Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-12-19

furnished by the ST Louis Single Tax League A
portion OF the articles viii be devoted the discus
sion of the tariff question in its relation the single
Letters ofinquiy criticisms of these articles
addressed to the author of the the league
will receive prompt or courteous reply,l
THE FARMER AND THE SINGLE TAX.
i You are farmer, and have not,
suppose, much leisure TO study the de.
i tails of taxation. You have been too
busy raising crops and paying taxes.
But now that We have little time lei
US reason together while Sairy Ann
brings us some of that fine old apple
/ cider 1 drank with you last summer.
Now let US have our pipes, and talk
over this matter.
You are still poor after having work
cd ard many years. Don't you see
that working doesn't p ay. But you
RENE n,ber Tom Ayers, who began life
about the same time you did. Was he
ary more Intelligent than you?-any
more industrious? You know he was
not. But Tom Ayers was lucky
enough to hold on to that piece of land
he bought some thirty-five years ago
| for mere song, and now be Is very
ricE-some people say he is million
aire; but those things are liable to be
exaggerated. At all events, we know
he is rich. That piece of land is now
the centre of a growing town. Lucky
Tom Ayers! But did Tom Ayers
make that wealth? You know he
didn't. AS soon as that land got val
liable, he sold small part of it, and
with the proceeds of this he began to
build. But you know he stopped
working at about that tirne-threw up
his position with his brother, the pro-
prietor of the little machine shop in
which we used to play when we were
boys. Tom stopped making wealth,
and simply collected rents stopped
working to live on the proceeds of
somebody else's work. But you went
! right on working, and you are still
working, and you are still poor. Doesn't
it look as if working didn't pay now-a-
days?
You say it's a mighty perplexing
problem. No, it isn't. That is just
where you are wrong. 1t is mighty
simple one. What we have to do is
to devise means to prevent people from
getting rich without work. That is
easy. IF we find that the possession
of any kind ofproperty yields income
independent of the labor exered upon
it, let us abolish that kind of property.
Let us cease to call it property at all,
for justly and naturally it canuot be
property. For the only rightful basis
of property is labor.
Now what is it that yields income
without labor. Capital? No. The
owner OF the capital must labor with it
or it yields nothing. But lands yield
though the owner sleeps. Let him go
Z, to bed, and yet his land value grows
and grows. Be be the veriest drone
he must become rich if he is fortunate
enough to get in the way of the course
of population. Fortunate enough to
be able TO say to those who come after:
"Thus far and no farther, except upon
my terms" Then people must either
yield to him, or stop raising crops,
weaving cloth, making machinery, or
doing anything to add to wealth. But
when they consent to his terms, and
locate finally, the more they make of
these things, the more the income OF
the landlord drone of the social hive is
increased. Now honestly, cid boy, do
you think this is right?
Ofcourse you don't. We both went
to Sunday School together, and learn
ed the commandments. "rhou shalt
not steal" was ole of them. We don't
propose to forget it now. If one man
takes what another makes, that is
stealing. The old teachings of Mr..
Pentateuch are still good enough to
live by. Let us see if it be not easy to
make this particular command of his
about stealing the law of society.
Why not take this land value in
taxes? The value Of the bare land not
the value OF the crops, or homes, or
barns, or anything that labor builds
upon it,. Take that. and not take any
thing else.
] thought that would startle you
am not at all surprised that you
should be sstonished. II would de-
prive every farmer of his land, you say.
1t would do othing of the kind. Think
moment It would indeed reduce,
in some cases entirely destroy, the sell
ing price of his land. But faImers do
not live by buying and selling land.
They live by selling their crops and
and buying manufactures. Suppose
they could buy manufactured goods
/ free of taxes? They would buy more
goods and sell more wheat.
/ Never mind now about the free trade
sideof that argument. All taxes increase
tile prices of goods. That is inevitable.
IT there are no taxes all things must
be cheaper. What we propose is not
the substitution of new tax hich is
already being paid on one farm or an
other, by oil those who purchase OF
rent land. The vast majority of those
who use the land they own--certainIy "
the vast majority of farmers- would
uuder the single tax levied upon the
value of land pay less taxes than they
| now pay.