The Colfax chronicle., 1890-11-01
EGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
A scoTcHMAN's VIEW.
ms Moral and Social Effects Of the Sis
gle Tax.

r1|s Moral and Social Effects Of tho Sim
gle Tax.
In our articles on the single tax and
tt3 effects we have taken up seriatum
nearly all the effects that would result
! directly from the confiscation OF rent to
| the common exchequer. These effects
| would have been mostly economic, and
haxo been deduced from generally ad-
! mftted economic laws. But beyond
| these economic effects there are moral
and social effects resulting from the
economic conditions to which the inn
position of the single tax would give
rise. For the opening up of natural OPP
portunities to labor and capital, and the
taking from off the shoulders @. 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 tramIs and beggars and other
parasites of society which are the prod
uct of the un equal 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
lay would be greatly simplified for dis
putes would be fewer, and would be
more easily settled. IN short, it would
do away altogether with government, at
least as a repressive agency, and this
simplification and curtailf ng of the func-
tions Of government would make it capa-
bic OF assuming certain Other functions
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, gard ems. 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 at present an expensive. and
alnost 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 b as 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
Ill the great things and all the good
things that we have achie we'd were at
3ne time but visions in tt q brains of
Ehoee who conceived them. And If we
but consider for moment the change
his would be wrought in ocial life if |
abr received its full rewar. I, we shall |
;ozte, think, to the concl, ision that |
2ozbaps after all such visions may be |
,o1tfble of realization. and sue dreams |
ncf indeed como true. Want. and the |
eok Of want, as factor in hu man life,
5dG1a be eliminated. And this is the |
clement that would work the change; |
or poverty, as Carlyle says. is The hell |
i which the modern Englisblman is
most afraid. It is poverty and the fear
i poverty, and the struggle to keep out
i it that makes civilization such a
mass Of evil. 1t is but natural that men
hould strive to keep themselves and
hose dependent upon them from falling
nto this terrible abyss And it is this
truggle to rise abov the fear of poverty
hat makes men lie and cheat and steal,
nd renders them Indifferent as to
whether they trampIe their neighbors
Inderfoot
It is this continual struggle to raise
themselves above the fear of want that
makes men admire the rich and the for
innate, and that causes the struggle for
xistence to become even fiercer and
nore fierce, and it is now becoming svi-
ent to the mass of mankind that unless
hey 60 to the root OF the evil and
estroy it, the more fiercely they strive
he worse 1t will be for their children
abor free field, choke of the dog in
be manger that stands between man
nd the bounty of his Maker, and let la
or have its full reward Take and use
or the benefit of the whole community
hat value which the preference of tho
creates, and production be-
ng set free would enormously in ncrease,
be margin of cultivation would rise to
Is natural level, and men would not re-
uire to worry about finding emr9oy-
rent, any more than they worry about
nding air to breathe; the worship of
'ealth would become thing of the ,
asst, and the man who strove to GET
lore than he required would be looked
pom with something like cornmissera-
ion and pity. 1t is unnecessary to en-
lrge. Any one with the requisite imag- !
nation can fill in the picture and con- /,
eive for himself the vice that would be j
Eayed, the sorrow that would be soothed, ,
be hearts that would be healed. For :
hen labor freed from the restrictions /,
hat now hamper it. can get across to
atural opportunities and these necessi-
- H.