The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-04-18

ANTT-SJC(IIE TAX.

SlAtSA
and Preside for February 18th, 1890,
is a brief article on single tax, which
seems to be a cause OF offense to some
OF our readers who are single tax advo-
Gates. We quote from some letters re-
ceived on the subject. One says that
the article "grossly misrepresents the c
single tax theory" Another writes: I
pose to abolish poverty by making the a.
5ax on land so high hat no one can at n
ord to own it mot quoted correctly.] II
Will you kindly state your authority v,
such a statement??" This writer Il
also says: "Single takers may be a very it
pestilent set Of agitators. Ii SO, make o
it appear by honest facts and argu-
ments; Misrepresentation will only react p,
upon it's author" T.
\ 1T is human to err, but we do not
wish or intend to misreprcsent anything |
or anybody. Whether we are mistaken
: OF whether some OF those who are advo-
Z eating single tax fail to understand it's
object, is left to the judgement Of our
readers. If they will turn to the article
20 in question they will find the main point
OF it to be, that, with those who believe
~ that poverty cal be abolished by the
20 adjustment Of private ownership in
O land, single taxis a means to..un end, and
If that end end is practically the ~confisca-
V ton ofland neutrality-suspicious. to the
proprietors. Our authority is called
n for. 1t is "Progress and Poverty" by
II Henry George, the chief apostle OF an
old gospel in a new form. We have
only space to quote brief. In chapter 2
q book 4 he says: "To extripate poverty,
to make wages what justice commands
they should be-the full earnings OF the
y laborers-we must therefore substitute
for the individual ownership OF land, a
common ownership. Nothing else will
go to the cause CT the evil; in nothing
= else is there the slightest hope. This,
S then, is the remedy for the unjust and
unequal distribution OF wealth appar-
ent in modern civilization and for the
evils which flow from it. We mustmake
land common property" In chapter 3,
a book Z, he says: "And by the time the
O people OF any such country as England
Dr. the United States are sufficiently
aroused to to the injustice and the dis
advantages OF the individual ownership
l. OF land to induce them to attempt it's
naturalization, they will be sufficiently
aroused to nationalize it in a more easy
and direct way than by purchase. They
t will not trouble themselves about COM
v p%ensating the owners" So much Tor
c~onfiscating without compensation. 1t
+ remains for us to see what method he
u proposes for abolishing private owner
v ship OF land. In chapter 2, book s, he
h says: owe should satisfy the law Of
justice, we should meet all economic re-,
II quirements, by at one stroke abolish
= ing all private titles, declaring all land
n public property, and letting it out to
the highest bidders in lots to suit, under
such conditions as would sacredly guard
the private rights to improvements"
J. But while he considers this plan per-
fectly feasible, he offers another which
q he thinks would give less shock to pres
ent customs and habits OF thouglt--he
would confiscate rent by taxation. He
If says, in same chapter and book: "Let
n the individuals who now hold it, still
retain, if they want to, possession Of
what they are pleased to call their land.
Let them continue to call it their land.
4 Let them buy and sell and bequeath
and divide it. We may safely leave
them the shell if we take the kernel. It
is not necessary to confiscate land; it is
only necessary to confiscate rent"
Thus he masks the scheme. Again he
says: "Now, insomuch as the taxation
OF rent or land values must necessarily
i be increased just as we abolish other
II taxes, we may put the proposition into
practical form by proposing to abolish
r all taxation save that upon land
e values" In other words, he would
abolish all other taxes %purposely
0 to make the tax on land as high as pos
sible. He would do this in order to
confiscate rent, Or, in his own language,
n to take the kernel OF o%wnerahip IN land
and leave the shell to the present pro-
prietors. Coniscation without compen-
. sation by means OF single tax is the
scheme, the worst features OF which are
u skillfnlly disguised by plausible rhetoric.
Read the chapters quoted and you will
" see that we have not misrepresented the
single tax theory. Our object was sim
ply to call attention to it's real purpose,
and we hope that the sesingle taxers''
~ who do not believe III Che c~onfscation