The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-11-16

Improves the land, but from the dem
sity of the community around MIN.
AS the community grows, so grow
these values, and as 1t decreases, so do
they decrease.
At present these values, though I'M
earned by the occupant OF the land,
90 into his private pocket, and the
sums, so appropriated, are drawn from
the earnings of the producer and con-
sumner.
As all production is divided between
the three factors, Labor, Capital and
Land, the more Of this joint product
| falls to the share of the land owner,
so much smaller must be what remains
to be divided between Labor and Cap
ital.
Now wherever competition for
the use Of these natural Opportuni-
| ties to apply labor exists, there
also will arise these site values in
the shape or rent, and If these OPP
portunities belong to all alike, then
assuredly, this rent value does not be-
long to the occupant or owner, but to
us all.
Nor, in order to give us all our full
and undimnished share, is IL neceS-
sary to divide up the land itself into
so many parcels, which must always
differ in quality and site value, even
lif humanity remained constantly
fixed quantity which it is not; but it
will only be necessary TO collect this
rent value of the user and disburse it
for the benefit Of all.
This brings us to the consideration
of the single tax as remedy for the
| 10; hiah Il a
great mass Of our fellowmen of their
just share in the bounties Of nature.
and assigns them, perforce, to SUD-
ordinate position in human develop
ment, while it permits Il small num-
Der to monopoliZe nature and revel in
undeserved wealth and irresponsible
power.
The single tax movement asserts
that all taxes on labor products are
wrong and indefensible and should be
abolished; that they are not only UNI
warranted, but contrary to sound pol
lev, inaSmuch as their imposition
tends to diminish and restrict instead
of increasing the production of all
such things as go to satisfy human
wants and desires.
1t holds that he who wants the eX-
elusive use of any part of our common
heritage, the earth, should pay to the
community the use-value of such eX-
elusive privilege, which use-value
would be determined by free COMPETE
ton.
That Furthermore, the collection OF
these use-values by the public, in
place of all other taxes, would give us
a revenue sufficient to cover, not only
all public expenditures as now called
for, but yield such larger amounts in
excess as to enable us toamply provide
for the sick, the aged and the intirm,
in manner free from the Odious Sug-
IgestiOn of charity
We hold that its introduction will
utterly destroy speculation in land,
which is but a speculation in mems
necessities, and that all other forms
of speculation, resting as they do on
this one, will become improbable in
a like manner
But the greatest effect it will have
consists in the liberation and freedom
of labor in all its various forms from
that phase of capitalism which we
know under the name of monopoly.
Opportunity for labor being alike
free for all, no one will be compelled
to work for others for less than he
could earn by employing himself. Wa,
, ges would naturally rise to that high
> est point which each one could indie
pendently attain, and capital, shorn
of it's perniciOuS powers, will again re-
vert to its legitimate place as an aid
to and not the master OF labor.
This readjuStment will cause large
productive enterprises to take the form
of co-operation, in which labor will be
,, the dominant factor and capital the
willing servant.
We all know from personal expert
ence that there is no limit to human
wants and desires; neither is there,
happily, any limit to production for
the satisfaction of these desires where
opportunities are free and equal.
With the single tax in operation the
distinction between the rich and the
poor will probably vanish inside of one
generation, and with it much of the
cruel effect poverty has so deeply i'm
pressed on the masses.
To help in the contamination OF
/, such results is glorious endeavor, and
to live in such world as compared to
the one which now surrounds us,
would be to live in heaven.
GEO. G.. GUENTIIER.
Galloway, ILL.,
--asS---
That Deadly Scourge!
Tubercular consumption is simply
llunp-ScrOfula-thea active and danger