The Louisiana Democrat., 1890-07-02
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
A Very Badly Muddled Man Set Alright.

IH0s. BRIGGS.
1. A tax upon land values can only be
paid out of the prices obtained for the
produce of land.
This is true. If we were to say thata
land value tax must be paid out OF the
produce of labor applied to land, we
should be more exact, but would proba-
bly, mean nothing different from what
NJ. Nicholson means.
2. The produce of land is the necessa-
ries of life.
Constituting the term 'necessaries of
life' broadly, so as to include all the
material things which We desire, this
also is erue.
5. A tax on land value is, therefore,
tax on the necessaries of life.
BY no means. Mr.. Nicholson errs in
assuming that the thing with which a
tax is paid is the thing taxed. A tax on
tobacco, if paid in corn or the price of
corn, is not a tax on corn. A tax on
bachelors, though paid out of tho price
obtained for pork, would not be tax on
pork. This tax on bachelors, recently
proposed in France for the purpose of
promoting marriages, admirably illus
trates Mr.. Nicholson's fallacy. Itwould
have to be paid out of the products of
labor applied to land, but it is plain
that it would not in any sense be a tax
on these products. 1t would be tax
simply and solely upon the privilege of
remaining unmarried, just as marriage
license tax is tax on the privilege of
getting married. So a tax on land
values, though paid with products of
labor, is not tax on those products. 1t
is tax on the privilege of monopolizing
valuable land.
4. A tax, if of considerable amount,
increases the cost of the article taxed.
This is true of all articles produced in
competition. But it is not true of mo-
nopolized articles. To tax corn is 80
increase its price, because the tax makes
it moro difficult to produce corn, and
therefore tends to lower the market
supply. But to tax land values is to de-
crease the price of land, because the
tax makes it moro difficult to keep land
out of its best use and, therefore, tends
to increase the market supply
5. Therefore tax on the necessaries
of life increases the cost of those neces-
saries.
Yes.
6. The necessaries of life are articles
of trade, and any action of government
which increases their cost is against
freedom of trade.
Yes.
Z. A tax levied upon necossaries pro-
duced in this country, and not upon
those received from abroad, is protect
i've duty against home growths.
Yes.
s. The British farmer would have a
right to demand that corn coming from
abroad should bear tax equal to the
proportion of single tax he had to pay
out of his corn.
No. Though he pays the land value
tax with corn this docs not increase the
cost of producing home grown corn.
The price OF corn is regulated by cost of
production from the best land of no
value To tax corn is to increase the
cost of production of corn from all land,
the poorest as we'll as the best. But to
production from land Of no value, since
that kind of land does not come under
the tax, and, therefore, it can not affect
cost of production from any land. Its
effect is to lessen the rent which would
otherwise go to the land owner by virtue,
not of his labor, but of his ownership
If we are correctly informed, most
British farmers now pay the single tax
out of their corn to landlords in the
name of rent. Does that increase the
price of corn, or give them right to de-
mand that corn coming from abroad
shall be taxed?
0. Both by increasing the cost of pro-
duce and necessitating an equal tax up
on foreign produce, the single tax idea is
contrary to the principles of free trade.
When Mr.. Nicholson comes to under
stand the incidence of taxation he will
see that this question needs no answer.
The single tax does not increase the
price of production or necessitate any
tax whatever on foreign produce.
10. Political economy requires that
the expenses of 60, ernment should be
borne by the citizens in proportion to
their wealth.
1t would be better to say that the ex-
penses of tho government should be
borne by the citizens in proportion to
the value of the special privileges gov
ernment secures to them. But as owners
of the most valuable special privileges
are certain soon to become the wealth.
lest men in a community unless COM
PEELED to bear the burden of taxation, it
is not important to deny this postulate.
This is, of course, not true. A tax
that does not increase the cost of the
necessaries of life can have no SUCH ef-
feet.
II. The single tax would cast the
heaviest burden on the man whose fam
lily consumed the necessaries of life.
II. Political economy demands that the
wages OF the working classes shall enable
them to get as much as possible of those
things that will keep them in health
and strength and enable them to rear
families, so that wealth producers shall
be as efficient and numerous as possible.
1t demands that they shall get all
they can earn, and that they shall not
be required to pay any thing out of
what they produce, even for the sup
port of government, unless government
gives them advantages-not bcne-
fits, but advantages. 1t is desirable,
in normal social conditions, that wealth |
producers shall be efficient and numer-
Gus; but in the conditions that prevail,
under which the single tax (rent) goes