Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-03


you simply tax his borrowers, the man
who ultimately uses his money. II von
tax his bonds the tax will fall upon him
it is true, but mark won
it will be like repudiating a debt
that has already been incurred.
Take the case of railroad stocks. thew are
in themselves pieces of paper, represents
ing the ownership Of things having value.
and all taxes put upon such things will
result in the increase of prices and fall
ultimately upon the users OF the railroad.
All such taxes give an advantage to those
who possess large capital. Take the
Federal taxes, it is impossible to name
any one, the repeal or reduction of which
would not bring at once to Washington
q strong lobby to retain. Take for in
stance the revenue tax on straw braid.
We cannot make the article here on &C.
count of our climate, believe, and con-
sequently we are bound to import all
that we require. Now in this instance
there is no object in having such tax
because there is no need for protection.
Yet the Mills bill proposed to retain it
because tie importers insisted ON its not
being repealed, simply because it con.
centrsted their business.
In reply to an interrogation from one
of his auditors at this juncture relative to
the question at issue, Mr.. George told the
following story: Mr.. Furbish, the edi-
tor of the Chicago Leader, was discussing
the land question with L. F. Post, q
"Greenbacker," one day, when the latter
said that it was the most important
question of the dey. Furbish replied
that he knew it was q very important
one, but there were others equally
80, that of money, for instance.
He said to Post: eff you will
give me all the money in the
world, you can haze all the land" Post
replied: "All right. But what would
you do if l gave you notice to quit?"
This illustrates fully the fact that man
cannot live without land. As for our
theories, Mr.. George continued, we would
make the issuance of money the function
of the whole community. As for rail-
roads, we would have the Government
assume the same control over them az it
already has over our dirt roads. We
would abolish trusts, as they are the
children of the tariff, always the result of
taxes levied upon either industry or ex-
change.
In reply to a question relative to the
overthrow of the great monopolies, the
speaker said The single tax will pre-
vent the coal barons from raising the
price of coal beyond it's just limits, be-
cause it will attract labor and capital to
the production of more coal. So W ith
the railroads, by not placing fictitious
values en- rights of way, and taking off
the taxes on steel and other material
used in the building of the road, you will
relieve the users of the road from the
otherwise heavy tax. The Associated
Press monopoly grows out of monop-
oily of the telegraph wires under the
control of the Western Union Telegraph
Company. The remedy is simple. Put
the wires under the control of the Gov
ernment as you have already done with
your postal service.
When asked to define the word mo-
nopoly, Mr.. George said that although he
did not wish to pose as a walking Web
ster, the sense in which he used the
word was as follows: A monopoly is the
right, power or privilege of doing GER
tain thing that other persons are denied
the equal right to do.
In reply to the question: "Will not
the single tax on land (admitted that the
same amount of Federal taxes has to be
raised) render farming 80 improbable
that nobody will want to till the soil ?"
Mr.. George said: "No; on the contrary,
it will render farming more profitable and
give to labor in any vocation the full and
true earnings of that labor. There would
be no necessity to pay horde of tax
collectors. As things are now, the typi-
cal American farmer is being crushed
out of the country. The deadly mort
gage is eating his heart out He is now
paying one-third of the produce he ex-
tracts from the land for the privilege of
tilling virgin soil He is taxed on everv-
thing he has and uses, from the iron and
lumber in his house to the straw hat on
his head
Speaking of the Nationalist movement,
Mr.. George said: $50 far as National
ism has any aim, it seeks the abolition
of competition. Now, would like to
know how to prevent competition, ex-
cept by putting all humanity in irons.
The trouble lies not in competition free
to all, but from its absence. A man
when out in the open fresh air can stand
a pressure of fifty-five pounds to the
square inch, but if you create vacuum
behind him he would be crushed to
pieces by the weight in front. So it is
with monopoly on one side and COMPETE
tion on the other.
In reply to query as to which nation
would be the first to try the great remedy
he advocated, the speaker stated that the
current of public opinion all over the
English-speaking world was tending in
the direction of the acceptance of it. In
Scotland the Radical wing of the Liberal
party was 30 far indcctrinated with it that
it was already part of the official pro-
gramme. Michael Davitt told him that
in Ireland it was running in
the same direction like swift
tidal wave that would ultimately
carry everything before it. In Canada it
was making progress every day. The
Government in power in New South
Wales was already pledged to it, and all
over the United States it was running his
" ay as no other movement had ever done
before. California, he stated. was hsndi-
capped by its new Constitution, which
provided that all property shall be taxed,
q barrier which it would require almost q
revolution to break down.
In bidding farewell to his audience
Mr.. George said he must go round the
world before he returned to Los Angeles.
He warned his auditors that in this great
monopolized State of California the time
has not yet come for a concerted move
ment; he asked them to do what they
could individually to push forward the
cause. Addressing the Nation alists, he
said that though both realized that the