Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-10-01
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
CHICAGO HERALD LOOKING To-
WARD THE SINGLE TAX.

- | F.,
WARD THE SINGLE TAX.
That we are making progress IN Chl-
ago is shown, | think, by the tone OF
the daily press. which was only year
or two ago so hostile that no good word
ever found its way into the editorial
columns of any of the papers To-day
it is strikingly different. We are not
only treated with consideration but IN
some notable instances with positive
favor-the Herald and the Times, the
great democratic journals of the north
west, being particularly and almost
conspicuously friendly tc the tax re-
form movement The columns of the
Times fairly bristle with our funda-
mental arguments, aud those OF the
Herald are a delight to every single
taxer, although that paper has yet to
declare its adhesion to our doctrine.
But it has repeatedly avowed its belief |
in absolute free trade; and on Sunday |
last, in an editorial on Herbert |
Spencer's cowardly retraction of his |
famous chapter on THE Right to the |
Use of the Earth it very plainly indi- |
Gates its position on the land question. |
1t sharply joins issue with the English
ance touching land ownership, and ut
terly repudiates his doctrine that to
change the present inequitab BILE system
of land ownership for one more in ac-
cordance with the principles of justice,
would work more harm than now re-
suits from the monopoly of the soil
While rejecting his notion that hoary
Injustice can ever be right, it expresses
~ hot Mr.
| come to devote his brilliant powers as
a social analyst to the real difficulties
and diseases of the body polite" What
these are it rather broadly indicates in
the following:
THAT the land belongs temporarily
| to the people of the world now living
| on it is a fact that it does not take
| philosopher to discover Mankind is
rich IL land in the aggregate. The
| question is as to the partiG ular man,
what rights if any, has he to suf-
! ficient portion of the soil 30 support
himself and those dependent upon him?
| The people OF Great Britain in the ag-
| gregate may be said to own the land in
| England, Scotland and Ireland, but it
is also fact that a minority of that
aggregate claim to own it, and n real
ity have titles to it. Philosophy bears
most fruit when directed toward the
principles of justice by which the lr-
Irregularities and inequalities of human
action and conduct may be corrected,
and is least valua BILE when employed
in apologizing for the inequitable do
inrs which have gone on during past
| thousands of years. That man has
| right to the products of his legitimate
- Il f0r~ h
self and family may be accepted as
true without carrying with 1t the right
to the enormous unearned increment,
which is the product of highly organ
| lied state of society. Yet how to draw
the line and where to draw it, in these
cases is problem society has not yet
attempted to solve, except IN the crud-
est way. The correction of these in
CAPABILITIES and injustioes is proper
subject of thought for the philosopher
and statesman. In the United States
the government disposes of its own land
on equita BILE principles, contemplating
actual ownership and cultivation of the
soil. yet, the title once vested in the IN
dividual, there is nothing to prevent the
man of millions from becoming the own
er of as many square miles of land as he
can pay for. Thus, for instance, MIR.
John W. Bookwalter, the Ohio mill
ionaire, owns tract of 10000 acres OF
land in Nebraska A syndicate OF
northern capitalists owns a tract OF
land in Louisiana, 100 miles in length
and twenty-five miles in breadth, or l.
| 500, 900 acres of landau empire in IT
self The Herald pointed out some
months ago this tendency in America
to follow old world customs in monop-
olizing the land. When, as John Nor
lev has asserted, As per cent OF the IN
habitants of England who reach the
age of 60 years become paupers 1t is not
very encouraging to be told by Mr..
; Spencer that on the whole the present
state of things in regard to landowner
, ship is the most satisfactory. In Ire
| land matters are still worse. LORD
, Sligo, in Connemara, and Mr. Mitchell
Henry, at Kylemore, have vast estates
one of 40, 900 acres in extent the other
. Il, 900 acres, In Scotland the same
state of things prevails In view OF
, | these facts it is small wonder that the
advocates for the naturalization OF
| | land have found hearers and advocates
, Yet this is the extreme remedy ano
, overlaps itself. Individual ownership
| of land has been found to be most eqult
| able and satisfactory. What is needed
: | is legislation that will make it, if not
| | impossible, at least highly unprofita biz
, for any one man or corporation to owl
! | vast tracts of land. To further public
! sentiment in this direction by infiuenc
, ing thinkers is work far more worthy
] | of Mr. Spencer's powers than counsel
ing the hopeless acceptation of our pres
ent system with all its inequalities ano
p injustices."
, AS sign of the times it seems to Zoe
= that such deliverance is in the high
est degree encouraging. No single tai
, man will mistake the Heralds meaning
Warren Worth Bailey, in n. Y. Stand
ard
|, A Single Tax Man of I848.