the prospector then desires to mine any of this land, it is leased to him in blocks of ten acres at an annual cost of seventeen dollars and fifty cents a year for each lease, and a royalty of not less than ten per cent, of the gross production to be paid to the State. The person leasing must do at least fifty feet of underground development work in shafts, drifts, or tunnels upon each ten acres, every year. Under the Federal Law, a claimant doing fifty feet of tunnel work would claim that it cost him five hundred dollars, therefore entitling him to a patent to nearly twenty-one acres, and perpetual ownership of the land; while in Colorado if he does not do this fifty feet of work each year he loses his title to the mine.

Before leaving Colorado, it might be well to look at other parts of the State. Denver is a sleepy conservative town full of old buildings, even the principal hotel being nearly forty years old. The telephone building is the only up- to-date structure. The buildings merely evidence the character of the people; the public service corporations seem to be in absolute control ; the street railway company even claims to have a perpetual right to use the streets of Denver. The Mayor and City Council recently raised carfares to ten cents, and a few years ago proposed a gas franchise and rates that imposed extraordinary conditions upon the people; and the press and politicians got the people to vote for it!

One newpaper, I was told, developed from the peddling of lottery tickets. The Rocky Mountain News, while Edward Keating was editor, had a national reputation as a progressive journal. A few years ago it was purchased by the Scripp-Howard Syndicate and now is nothing more than one of their stereotyped sheets. It would grieve the late E. W. Scripps and W. H. Porterfield to see how this paper ignores or injures the Single Tax movement. Its former individuality is almost lost in the name The News, except that its brilliant columnist Casey, is equal, if not superior, to Hearst's Brisbane. I was in Denver last Fourth of July. I read every line almost of that issue of The News, but I could not find a single reference in it to George Washington, Jefferson or any of the Revolutionary Fathers, or anything to indicate that it was a day AMERICANS celebrate. Instead, there were fully three columns in the paper of propaganda about the King of England and his family, as though America were again an English Colony.

But let us go down to Colorado Springs. There we find a new, up-to-date City, in striking contrast to sleepy Denver. An honest City Council and City Manager have almost wiped out corporation control there. The city owns and operates its water, electric light and gas plants. The street railway is owned and operated by a charitable trust of the city. The private corporation that operated the electric and gas plants lost money. The city instituted so many economies and superior methods of working, that both these utilities now pay their own way. A Standard oil controlled Company brought natural gas from Amarillo, Texas, to Denver, charging Denver 40 cents a 1,000 cubic feet. Supplying also the Rockefeller Fuel and Iron Works at Pueblo at 16 cents per 1,000 cubic feet.

When Colorado Springs sought a connection to this pipe line, passing by its city, such onerous conditions were sought to be imposed that the city had to reject the proposal. At the State Public Service Commission's office in Denver I was told they had no authority to compel the giving of this service to the city. There, and at the Denver Mayor's office, I was informed that the pipe line company had agreed, in its contract with the Denver Public Service Corporation, not to supply natural gas to any city in Colorado without the consent of that corporation. Such is the way of monopoly. In the Southern part of the State there are enormous coal fields, covering hundreds of thousands of square miles, including portions of New Mexico. The greater part of this coal land is now held by monopolists. From the State line to Denver, there are great areas of table land, covered with green grass, but not a head of stock on it. Near the cities will be found many dairies, the most of them very dilapidated. The most successful dairymen seem to be our Single Tax friends, the Sintons. Their dairy improvements show every sign of prosperity.

From Denver we can take the bus for Cheyenne, the Capitol of Wyoming; find out before hand the exact hour the bus leaves. My experience there led me to believe, since the Southern Pacific and other railroads got control of Pickwick and Yellowway stages, that they are operated not to accommodate passengers, but to discourage and drive them back to the railroads for transportation. At Fort Collins natural gas is being used from the nearby Wellington Fields, which also supplies Cheyenne.

North of Denver there are hundreds of Russians, renting dairy farms. In Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and all the Mountain States, the farms have a hard time existing. Their only cash receipts are such as one to ten or more cows bring them, some even milking the range cattle. The cream that is brought into the creameries throughout this country is known as "sour cream." Some of it comes three hundred or four hundred miles, after standing from a day to a week in the can on the roadside. Washing soda is commonly used by creameries to neutralize this sour cream. In one creamery, the operator told me that when the mix was put in the vat so much gas was generated, that it frequently blew open the two hundred pound cover. Most of the butter produced in these Mountain States is sent to Eastern and Pacific Coast Cities, where it is homoginized, and made into ice cream for the children. In one State a dairy inspector showed me a photograph of a cow barn, with the manure piled up on the sides and top. He said that the summer rains soaked through the manure, ran down the backs of the cows, and into the milking pails, and that the butter produced from the cream carried uric acid and formic acid, which our children get later in their ice cream.

Later I shall have you accompany me into that remarkable State of Wyoming, and down into the Mormon Economy about the Great Salt Lake in Utah, thence across Nevada and about California. I am sure that you will vote the coming Henry George Congress, at San Francisco, next September, to be one of the greatest events of your life, if you complete this trip with me.