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a "double loop," and the morning the cattle are landed the knots are again changed into an "over-hang" loop, or a "double-bow." In either case these last knots are tied so that a man can run along a row of cattle and by one vigorous pull on each rope free them one by one. Every morning at 3:30 the men are called and at 4 o'clock they commence watering the cattle.

Throughout the ship, on each deck occupied by the cattle, are water pipes running overhead through the passageways, and at certain intervals are short pieces of hose by which the small movable tanks are filled with water. The duty of one man is to keep this tank filled, dip out pails of water and hand them to another man, who passes them to a third, and the last man, the foreman of the gang, fills and replenishes pails in front of the steers ill all have done drinking, some drinking as many as six pailsful at a time. There are four steers drinking at the same time out of as many pails. In the same way the cattle are again watered at 2 o'clock in the afternoon,

only being allowed one pail of water apiece.

To water one hundred and eighty head of cattle in the morning takes four men about an hour and a half. After watering they are fed hay, say six small bales to one hundred and thirty head. At 9 o'clock the cattle are given grain, either whole corn, ground oats, or meal. The troughs having been previously cleaned out, the grain is poured from a two-bushel bag into pails and distributed in the same way as the water, the foreman of the gang feeding out the grain, giving one-half pailful to each steer. After the grain has been fed the alleyways are swept out, and after being watered in the afternoon the cattle are fed all the hay they can eat, and much more, and what they do not eat is thrown under them as bedding. At 6:30 P. M. two night watchmen take charge till 4 o'clock next morning.

The morning the cattle are landed the knots are changed, the partitions between the different sections taken down, and gangways cleared ready to

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run them off the steamer. As soon as the gangplank for the cattle is secured the agents for the shippers come aboard, take account of stock, and take charge of the cattle when landed. When they begin to run the cattle off, as soon as they begin to move, the rest become impatient to follow, and then they begin to bellow, stamp, and pull at their ropes, trying to get free.

The accommodations and food for the cattlemen vary on the different lines, and on the different steamers of each line. It would be a great boon to them if they had some bread and coffee before going to work at 4 o'clock in the morning, and the men would be much better satisfied if they could have given them what is "dumped" overboard from the first cabin; this food, which is now wasted, would do some

good, besides being a means of saving to the steamship company.

If any one line wants to be patronized more than another, let them see to it that the cattlemen are well provided for, both as regards sleeping accommodations and food, and they will always have a full cargo of cattle.

Some of the cattlemen that go across have been in the business over thirty years, and many of them are well read men. There is nothing to do on the return trip to Boston but eat, sleep, play cards, and read. One man, particularly, who has been going across for years, and who is now sixty years of age, always carries a book in his pocket, and reads every spare moment during working hours. He is one of the best read men that the writer knows.

IF THEY ARE RIGHT

By NANCY HIGGINSON

I.

If they are right who claim that after Death
To Nature's humbler types we shall return,
I only ask that the same Spring-tide's breath
May find us side by side, as flower or fern.

2.

If they are right, whose more ambitious way Claims that to higher spheres we upward trend, Oh, wait for me, who, hampered by this clay, Fear that too far beyond you may ascend!

3.

But these philosophies can never sweep

From out my heart, a childlike hope of fair

Green meadows, where you wait, your eyes all deep With longing unfulfilled, till I am there.

A TAX WHICH

WOULD MODERATE EXCESSIVE RENTS

T

By HERBERT CONSTABLE

HE welfare of every man, woman, and child, including you, dear reader, is more or less affected by taxes and rents, whether you own a home, pay rent for a house, or, as a boarder, pay rent for a room. For this reason and because the proposed plan is new and original, we ask for a careful consideration of this article.

Civilized man is not like the lower animals. He cannot make his home in the air, the sea, the trees, or holes in the ground. He must first have land and a house in order to have a home.

Perhaps ten millions of the people of the United States are living in homes of their own; but the other seventy millions or more must pay rent or be homeless. It is not only vitally important to the seventy millions that they should be able to pay the necessary rent; but it is equally important to the whole country that they should not be homeless, because criminals and paupers come mostly from the homeless.

A saving of fifty cents or a dollar a week can possibly be made in the family of a workingman when things are running smoothly, by crowding their bare living down to an existence actually lacking in some of the necessaries of life. This saving is quickly used up when the worker is sick or idle. As sickness and idleness is inevitable, the average workingman accumulates nothing.

A week's wages is all that stands between the working man and need. Two weeks' pay is all that stands between him and hunger. Indeed, the average worker is in debt more than his coming wages, and struggle hard as he

may he can neither get out of debt nor keep out of it. This is none the less true because he may not realize it, or because, perhaps, the reader may not believe it.

A saving of two to five dollars per month in rent would often prevent a naturally honest working man from dropping out of the proud ranks of respectable, self-supporting, prompt-paying citizens into the straggling, disorganized horde of "slow pays," where he must struggle along blindly and hopelessly until finally disgraced with the name "dead heat." This saving might often prevent the breaking up of homes and the resulting increase of vagrants, petty swindlers, paupers, criminals, and fallen women.

All rents are not excessive; but unfortunately the extortionate rents are usually exacted from those least able to pay them.

We hope to show how these excessive rents can often be moderated without injustice to anybody, and in most. such cases the few dollars saved will mean the salvation of the home.

Laws and customs may vary in different states; but generally, at present, houses and land are valued for taxing purposes, that is, assessed by assessors. The owner is taxed on this amount at a uniform rate or per cent fixed by the authorities for that city or town. If the owner thinks his property is assessed too high he can appeal; but if it is too low he keeps still and thus dodges a portion of his just taxes. His natural inclination is to undervalue property to the assessor and overvalue it to a would-be tenant or purchaser.

