The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-09-28
4 SILLY IDEA.


arguments favoring the single land tax
of which Henry George is the apostle.
He talks good deal of the ''nationaliza-
ton" of land: he assumes to think and
argue that nothing but land should be
taxed.
What is meant by the naturalization
of land has not been clearly defined as it
should be. 1t is supposed to e.at the
start the imposition of all taxes upon it.
The general government does not now
tax the land. 1t gets its revenue from
indirect taxes, duties and excise. Some
of the states do not tax land. They live
for the most part on the corporations.
In other states the state and local gov
ernment derive their income from real
and personal property, licenses and other
imposts. In this little city of Astoria
the municipality gets more than half its
annual revenue from restrictive permits
to sell liquor, drive wagons, etc. If there
is any consistency at all in Georges the
ory,' all forms of government must gain
their support from land exclusively.
This would leave US in the first place
with the free trade, which Adam Smith
advocated, but which no nation has ever
adopted, not even England itself. The
meaning of this change in fiscal policy
would be that American labor must work
for the same wages as European labor.
There would be no protection, but in
the expense of freight, which amounts
to little or nothing. Whether the nation
alization of land or the piling up of all
the expenses of the government on land
would be a compensation, is a matter
not at all in doubt. If the working man
should try to recoup himself with land,
he would reduce to possession that which
has to bear all the burdens of taxation.
In other words, he would become the
slave of the government. The alterna-
tive for him would be starvation wages
or serfdom to the state, a serfdom as
complete as that which once existed in
England and more recently in Russia.
But while all this crushing weight of
taxation was being rolled over on the
land, all the great corporations would
have nothing to pay. The railroad COM
panies, water companies and gas COM
panies would escape taxation. The
bondholder would never be called upon
to make the acquaintance of the tax col
Iector. The usurer would have nothing
to contribute. Personal property of
every possible description would be ex-
empt. There are only two kinds of prop
erty known to man-real and personal.
There is legal variety known as mixed
property which need not be considered.
Once the great majority of property was
land. Personal property was small in
amount and not much considered. To-
day, personal property is in the ascend
ant. Nearly all the rich men of this
country are rich in personal property.
Nine-tenths of the rich men of the world
are rich in personal property. The
world is heavily in debt and could, not
pay up if it were called upon to do so.
All this debt is personal property. The
railroads of the world represent vast
wealth. ALI railway stocks and bonds
are personal property. The same is true
of all corporations. 1t strikes the aver
age mind, therefore, that what Mr..
George is aiming at is an apotheosis
of plutocracy. He proposes to exempt
all the rich from taxation and leave
nothing for the laboring man but the
thrice heavily burdened land.
The philosopher in question is clearly
enough trading on the difficulty which
the popular mind must necessarily ex
perience in grasping the intricacies of
economic questions. There is less mon
opoly in land in the United States thar
in anything else. 1t is in locomotives
gas, water, bonds and stocks that the
greatest concentration is observable. Il
is true that this kind of property elude!
in part taxation. But the tendency Of
the times is to make it bear fair share
laboring man can get at reasonable fig
ures-for nothing If he wants a home
stead. But he cannot get bonds, stocks
money or bullion in that way. Mr.
George is not working for the interest o.
the man who has nothing but heaC
and pair of willing arms to depend
upon. When his pretensions and politica
nostrums are analysed the only residuun
is fiat nonsense. But he has some of tn,
arts of the demagogue. He can appeal tt
the imagination with pictures of road
lined with Strawberries for the comfor
of the pedestrian, free rides in the car
and free tickets to the theater. 1t is re
membered that his great prototypt
claimed that when he had come into hi
own there was to be in England sever
half-penny loaves for penny-th'
three-hooped pot was to have ten hoops
1t was to be felony to drink small beer
and, added the mellifluous Jack Cadt
"alI the realm shall be in common"
Henry Georges ideas carried out woult
raise rents, paralyze industry, make the
rich richer and the poor poorer, anC
while the distinguished author of 'Pro
gress and Poverty" would make money
out of the success of his ideas, his dupei
would be worse off, financially, than the,
are now.