Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-04-24
SOME FOOLISH FARMERS.
Una Alliance Fears the Knights of Labor
and the Single Tax-Their approximations
Groundless.

and the Single Tax-Their approximations
| Groundless.
The "Una Alliance" has withdrawn
| from the National Union. Resolutions
to that effect and an article setting forth
reasons for the same appeared in the
Daily Nashville american March 18th.
The difficulty seems to be that the Una
Alliance does not approve of the ALI
ance between the Knights of Labor and
the Farmers National Union, and the
reason they do not appr.-e is because
the Knights of Labor adopted plat
form which demands that the taxes on
all land shall be equal to the whole
unearned increment The article then
goes on to say the simple meaning of
such demand is that every man own
ing land shall be required to pay to the
government as rent, under the name of
taxes, all profits accruing To him from
such ownership. Such a course on the
part of the government would be confis-
cation" The article makes it very
plain that the Una Alliance does not
think it wise for the farmers to help the
knights of Labor rob them (the farm
ers) of their lands.
Surely the farmers are in 4 bad enough
situation now. and they do not want
anybody to rob them of their lands nor
| of anything else if they are like most
men, and it is foolish and stupid to pre-
| tend to be friends and allies with men
| who want to rob them. But who are
| these terrible men, and what is it they
| propose? | suppose the main difference
| between the Knights and the farmers is
| that one body of men work in the trades
| in the cities and that the other BODY of
men work in the country, in the fields.
| The knights, like the farmers, are try
! ing to keep up wages: are trying to the
best of their ability to get fairer share
! of the wealth which their labor pro-
| duceS.
Fol- years the knights and the farm
| ers, too, have held meetings and dis
| cussed first one plan and then another
/ for lettering their condition, learning
| some lesson by each failure, until many
| knights and many farmers have come
to the conclusion that most of their
| troubles come from un Just taxation. and
! this gradual education which has been
| going on has finally resulted in the
Knights of Labor adopting the single
| tax upon land values" as the best means
of raising revenues, and as the only way
of protecting themselves from monopoly.
| Let us see what it is that the Una ALI
ance people object to so strongly.
We propose to do away with all taxa
tion upon everything except one tax
40 IF Inc lot
caution you to remember that the tax is
upon the value of land, not upon the
area.
| Perhaps the Una Alliance knows what
| it is doing. Perhaps it thoroughly I'M
| derstands the proposition which it re-
| jects: but from the fact that they think
the Knights of Labor want to rob them
! of their lands, | should say, as guess,
! they do not understand the proposition
at all. The ''single tax cannot posi-
| bly, hurt any man who works for liv-
| ing. for it will take from no man one
particle of what he earns, but on the
contrary it will give to every man all
| he earns.
| 1t has been proved again and again
| that it is impossible to collect taxes on
| personal property with any success.
When personal property is assessed, the
| rich man, the banker, the bond owner.
| the man whose wealth is in money or
any other article which is easily hidden,
| he is the man who escapes taxation: and
| the man whose wealth is in stock and
| farm implements, and whose condition
is we'll known to all of his friends and
! to the assessor, he is the man who pays
| the larger tax on personal property.
| According to Mr.. Shearman if all taxa
ton on personal property were done
away with IN Ohio, the farmers would
| pay s per cent less taxes than they do
now. In Tennessee the law exempts
| $1,000 worth of personal property, and
| this operates so that the farming coun-
| ties pay less personal tax than the city
| counties. There is no theory about
| that; you can prove it by consulting the
! published statistics. 1t is only fair to
conclude that if releasing $1,000 worth
| of personal property from taxation ope-
rates for the farmers benefit that re,
, leasing all personal property from taxa,
/ ton would be a good thing for the
farmer. When it comes to assessing
| houses it is a well-knOwn fact that the
! poor man pays way out of proportion to
j his rich neighbor. A house that costs
| $1,000 or $4,000 is easily assessed at or
| near its value, but Il house that costs
! $4,000 may be assessed at one-half OF
/ two-shirds its value, but seldom more.
| If we take a fancy to tax bonds the
! result is that the owner raises the inter
est on his bonds and the people are
taxed to pay the increased interest.
Taxes can be raised from taking a
part of wages or part of rent
If we take all wages in taxation then
men who now work for wages will be
reduced to slaves, or to the same level
as our stock. If we could succeed in
taxing interest then capital would be
withdrawn from use. Now no matter
| how much we may look upon the CAPT
talist as our enemy, we know capital is
should be a friend to labor.
Now suppose we do tax rent; in fact
do as we propose to do, take all taxes
out of rent mot house rent but the
ground remit, what would be the result?
The result would be to put stop to
landlordism. And would that be bad
thing? If men, who are now living off
other men, had to work for their own
living. would that be a very evil state
of things? If tho class of men, who
WON 1.-Two tho la hor of others were no