The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-06-13
Why..I am a Single Taxer.
BY VIM. LLOYD GARRISON.

form based on a moral principle. The
name is intended to indicate a practical
methohod of reaching and curing much
of the misery that affiicts society. 1t
seems shameful that in a worll of plenty,
with more than enough for all to live
upon in comfort, there should exist.
side by side, congested wealth and
abject poverty. evidently arising from a
arrangement of forces.
What is the primal cause? Is it a
decree of nature? Maniftstly not, for
nature is lavish and unstinting whel.
properly al preach. She responds
quickly to the nusbandmaD, grants TO
the animals which contribute to mems
food :ecundity far beyond human
increase, yields llentifuly to effort the
riches stored in the Garth, and has en-
dowed man with thought and ingenuity
which makes him a creator Of wealth.
If nature is net responsible for the
trouble then man must be, and the im.
perfect distribution of the necessities
and commodities of lfe must be laid at
his door. Some hands succeed in
securing and holding more wealth than
is good for the possessors. Others,
vastly greater in number, grasp wildly
for it, but lack the power to retain
more than enough for bare subsis-
tcnce. We must explain how these
extremes exist.
There are many and diverse answers
to the problem. The temperance re-
former, seeing crime and suffering
associated universally with alcoholic
drink, declares that to be the root OF
the evil. . To rcgenerate men we mnst
destroy the drink habit. There is much
force and sense in this contention. The
woman suffragists affirm that the
trouble is caused by denying the purer
and equally interested half of the
human race the right to voice il
making the laws by which they are
governed. They aver with reason that
the wisdom and tenderness of woman,
were she justly admitted to her share
in the government, would speedily find
a way to mitigate and change the social
evils that appall us. The advocates Of
education insist that schools and teach.
ing are the chief reeenerative infunces;
while the Church, which calls itself
Christian, and pretends to be superior
to all other agencies, makes its appeal
for souls, undismayed 10y nearly nins-
teen hundred years Of effort and its
Encouraging result.
The advocates Of the Single.tax have
their diagnosis and remedy to offer.
Their grievance is that the earth. which
is bounty of nature, due to no mans
virtue or labor, has been monopolized.
That, as men must have land to live
upon, those who control the land con-
troll also the labor which finds employ
ment upon it, and thereby hold undue
advantage. By the present system the
many become subject to the few and
are not permitted to gather the fruits of
their toll. The ownership of land,
implying as it does the right of absorb.
ing wealth produced by others, without
returning a corresponding service, is
therefore manifestly unjust, and should
not be recognized in the court of
equity.
1t breeds artificial distinctions and
makes classes. From it spring the
assumption that the poor should be
governed by the rich that the laws of
trade may be safely tempered with ;
that protective tariffs, which deny the
right of natural exchange and rob the
poor, are beneficial to the nation. Out
of this land system grows a crop of
iallacies, which the Single tax antago,
nizes and seeks to expose.
We, who believe in the profound and
far reaching effects of our methods, are
by no means indifferent to the kindred
reforms already mentioned. We agree
with the temperance people that drunk.
enness is terrible curse. ], tor one,
have never been at all convinced by
the reasoning of my Single tax coad-
tutors that government had not right
to protect itself against the sale Of
intox icants, to the full extent Of prohi.
bition. But it is pertinent to ask
whether drunkenness is not as often
the refuge as it is the cause of misery?
How can we make men and women
sober and self respecting who herd
together in slums and swarming tene.
ments, because natural opportunity for
WORK ia danied thnm2 With land