The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 8, 1918, Page 8

'Kent—A Millionaire Who Plays’Sti‘aight & |5 The Original Non‘partisan of California Talks About the Great Farmers’ Movement—A Briet Biography of Him by an Equally Prominent Liberal (The Leader presents here a most interest- ing feature—a speech to a Nonpartisan league audience by one of the most remarkable per- sonalities of the present day, an appointee of President Wilson—William Kent of California. As an introduction to Mr. Kent’s speech, which was made at-the recent St. Paul convention of the League, the Leader presents a brief biog- raphy of Mr. Kent by Judson King, executive secretary of the National Popular Government league, one of the best known leaders of liberal thought of the times, a magazine writer and { & lecturer who has done as much as, or more ¢ than, any other man in the United States to © @ .advance the cause of popular government through the initiative, referendum and recall. —THE EDITOR.)' Kent the Man BY JUDSON RING “If your bill goes through it will cost you $10,000 “ a year in reduced profits-on this ranch alone.” i “Nevertheless I shall work for it just the same. { & There' are other people to think “about besides ;# myself.” d i i = I know of nothing more characteristic of the { i man than this bit of conversation which passed ~+ & between Millidnaire Congressman William Kent of i i California and the manager of his Nevada ranch, { i at-the time the Kent land-leasing bill was pending .4 in the lower house. It was a square bill and would | . have given the poor man a toe-hold and a chance ! %- to climb up. : The: bill was defeated, of course, but it affords a flashlight into the soul of its promoter. Born to large wealth and with rare capacity for making ‘more, he has all his life been fighting for the under- dog, not as a matter of charity, but of justice. * TLooking out the window of his hotel room ‘in i . St. Paul the night after his notable speech at the | & " Nonpartisan-league convention, he said to me: - _ “Of one thing I ‘am proud—that I have always i tried to help -people and causes I believed were i~ going the right way., In a relative world we can’t - reach perfection, but we can travel toward it.” ¢ 7 So with that point of view he.goes on making i | money with one hand and with the other spending { § it on reforms which will make it impossible for i i any one to achieve unjust wealth at the expense . of the toil of others. g T ! KENT INDORSES LEAGUE; -~ 3 | WILL GIVE IT AID L Ee ¥ .. To free the land to those who will make actual use of it is his great economic passion. A former i land speculator himself, he has no use for land { speculation. The man who works the land with i his own hands should reap the reward is his belief; 1. hence he would tax the speculator out of existence. 5 Another firm belief is that all natural monopolies % such as railroads, telegraphs, telephones, express, ? terminal and marketing facilities. Things not { natural monopolies should be left to competitive. | i enterprise. He therefore gives quick approval of | the program of the Nonpartisan league. He in- {1l dorses also the political method of the League. il “The nonpartisan way of getting at it is the {1 thing,” he. says, “at least until the mind of the i | nation is prepared so that there may be a great | | national political party that will embrace the fun- ! | damental reforms we must have, if justice is to i 1 prevail. This League is the biggest thing on the | 1. map. - It is right, it is loyal, and, thank ‘heaven, it | ' knows enough to finance itself and not go on the i rocks for lack of money as so miany do.” 2. In his thinking and in political action Mr. Kent 'has ‘always been an independent, - His father’s health failed just as he was graduated from Yale ‘university in 1887. He was forced to take charge of large affairs. 2 3 “The big fellows thought I would be easy pick- ing,” he told me, “and went- after me.” 2 " So he learned the ways of big business. How- ever, he won out.and made good, in banking, cattle raising, mining and what not, But he played straight, and it tickles him today to think that the gang were never clever enough to beat him. For 1" he is a’ good sport and likes to fight when it is | *‘worth while, for himself or the public. | In those Chicago years he learned why big busi- » e RSN el should be owned and operated by the people—all - e e e i o - William Kent ness was in politics and advising the working men and farmers to keep out.' Franchises worth mil- lions were at stake and he led the fight to clean up as desperate and crooked a political gang as ever tried to sell out a city. He was a member of the Chicago city council from 1893 to 1897. He won © Why the Farmer Is - pronounced advocate of liberal tariff laws. - of women, and and his fight is a cornerstone in the history of the city. - Tk Later, inoving to his big ranch in northern.Cah- fornia, to recuperate his health, he became inter- ested in things there. Soon he was the chief backer of the revolution which delivered the state from the clutches of the Southern Pacific political ma- chine, elected Hiram Johnson governor and gave California the initiative, referendum and recall, woman’s suffrage, and a host of other