Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-24
THE SINGLE TAX QUESTION.

The following editorial from the Chicago
Times will be read with interest by
those who are curious to know something
of the Henry George theory of taxation
The Times says: In regard to the sub
iect-matter The Times has a few words to
submit, but without going into an ele-
mentary discussion. All the reformers who
have addressed The Times on this
question seem to assume that we may sub
stitute land-communism for individual
ownership off-hand. They seem to assume
that existing laws and institutions ought
not to be permitted to stand in the way
of the substitution for moment and that
no real rights have been acquired under the
laws and usages of society which deserve
to be regarded in the presence of what is
assumed to be the mOnstrous wrong of in
dividual ownership of land. They tell us
it is that part only of the value of land,
irrespective of all improvements, which
results from joint efforts and from mere
increase in population that they propose
to take from individuals by taxation for the
use of society. 1t is the ''unearned incre-
ment, they say, or what for the sake of
convenience we may call the social value,
as distinguished from that which is pro-
duced by the labor of the individual that
they propose to tax away. And to tax
away they assert "can not be confs
cation in any sense" If the owner
were in every case a person who had
ever given any one an equivalent
out of the product of his own industry for
this social value there might be some
plausibility about this assertion. At any rate
in order to combat it successfully it would
be necessary to establish the right of in
diyidual ownership of lands as an origi
nal proposition. But the fact is not in ac-
cordance with the hypothesis. In the
overwhelming majority of cases In this
country, and wherever else there is free
trade in the land, the present owner is not
the original owner or person who has OBJ
tanned the land by inheritance or otherwise
from the original owner without giving an
equivalent for the ''unearned" as we'll as
the earned increment. In general the
present owner is one who has paid in full
for both increments, and has paid for them
it is to be presumed, out of the fruits of
his own industry, or out of the products of
which he is rightfully in possession, and
which, in the Georgian phrase, are This
against all the world" And that Is
why taxing away the 'unearned
increment" or social value, would
be confscation in the full sense
of the word. Mr.. James, let
us say, has $4,000, which is the
fruit of his own industry-the pro-
ceeds, it may be, of the sales of a COM
munistic book of which he is the author.
That is his Mr.. George tells us, against all
the world Mr. James invests the money
in a building and the ground on which it
stands The building is worth, say, 800
600, the other improvements due to individ-
ual labor are worth $40, 900, and the social
value of the land is 100000. Now comes
Mr.. George as the agent of regenerated
society and takes away this 100000, or al
the income from it, which amounts to the
same thing, for the use of the society. Of
the 5000. which was his against all the
world Mr. James now has left only 100000
Somehow he has been deprived of one-half
of what was his against all the world.
This is confscation; neither more nor less.
And it is precisely the kind of confscation
that Mr.. George and his disciples propose
to practice on a tremendous scale They
are not going to practice it right away
Society is not prepared for such a prodigi-
GUS upheaval and shaking as would neces
sarily result. And that is why there is nc
occasion at present to go into prolonged
and tedious discussion of elementary prin-