Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-08-23
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
A sooTcHMAN's VIEW.
The Moral and Social Effects of the Sim
gle Tax.


its effects we have taken up seriatum
nearly all the effects that would resnlt
! directly from the confiscation of rent to
the common eXchequer. These effects
would have been mostly economic, and
have been deduced from generally ad-
mitted economic laws. But beyond
these economic effects there are moral
and social effects resulting from the
economic conditions to which the i'm
position of the single tax would give
rise. For the opening up of natural op-
portunities to labor and capital, and the
taking from off the shoulders of industry
| the burden which at present weighs up
on it would make it possible for every
man to make an honest living by his
! labor. This would do away with the
army of tramps and beggars and other
parasites of society which are the prod
uct of the unequal distribution of
wealth. 1t would eliminate forever the
unemployed and the criminal classes
who are recruited from the unemployed.
! Such things as prisons and reformator-
les would be unnecessary. The civil
law would be greatly simplifed for dis
i putes would be fewer, and would be
more easily settled In short, it would
do away altogether with government, at
least as repressive agency, and this
simplification and curtailing of the func-
tions of government would make it capa-
BILE of assuming certain other functions
F., which at present it can not successfully
! undertake.. These are the running of
railways, the transmission of telegraphs,
and the maintaining and controlling of
many other things which in their nature
are monopolies. The great increase of
material prosperity would tend to the
increase of rent which could be used for
the common benefit, and which would
enable us to establish baths, libraries,
museums, halls, theaters, gardens, etc.
| Water, gas, electricity and other motive
powers might be conducted through our
streets at the public expense, and these
same streets might be lined with trees,
as is the case with many cities on the
continent, notably Paris.
To put it shortly, Government would
not be as ut present an expensive and
almost useless burden, but would simply
become the instrument whereby the
public property would be administered
for the benefit of every individual.
Now, to the man who has been reared
amidst the present chaos and confusion,
all this foretaste of what might be seems
only like the vague and impracticable
vision of an imaginative dreamer, but
all the great things and all the good
things that we have achieved were at
one time but visions in the brains of
those who conceived them. And if we
but consider for mon~ent the change
that would be wrought in a social life if
labor received its full reward, we shall
come, / think, to the conclusion that
perhaps after all such visions may be
possible of realization, and such dreams
may indeed come true. Want, and the
fear of want, as a factor in human life,
would be eliminated. And this is the
element that would work the change;
for poverty, as Carlyle says is the hell
Of which the modern Englishman is
most afraid 1t is poverty and the fear
of poverty, and the struggle to keep out
of it, that makes civilization such a
mass of evil 1t is but natural that men
should strive to keep themselves and
those dependent upon them from falling
into this terrible abyss. And it is this
struggle to rise above the fear of poverty
that makes men lie and cheat and steal,
and renders them Indifferent as to
whether they trample their neighbors
underfoot.
1t is this continual struggle to raise
themselves above the fear of want that
makes men admire the rich and the for
tunate, and that causes the struggle for
nyiCtpnpp n N hnpnnn fnpppr and
more fierce, and it is now becoming evil
dent to the mass of mankind that unless
they go to the root of tho evil and
destroy it, the more fiercely they strive
the worse it will be for their children
who are to come after them. But give
labor free field, choke off the dog in
the manger that stands between man
and the bounty of his Maker, and let la
Dor have it's full reward. Take and use
for the benefit of the whole community
that value which the preference of the
community creates, and production be-
ing set free would enormously increase,
the margin of cultivation would rise to
it's natural level, and men would not re-
quire to worry about finding employ
ment any more than they worry about
finding air to breathe; the worship of
wealth would become u thing of the
past and the man who strove to get
more than he required would be looked
upon with something like commissera-
tion and pity. 1t is unnecessary to en-
large. Any one with the requisite imag-
ination can fill in the picture and con-
ceive for himself the vice that would be
stayed, the sorrow that would be soothed,
the hearts that would be healed. For
when labor freed from the restrictions
that now hamper it, can get across to
natural opportunities and these necessi-
ties of production can come freely to-
gether, our civilization will have entered
upon newer and brighter era, and in
time we shall attain to realization of the
golden rule as enunciated by the great
Democrat of Nazareth, 'Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. ."-Brechin, Scot
land, Herald.
A Natural Order.