The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-11

shall be withdrawn from the general STICK,
shall it be as il it was never createdY shaii
it not contribute its proportional share 10.
ward the support OF the human family
Very well and good, let him do so, but let
him pay an equivalent for the wrong and
injury he thereby does. | think God
created this planet and stored it with SEEM
ingly inexhaustible riches as a store-house
of raw material for his children
here to work up into forms OF
usefulness and beauty, and think
that labor ought to be permitted
TO have freest opportunity possible to get
at that raw material. Speculation in land
ought to be prohibited. 1t prevents poor
people from having homes near TO their
work. No greater blessing could descend
upon the race than to rescue our women
and children from the life they are living
| in the alleys and slums Of our cities and
towns, and to put 1t in their power, or the
power of their bread winners, to have
| homes, 20 have land and trees and green
| grass and pure air and singing birds, Il
| garden, fowls, etc. around them. In little
| while we would have different race
men and women. That great and noble
man, Mr.. Henry George, never said n
truer worn than when no said: The
Huns and vandals that threaten present
civilization, are now being born and bred
in the slums OF the great cities. Monopo-
lization of land ought TO be prohibited. 1t
creates landlordisin, the deadliest enemy
to the well being Of the people. The same
causes will produce the same effects, and
it is only question of time when the
same pitiablc condition OF things will pre-
vail here as exists in Ireland, unless
meanwhile something is done TO prevent
it, Tax land values, and you thereby
eflectually prohibit speculation in
land, YOU prohibit the monopolizatlon
OF land, you put the ouruen
of property created by the public, you en-
courage labor by taking the burden off It's
shoulders, YOU tighten the burden OF those
landowners who have built on their land
and have improved and cultivated it, You
put the burden on vacant, unused land,
whose owners keep it out OF the general
! use, refuse 90 permit IL to answer the pur
/. pose OF its creator, that Is to contribute tC
the support OF the human family.
"a prominent physician of this city, a
few DAYS ago informed me that the late
Dempsy Weaver, few years before his
, death, advocated the removal OF all taxes
i from personal property and their imposi
= ton on land, assigning, among other rea
$ sons, the ascertained impossibility oil col
Q lecting taxes from personal property Will
D ANYTHING like justice and equality. TIT
!, | dishonest man succeeds easily in hiding
4 from the eyes OF the assessor tina
n species OF property, and so transfer
Y his load TO the shoulders o
5 those unwilling TO periure them
), selves by false return. That tax
!. a premium for perjury. My recollection
o il also that this system OF taxation-a sin
u Gle tax on land-was many years ago nd
c vocated by Mr. Enoch Ensly in n series Z
l. letters addressed 10 David A. Wells, i
Is which he advanced the argument tina
g landowners could well afford 10 assum
u the whole burden Of taxation Tor the rei
IL son that the removal OF that burden CT
D tirely from every species Of personal PROF
Ie crty will invite and cause capital To CON
,r here and become invested in all mannC
Vi OF enterprises.
IN 81 think il the devil had had the devil
al ing oi system OF taxation whereby III
he masses, the real laborlng men, could
| cheated and swindlcd oi all their earning
nc would have invented the present ~
III TEN, that is, the protective tariff system
a whereby monopolists are protected IN iiee
III ing the nrnsscs, and the system OF taxing
r. man, as under our State laws, tor II
ct privilege OF obcying the divine commm
I'll and 10y his labor creating forms OF beau
le and usefulness"
IS You do not consider Mr.. Cleveland
N tree trader, do your" was asked.
Id "No. but Of course revenue tarih Is OF
n step in the direction Of free trade. II ir
10 trade is ever reached II forces the COVER
,r- mcnt to adopt direct taxation the ON
nd forces on public attention the qucsti,
us OF what property ought 10 be made 20 be
,ir that burden, and when that come about
X don't think il will be long before II will
I n generally recognized that the SIM
tax on land values, irrespective OF u
movements, il the source from which 20
revenue should be obtained"