Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-12-17
The Scientific Method and the Single
Tax.

Enthusiastic advocates Of the single
tar are often rebufFed with the remark.
.'Oa. that Is only Georges opinion
You are advocating mere theory To
persons of unscieEtifle mental training
the objection seems to stop further argu-
ment
The golden rule Of science-that OF
Descartes-is: s-Give unqualified assent
to no propositions but those the truth OK
which is SO clear and distinct that they
can not be doubted" In other words.
through the exercise of doubt comes
positive knowledge This rule Is the
| foundation of scientific logic, and it's
adoption by . few great thinkers and
Investigators has produced what is
termed ..modern science" There could.
indeed. be no exact science without the
adoption of some such ruae-n<, OAR
| wins, TyndaIA or SpencerS 1t was
adopted consciously or unconsciously by
the author of Progress and Poverty"
and he has made of political economy.
| which was originally called Political
Arithmetic a science allied to arith-
metic. He could not have written the
work except by subjecting to doubt all
that had been accepted up 10 his period
as sound political economy. / venture
to assert that no objection has ever
been made to the single tax theory, as
a theory, that has not been. or that could
| not be, easily and convincingly
answered on a basis of scientific logic.
1t is their scientific habit of investi~
ton which prevents many men OF high
intellectual attachments from carefully
considering the irrefragible logic of
Progress and Poverty" To them
Georges theory is merely notion, a
belief or an opinion, and, of course.
they regard their notions or opinions
as good or better than his The same
habit explains why the state papers of
Blaine and President Harrison contain
economic doctrine that makes an or
binary. unpretending single taxer smile
Such statesmen are quite unware. as
their self-confidence shows. that there
exists any scientific test by which the
fallacy of their views may be clearly
demonstrated. Yet the new political
economy furnishes that magic test, and
happily it is being applied by rapidly
increasing numbers of people in all
parts Of the world
A man OF science, Herbert Spencer.
helped to lay the foundations of the
new political economy when George
was mere boy. Whatever Spencer
may have since said in relation thereto
can not impair the severe scientific logic
of his earlier utterances They stand
on their own undiminisha BILE power of
conviction, and it is out of his power
to repudiate them.
Prot Huxley, q man of scientific
methods wrote an essay on Capital.
the Mother of Labor"-important to
the single tax. From a biological stand
point this essay is scientifically logical
and very interesting, but it has no bear
ing, as he imagines. upon the new POI
litical economy, whose concretions he
evidently knows nothing about He
may, however, some day pick up
Progress and Poverty" and really read
it If he does. he is too sincere man.
though vain one, to withhold, not
| necessarily change of views, but new
views altogether.
Then there are the wise editors of
great newspapers who may have had
time once to read and digest scientific
books, but who have no time now; they
demolish Progress and Poverty in q
few paragraphs. The future historian
of this epoch will greatly wonder how,
in the midst of abundant wealth of
scientific ideas relating to political
economy, there could have existed
among the educated and influential
such dire poverty of information
However, there is much aope to be
derived from one of Herbert Spencer's
conclusions: THE belief Of the scien-
tihc will eventually becor.s skc belief
of the world at large. - L crcrin,
in The Standard.