The system encourages the owner to

lie or it taxes him for telling the truth, if he volunteers or is asked to name the value. The values given by the owner cannot be relied on because of selfinterest. The judgment of assessors is not infallible, in itself, and what information they obtain from the owners is more apt to befog than to enlighten the assessors.

There is no danger of over-assessment; but the great variation in the under-assessment is more or less a source of loss to the authorities and of dissatisfaction to the taxpayers.

If it is true, as landlords claim, that high rents are but the natural and logical consequence of increased values, then the receiving of high rents simply shows the increased alues and the assessment should be made accordingly.

Keeping this main proposition in mind, we propose a law assessing property in proportion to its rental value. Such a law, we believe, would prevent under-assessment, would facilitate tax collecting and assessing and would benefit the community.

Therefore we propose:

That assessments for the tax-year should be made at the beginning of that year.

That every tax bill should contain a permit to sell the property at not more than the assessed value or to rent it at not more than a fourteenth (say) of its assessed value, per annum, and should forbid its sale or rental at any more than those figures during that year.

That, at the beginning of the year, each owner must name the value to the assessors. If the owner sets the valuation too high then the property must be assessed and taxed at his figures. If he names too low a figure, then the assessors must set the figures at what they consider the full, fair, cash value and the property must be assessed and taxed at assessors' figures.

Nature has provided but a limited amount of land for the use of man. No one can increase it; but any one who is lacking in public spirit can reduce it by placing it out of reach of those who yould use and improve it. This is now

done by holding it for sale at an exorbitant price.

Under the new plan, some of these unreasonable landholders might still continue to ask their unreasonable prices, but they would be taxed right up to their asking price, and after a few years of heavy taxes with no buyers, they might be brought to reason. Others, however, would at once place their values at figures reasonable enough to induce purchase by wouldbe users. In this way land would come into more general use and improvement and the community would be greatly benefited in consequence.

There are some people holding vacant, unimproved land waiting for a rise in price, who may think they are entitled to respect or even praise because they pay what tax they are forced to pay on it. Let them shut their eyes and imagine a city composed of all vacant lots like theirs. Let them think it over; but we advise them not to think too long or they might lose some of their self-esteem.

The rent has been set at a fourteenth of the assessed value for convenience in writing this article and because this seems about the right proportion. A slight change might not interfere; but any material one would certainly reduce the fairness or impair the efficiency of the plan. At this ratio the landlord could receive seven and twosevenths per cent of the assessed value of the property for a year's rent.

Taxation is a necessary burden which must be borne by all property owners. The new plan does not add to the general burden of taxation; but it would compel the shirkers to bear their full and just proportion and thus relieve the others who have heretofore been carrying more than their share.

There would be no increased assessment on property already fully and fairly assessed, nor on that for which the rent asked was not more than a fourteenth of the assessed value. Such rents would not be affected but both landlords and tenants would enjoy the added public benefits made possible

by the increased taxes on other property heretofore under-assessed.

The only ones to suffer would be the landlords who now receive or demand more than a fourteenth of the value for the rent. They like to receive more than other landlords and to pay taxes on less. People of this constitution might suffer acute pain but not injustice by such a plan as we propose.

A landlord may name a high figure and may secure it; but under the new plan he would be taxed accordingly. However, in order to ask an unreasonable rent or price, he must first pay taxes on fourteen times the rent asked or on the full sale price asked. Then after paying this tax, his property might remain vacant or unsold, or he might be obliged to come down to a reasonable price in order to sell or rent. The risk would be too great to be lightly undertaken and would be apt to induce moderation where rents are now excessive. At present when rent or price demanded has no effect on taxes, there is no inducement for the owner to be reasonable and nothing to risk in asking more than a fair price.

The new plan would make it risky to attempt to "raise the rent to cover increased taxes" when every attempt to raise the rent meant a certainty of increased taxes with no certainty of greater rents from such tenants as are now paying all that they are able.

In poor neighborhoods, in cheapest buildings, unhealthy, ill-kept and in bad repair, with no conveniences and crowded like cattle trains-there is where landlords pay the lowest taxes and collect the largest rents. in advance is the rule in such places and evictions are common.

Pay

There the rents cannot be increased because they are always up to the extreme limit. In spite of the threadbare joke that it is cheaper to move than to pay rent, these tenants move out or are put out simply because they have not the money in their pockets to pay the rent. It is time that the community should use the same "busi

ness methods" on these landlords that they do on their tenants and tax them proportionately.

One of the greatest factors in maintaining excessive rents is the landlord or agent controlling a large number of tenements, who figures that he will make more money by holding his tenements at say half more than they are worth even if say a quarter of them remain vacant, than he would if he rented them all at a moderate figure. A few of such men controlling a large number of tenements are sufficient to keep rents above their normal figures.

The new plan would tax them according to their demands on all their houses, including vacant ones, and after deducting the total taxes from the total rents, the extortionate landlords would be as badly or worse off than if all their houses were rented at moderate figures and taxed accordingly.

Our remedy would be applied where it would do the most good, that is, where rents are the most excessive.

The

Moderation of rents would encourage and enable poor people_to establish and maintain homes. home is the foundation on which government is built. The preservation of the home is a necessity, its regulation is a right, and its improvement is a duty of the government. In a thousand ways the government now does these things and it even reduces or subordinates the rights, liberties, and privileges of the individual to the interests of the home and the community.

For instance: In many states it grants to married men exemptions that it refuses to single men. Its laws encourage and facilitate the performance of the marriage ceremony much more than they impede or restrict it. When once a couple is married, however, no matter how discordant, miserable, and unhappy they may be, and in spite of the impossibility of harmony or even toleration, the state in every way hinders and hampers divorce or separation. The mainterance of even that excuse of a home is regarded as of more importance.

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