News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-04-18
THE "SINGLE TAXI
What the Phrase Means-Lucid Ex-
PLANTATION of the Theory.


We hear much nowadays of the 'sin.
1 gle tax" agitation There is ''Single
Tax" league, which lrls considerable
membership throughout the country
public meetings in the interest Of the
Single Tax are held, and several news
papers and many looks advocating the
Single Tax'Hf published or have been
: published What is this ''single4tax r.
+ 1t is, in britt, a proposition TO abolish
all taxation except that upon land, eor
the value of land. 1t does 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, exactlyln the same
measure, whether it be built upon OF
vacant, but in proportion to the value
which 1t possesses from neaTness to the
centres of population or. business.
The Single Tax theory is based upon
tize doctrine that the Land lightfullv- be-
longs to all the people That the ex-
| elusive possession of hand by individuals
is not right, and that the. separate. own
ership of land might be merged into a
sort of joint-stock ownership of the pub
lie without injustice, was first suggested,
in England, by the social philosopher,
| Herbert Spencer. The doctrine received
q much fuller statement in this country
at the hands of Mr.. Henry George, in a
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 man
kind grows heavier rs the world makes
material progress; that in spite of the
increase in the worlds productive
power, wages always tend to minimum
which will give but bare living. They
hold that private ownership of land,
with the privilege of holding it for spec
ulative purposes and of forcing up rents
as population and industry advance, has
the effect to put monopoly of natural
opportunities into the hands of the land
owners. The natural opportunities be-
ing thus monopoliZed, laborers are COM
PEELED to compete with each other to
such an extent as to force wages down to
the lowest 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 con-
tinuc 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 tenant pay
ing rent to the State.
This proposition, which was first
known under the name of Gland nation
alization," has since, by the common
as the ''Single Tax" movement, the
efforts of it's friends having been direct
cd more specifically to the abolition Of
all other forms of taxation. They hold
that the removal of taxation from indus
tries in general would stiml,ate manu-
factlues and business, at the same time
that it destroyed speculation in land, to
such an extent that the general pros
perity would be immensely increased
and wages greatly raised.
They hold that the revenue from the
Single Tax would be so large us to enable
the government to maintain schools and
colleges, build and operate railroads
and telegraphs, and do many things
which it does not now engage ill.,
YOUTHS Companion.