Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1890-09-05
SINGLE TAX.
The system Great Benefit to the Farm.
of the Country.
Smith.


At the time q call was issued for
Single Tax Convention, the Rocky
Mountain Husbandman made editorial
mention of the fact and proceeded to de-
molish the single tax theory, confess
ing, however, that perhaps it did not
fully understand the principles con-
fession warranted by the statement that
the platform was suggestive Of the
principles of the commune, being only
inferior thereto where it differs there
FROM" AS the single tax idea is that
whatever a man earns is his own and no
person or community has the right to
take 1t from him without due cohpensa-
ton, while communism teaches that
what man earns should belong to the
community, it will be readily seen that
the Husbandman's confession of ignor-
ance had good grounds. Further on tho
paper states that it is proposed to main
tain the government by a single tax on
land, an error which is partially re-
trieved by the statement that the as
sessed valuation of the land is to be de-
termined by its geographical position,
its location with reference to trade, COM
merce, etc. What the geographical
position" has to do with the value of
land is rather hard to understand For
such students of political economy as
the Husbandman, perhaps the explana-
ton of the single tax by correspondent
of the Age q week or two ago is the best
That was about as follows: Population
makes land values, population makes
government necessary; the land values
made by population should pay the cost
of the government due to population.
Will the Husbandman show the wrong,
If there is any, in that proposition?
The Husbandman went on to say that
the Single-Tax might do under a sys-
tenn of English or Irish landlordism,
but that the farmers of Montana did
not need it, as they were the landlords
themselves, and the farm mortgage has
gained no foothold here, and the lands
have not passed to the ownership of
spectators, land-grab monopolies or
land kings. The Husbandman seems to
forget that one-fifth of the State is
owned by one corporation; that thous-
ands of acres of land have been taken
up by land-grabbers under the desert
land act; that thousands of acres OF
gobbied by monopolies; that the
columns of the newspapers of the State
oicate that not only has the mortgage
fiend gotten in his work but that he is
alre ady beginning to foreclose
The Husbandman proceeded farther to
show dire forgetfulness thatin its edi-
torial columns. only few weeks before.
in its issue of March 8, it had proclaimed
that the farmers of the country gener.
ally were not making any progress but
were rather falling back in various
ways, and that while the Montana farm
ers might hope to be little better off
through having less competition, still
the future was even for them by no
means hopeful, and the question of an
adequate return to the farmers was one
OF the greatest moment and deserving
the deepest concern of all true states
men and of thinking people of all
classes.
Now, the Single-Tax plan or remedy
for the very evil of which the Husband
man justly complains, is the suggestion
of one OF the greatest thinkers of
the day, and it has received the endorse
ment of many men throughout the
country who have studied the question
and who would under no circumstances
endorse any system which they could
see to be unwise or unjust. Further,
the people who have adopted this system
are so confident of its fairness and its
practicability that they are doing all
they can toget the unbelievers to study it,
feeling sure that a fair examination will
result in the conversion of the examiner.
Under such circumstances, it would be
well for the editors of such an influen.
tial paper as the Husbandman to en-
anime the theory thoroughly before
giving voice to crude statements of what
the theory is.-The Age, Boulder, Mont