progressive laws. In 1910, to better carry on his fight for conser- vation and for sensible land laws, he ran for-con- gress and was elected over Duncan McKinley, who:: bore the brand of the “interests.” On an inde-u: pendent free-trade platform of his own he was: elected in a heavy Republican district, as a Repub-:: lican. Next he ran as a straightout independent.:z He refused to wear any party collar. In 1914 th primary election laws prevented his going on more:: than one ticket, but the voters WROTE HIS NAME on all tickets. He was nominated by the Progres- sives, Socialists and Democrats and came near cap- turing the Republican nomination. It was amaz- ing. But in the regular election he got a tremen- dous majority of the.votes OF ALL PARTIES. In 1916 he refused to run again and retired to private life. But he was too valuable a man to be left out of the public service. President Wilson was soon requesting him to accept an appointment on the newly created United States tariff commis- sion. Mr. Kent accepted and is still serving—a He lives most of the time at Washington. "Mrs. Kent heartily supports her husband in his radical economic views. On her own account she is one of the leading advocates for the enfranchisement this Mr. Kent supports her. They have seven children—five boys and two girls. - Two , of the boys are in uniform. The youngest is man- aging one of the ranches “and but for him it would not be mangged,” says his father. ; A firm believer in the essential goodness of human nature, a political democrat who trusts the people, ‘a business man who refuses to play in crooked business, an *idealist with no illusions, an economic radical with his feet on the ground, 2 man who alike detests demagoguery in reformers and aristocrats, generous to a fault, a man who thinks and acts for himself every hour in the day—such is William Kent, and may the good God make more like him and be quick about it. Right in This Fight By William Kent, Federal Tariff Commissioner (Speech before Nonpartisan league massmeeting = at St. Paul.) 20U people—you farmers are peculiarly fortunate. You have your feet on the ground. The product of your farm sustains not only you and your family, but others, the people in the towns. You are financially solvent under any system that will come. You are in a position to fight this thing out and to create a mew order. Permit me for a moment to take up- in this re- “gard something that you must meet, and I know you are willing to meet if you are going to create a movement of real democracy.” The land question is'a matter of the utmost importance. You can’t raise your products cheaply on high-priced land, because land must be paid for out of the product of the land. We have got to stop this process of handling. Everything and the added land values are putting a perpetual tax on the food. (Applause and hand-clapping). 5 ; I wanted to offer a prize worth while for the best essay on the cost of producing a ham, show- ing the portion of the cost of the ham in'land rental. 3 $12.50 an acre, and at that time six crops of 20-cent corn would keep a farnter alive and pay for the land, byt it would now take more than six crops .of 76-cent corn To do the same thing, Now all that falls back on the fellow: that hasn’t any land. The cost of that ham is found in the cost of the feed that goes into the hog, and the cost of the #and upon which ‘the feed and the hog grow, and the fellow working in the city in the factory, has no means- of recouping that added cost. ‘Take the - pricés of land in city real estate—tHe cost of these - ' PAGE' EIGHT I used’ to sell land out in Nebraska at-- my time was so devpted 1o other business affairs; ' R e R T SRS e great alleys of over-built buildings, tremendous extravagances—all of which has to rest upon the backs of those who are creating useful production. ' KNOWS THE GAME; PLAYED IT HIMSELF There isn’t any more free land that is worth anything. When any one gets up, as Senator Harding did a short time ago, and talks “glikly about putting the soldiers that return from the ' trenches back on the land, he will find that they are controlled privately, that there will be some- body owning the land that has any value, and that they will put a price on that land in accordance with the demand for it. If a man were told now “to go West and grow up with the country,” he probably would keep ' going until he dropped off zfzt :}hfi house into the Pacific ocean and wet his eet. There isn’t any more good free land. Some way or another, through some process or another, we must recognize the. fact that while permanent tenure of land is good, and tends to the permanence of society, we must recognize that that tenure should depend upon the highest possible use of that land, that sogiety should demand that there should be no freg simple title, whereby a man is entitled to ruin-his land or leave it barren.” There should be no chance for unproductive land. speculation. I can tallg here with feeling because I have had a. land mania that I have inherited from my ances- tors away back, and I have bought and sold and s_peculateq in land in about a quarter of the states of the pron, and it’s too easy—it’s taking marbles from children. It is one way of making ‘money, but T