Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-12-17
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
A WOMAN TO WOMEN.


women themselves should lend their
| energies to the furtherance of any
| movement until their own liberty is at
| tanned
] viii leave single tax men toexplain
| their position to Mrs Howard, while
try to show her why single tax women,
| or those at least who are advocates of
woman suffrage, are glad to lend their
| energies to another reform than that
| It is because they believe that by adj
vocating the single tax they are taking
| the best means to secure, not only their
| own liberty, but that of others as well;
| because they believe that the whole is
greater than part; that the race is of
| more Importance than sex: that true
| liberty for all is better than sham iber-
| ty for all; that the substance is better
| than the shadow, the real thing better
| than the symbol
They look abroad upon our land, and
| they see that men with the ballot in
| their hands are not free. They are
| freer than women. Mrs Howard
| would say: Oh! yes. they make our
| laws, such as they are. They live un-
| der laws they themselves make; wom-
| en- live under laws that are made by
| others If men are taxed to- death,
| they have themselves to thank. If
| they are denied access to natural oppor-
| tunity, their God-given heritage, it is
| they themselves who have put up the
| barriers and keep them in repair.
| Bent under the same weight Of taxa
| ton. pent in by the same barriers,
women with the franchise would be as
| free as men are now, and no freer.
| What does that freedom mean for the
masses of men? Freedom to carelessly
| toll from the cradle to grave or slowly
starve: freedom to satisfy the coarsest
animal appetites if they are strong,
sober and industrious; or, if they or
| their parents or their parents parents
grew tired of being strong, sober and
| industrious with SO little to show for
the effort, then have they freedom to
sink to lower and lower depths of deg
ration till charity hands them over to
death And close at their heels viii
| drag their women, ballot or no ballot.
And as for those little up in the
world as the phrase is-but why speak
of them? The fate of nation is de-
eided by its lowest and most numerous
class Rome fell because her crop of
| men gave OUT SHe was rOtlen at the
| foundation.
| ! yield to one in the strength of my
desire for woman suffrage, but / must
| admit that the exercise of that right
under present social conditions would
| not give me the satisfaction that
| should expect from it after the adoption
OF the single tax had purified our ma
| tional life and raised the standard of
morality in every department
| If the fates offered me woman suf-
| frage tomorrow I would take it. If
| they offered me woman suffrage or the
| single tax / would take the single tax
| knowing / should then have both. 1t
| is not certain that the single tax would
follow the enfranchisement of woman:
| but the adoption of the single tax,
which means the abolition of funda-
mental wrong affecting alike men and
women, would open the way for every
other reform. Woman suffrage is gain
ing ground now; under the single tax it
would be speedily attained
| No single taXer can be an anti-woman
suffragist without laying himself open
| to the charge of unreason He and the
| single taxer who declares himself an
anti-free trader, are birds of a feather
| and equally Illogical l am happy in
| believing that there are few of either
As I have said elsewhere. single tax
ers propose to turn the stream of un-
earned increment, now DETECTED from
its natural course by our system of land
tenure, from the pockets of the land
lords into the hands of its rightful own
ers, the people, to be used by them as
common fund for common expenses in
place of the multitudinous taxes now
draining their life of all that makes it
worth living. The people are the right
full owners of this fund because they
created it. Now, what are the people?
Men, women and children, or men and
male children alone? If we could spirit
away into space all the women and fe-
male children in the world, wouldn't
land values drop? Apart from senti-
mental reasons, as political economists
say that is, eliminating from the prob
lem the sorrow, dispair, discomfort and
confusion caused by such an event. and
eliminating also consideration of the
fact that such loss would mean the
extinction of the human race. and look
ing al the problem simply from an eco
noE1ic standpoint, wouldn't the removal
of half the population cause a sharp
decline in land values2 No sane man
would deny it. and no single tax man
can fail to advocate woman suffrage
without proving himself only one de-
gree better than the landlord. The lat
ter says: This is mine to be spent as
| please" The former says: This
enormous sum belongs to the people,
because created by them. 1t shall be
spent for their common good, but spent
as cne-half of them thinks best
And if we go deeper than this we
come to the same problem Is not
woman land animal as well as man?
And does not Henry George base his
whole theory on the proposition that
man is a land animal2 If any one
could prove that man is not land ami
NAL. Progress and Poverty would
have been written in vain Shall we
deny woman her right to the eartho He
who denies her right to vote denies her
right to her share of economic rent,
and to deny her this is to DENY her
right to the earth. since the only way
to recognize this fundamental right in
state of society of which permanency
OF tenure is the cornerstone, is by Sc
curing to each the equal right to eco
nomic rent
It Mrs Hoyard will study the single
which she has already
rekAved, and that which, l am safe in
saying. will come to her. she can not
fail, think. to understand why single
to our sacred cause, are working for