St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-16

snd that1s the reason you see so many grand
buildings in city with shabby fronts. Taxes
on land can be easily collected, and it seems
to me 1t would be wise to abolish the tax on
production and place it on land values If
you tax personal property there will be less
used and prices higher. No tax on land
values can lessen the value Of it to the man
who wants to use 1t. The mere owner Of
piece OF land is of no use to community,
LOT he produces nothing. By
REMOVING OUR PRESENT TAXES
and placing them on land values we would
stimulate production by rewarding it instead
OF filming it. By placing the taxes on land
we would remove the craze for speculation
value. People are talking about the over
population of the country. The population
is not TOO dense, but the opportunities for
the population TO obtain work are monopo-
work enough to do is gaining ground all over
the world. but we have only come to the
first principles to show how absurd this Is.
with every person who comes into the world
comes mouth to feed and back to clothe.
What causes this feeling that there are too
many people to do the work. Because much
of the land which God gave to His people is
fenced in by men who claim to own it, and
who deprive the people of their right to work
and to earn their bread and clothing: Our
great cities ale so crowded that moral and
physical
LIFE IS IN DANGER,
and all this because some few men are en-
deavoring to become rich at the expense of
the poorer people by holding the vacant
land at enormous prices, and waiting for the
values to rise. 1t is the dog in the manager
which crowds the people of the cities so
close together and causes SO much suffer-
ing. No man has right to demand
that man shall employe him. but he has
perfect right to employ himself; but this he
cannot do. be use the land is held by cap
italists who have secured control of the land.
Thus you can see that It IS Impossible Tor
man in some sections of the country TO en-
ploy himself. In going from the Atlantic to
the Pacific oceans you will see that half of
the land is not in use, and it is evident that
there IS no no natural ~ reason Tio o Mny
of imposing tax on land values
would be to cause the men who are holding
all the vacant land to pay as much taxes as
the men who have improved the land. Do
this and see how quickly the dog in the
quickly the
MEN NOW OUT OF EMPLOYMENT
would go to work. 1t is the rule now to not
only tax man for the Improvements he has
made. but to make him pay higher tax on
the land he has already improved. IT the
single tax plan could be put into opera
ton enough men now idle would go to work
to relieve the enormous pressure now npon
us. If such thing could, be every man, or
nearly every man, would have plenty to DO
and would earn enough to dress himself COM
tortably and to have good home. AS
things are now, men are turned back from
productive enterprises; capital is prevented
from establishing factories and men are sent
back to compete for positions which they
must obtain or starve. That's why we have
strikes and lockouts,
Now we believe that the rights of property
should be respected. What man produces,
what he adds to the common stock of wealth,
is his against the whole world. No man or
no government has the right to take it from
him. Yet this is what we do now when we
tax a man for the Improvements he has
made. This is not only unwlse,
But IT Is WRONG,
for 1t takes away from man what ne mas
earned or produced. No single man nor any
number of men can create value to land-lt
|7gantages 1t is the improvements on land
which make land valuable. Take off from
land all the improvements man has made
and what value would the land have then?
The value of improvements constantly de-
creases, but the real value of land never
does. Land really belongs to the whole COM
munity, and ought to be taken by the COM
munity for use of the whole.
THE QUESTION BOX.
Mr. George, at the conclusion OF his lee.
ture stated that he was now ready to answer
any questions which might be asked him. A
man in the gallery started the ball rolling
with the question,
SIS Mr.. George member of any labor Or
81 am replied Mr.. George, II am a mem
Der of the San Francisco Typographical
union."
The next question was whether or not the
single tax plan would not confiscate all the
vacant land in the country. Mr.. George re-
piled that it would take it from the few who
now held it and transfer it to the people as
whole, so that it would be of some use. and
so that the idle men could work. When such
state of things comes about the speculative
value of land will rapidly decline, but the
using value will not, as the whole commu-
nifty would own it, and q man VINO rs Is now
of land would just as soon pay $40
to the community for the use of it then.
The best way would be to assess the selling
value, as we would all the quicker squeeze
out the Spectator. There would be no rea-
son for having the land go to the state, for If
man did not have any use for his land he
could speedily find some one who did want
to use it.
sWould not the single tax system reduce
the force of custom house off1cials:
sit would reduce the force over one-haif, as
nearly all the clerks and boekkeepers would
have to go. 1t would also simplify our form
of government, as the men who are now de-
tailed to watch tor smugglers would nave no
employment left"
would not your system make the cities
stacks of big buildings by freezing out the
small home owner:'
mo, sir; just the reverse, for it would re-
owners and place it upon the men who are
holding all the land. 1t would draw our
farming population closer together, and
scatter the population of the cities"
CAVITY TO THE FRONT.
Thomas Canty, the gentleman who asked
the question, was not satisfied with this
question, and stated that he did not consider
that Mr.. George had answered the question.
Mr.. George again replied to Mr.. CAVITY, and
convinced the audience that his position was
riobt ar refused
and stuck to the speaker until he had Wearled
every one in the house.
'sThe Minneapolis Tribune says that the
single tax system has been in operation in
Europe for centuries. How does it occur
that Mr.. George overlooked this fact in his
writings:"
''Becaase the Minneapolis Tribune knows
more than do about the matter" was the
the places where the single tax is in oper-
ton it will be time enough for me to an
swer.''
How would you tax the RAILROADS.&C.
II would tax them for the land they used.
and l believe that they would pay more taxes
than they do now. But that is not the true
solution of the railway problem. The iron
highways belong to the people just as much
as the streets, and when you can get the peo-
pie to think so you have the problem solved
would there not be tendency to get rid
of all suits like the King Remington and the
Clague-WashburD suits?''
while l don't know what those suits are,
7 am free to say that under the single tax
system there would be few tax suits in the
courts, as there would be 10 object in gain
ing possession of the land"
In answer to a question in regard to
mortgages on Western farms, Mr.. George
said that the oldstyle American farmer was
fast disappearing, and class of tenants ap-
pearing which might be likened to the ten
ants in England and Ireland. A settler had
to start in in debt. and in debt for the pur-
pose of getting the right to use the natural
mortgage to buy. The second stage of this
mortgage state you can see in the Scully
estate in Illinois.