Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-05-02
slNoLE-TAx AGITATION.

| siNoLE-TAx AGITATION
An Explsu.tion Of the movements In.a-
Kurated by Henry George.
We hear much nowadays OF the
..single-tax' agitation. There Is q
"single-tax" league, which has con-
siderable membership throughout the
country; public meetings in the in
terest of the ''single tax" are held.
and several newspapers and many
books advocating the ''single tax are
published or have been published.
What is this s'single tax?"
1t is, in brief, proposition to abolish
sill taxation except that upon land. or
the value of land. Itdoes not propose
that even buildings shall be taxed. but
that all the taxation of the Nation, the
State and the municipality shall be laid
upon the land alone, exactly in the
same measure. whether it be built
upon or vacant, but in proportion to
the value which it possesses from near
ness to the centers of population or
| business.
'The ''single-tax" theory is based
upon the doctrine that the land right
fully belongs to all the people. That
the exclusive possession of land by
individuals is not right, and
that the separate ownership of
land might be merged into sort
OF joint-stock ownership of the public
without injustice. was first suggested,
In England. by the social philosopher,
Herbert Spencer. The doctrine re-
ceived a much fuller statement in this
country at the hands of MIR. Henry
George. in book called Progress and
Poverty, " first published in 1879. Mr..
George is accounted the founder of the
single-tax system, and is the head and
front of the agitation.
Mr.. George and his followers main
tain that. under the present system of
private ownership of land, the burden
OF poverty resting upon the mass of
mankind grows heavier as the world
makes material progress; that in spite
OF the increase in the worlds pro-
ductive power, wages always tend to a
minimum which will give but bare
living. They hold that private owner
ship OF land, with the privilege of hold
Ing it for speculative purposes and of
forcing up rents as population and in
dustry advance, has the effect to put a
monopoly of natural opportunities into
the hands of the landowners. The
natural opportunities being thus
monopolized, laborers are compelled to
compete with each other to such an ex-
tent as to force wages down to the low
est possible point.
As they hold that wages OF all classes
of laborers depend upon the productive
cultivation of the soil, Mr.. George and
his followers maintain that the true
remedy for poverty is to make the land
common property.
They do not, however, propose to
disturb the occupants of land, so long
as the occupants make full use of their
land. They propose. on the contrary,
to allow the possessors of the soil to
continue to buy and sell and bequeath
it. But they do propose to take all the
rent by taxation. To do this would
make the occupant of the land ten
ant paying rent to the State.
This proposition, which was first
known under the name of Gland ma
tionalization," has since, by the COM
mon consent of it's advocates, become
known as the ''single-tax" movement,
the efforts Of its friends having been di-
rected more specifically to the aboli-
ton of all other forms of taxation.
They hold that the removal of taxation
from industries in general would stimu-
late manufactures and business, at the
same time that it destroyed specula-
ton in land, to such an extent that the
general prosperity would be immensely
increased and wages greatly raised.
They hold that the revenue from the
single tax would be so large as to ena-
BILE the Government to maintain sch ols
and colleges. build and operate rail-
roads and telegraphs, and do many
things which it does not now engage
in.
Their plan, also, of course, being a
''single tax" involves the abolition of
tariffs upon imports. The ''single-tax'
men are absolute free-traders.
The agitation for the ''single tax
or against private ownership of land,
is by no means confined to the United
States. It has made much Roadway in
Great Britain, and is very strong in the
Australian colonies. where one colony,
South Australia, has by law limited
municipal taxation to unimproved land
vol,,oc -Yo1,th,s