The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-06-25

out with the proposition that no man
has right to the private or exclusive
ownership Of land. The earth, hc says,
belongs to the human race. 1t should
be as free as the water, the air and the
sunshine. No man can buy piece of
land for no one can give him clear title
to it. What right has this man or that
to draw line around certain portion
of the earth's surface and say that all
the rain and all the sunshine that hap
pens to fall within that limit belongs to
him 7? These things are the bounty Of
nature, the gifts of God to men. No
man can earn them. The productive
elements of the soil, the rain, the sun.
beams combine to cause the growth of
plants and the increase of the focks,
these things that come without the aid
or effort of man are called by George the
"unearned increment" The farmer
working in the field deserves no more
than the carpenter hammering at the
bench. Each puts in the same number
Of days work during the year. Why
should the farmer receive in addition to
his daily wages the benefit of natures
bounteous forces, while the carpenter
gets nothing but what he earns? Why
should not each receive pay for the
actual number Of days work performed
and in addition an equal share of the
profit or unearned increment? All
wealth, he thus elaine, that is the direct
result Of labor should belong to the
laborer. All wealth that mans labor
cannot produce is the common property
of ell and belongs equally to every in
dividual of the race. The miner, for
instance, who digs out pound of gold
from the rock should receive fair wages
for his work. He is only entitled to SO
much Of the gold as is represented by
his labor. The metal itself was placed
there by nature. 1t cost no man any
labor to make it and it is the common
property of all. The plowman raises a
hundred bushels Of corn, his only share
in it is the value of the work he spent
in cultivatingit The unearned increase
belongs to the public. The owner of
corner lot rents it for storeroom. AS
the labor he exerts during the year is
he is entitled to nothing. The
total rental belongs to the people.
Each individual human being is thus
entitled to an equal share in all the
rentals and all the profits that come
from land. The fact that he is human
being is the ground of his claim. If he
is born of woman, if he belong to the
GENIUS homo, no further credentials are
needed.
But if the land belongs equally to
everybody how is it to be divided up?
Is each person to have farm of his own?
The manner in which Henry George
proposes to distribute the worlds wealth
to its natural owners will strike land
holders, and especially farmers, as being
rather radical. 1t is proposed to gradu.
ally raise the tax upon land until the
tax shall equal the rent. A farm which
now rents for 81 900 is to be taxed 81 900.
Thus the owner gets nothing and the
'ental or tax goes into the public treas.
Try for the benefit of the people. The
enter of course fares just as well as he
lid before for the renter scarcely ex.
,ects to get more than fair return for
lis daily labor. All the increase that is
! result of the forces of nature goes to
he landlord in the form of rent. Under
he new theory it would 60 to the people
n the form of taxes paid. Whenever
he tax had been raised sufficiently to
at up all the rent the business OF the |
andlord would cease. There would no
onger be any inducement to own land,
xcept 80 much as the owner could till |
" his own efforts. A man could only
arm so much as the labor of bis hands
r brain would bring and in addition
ach would receive, whether he labored
r not, his pro rata share of the taxes or
entails from the public lands.
How do Ohio farmers relish the idea
+ a single tar and that tar upon land? Do
hey want their taxes as high as the
ent? Yet this is one OF the reforms
imed at by the followers of George and
who wefe invited to join in
he third party movement at Cincinnati.
is difficult to tell what steady. going
nd sensible farmers see in this for them.
elves. It is difficult to tell what the
astern theorists see in the the third
arty movement if it is not an opportu-
ity to push forward their own peculiar
Jews of the ownership of land. This is
ne of the points which they were asked
D hold in allegiance at the conference in
rder not to make trouble. Yet the
Hand Club is making every
fort to cultivate friendly relations with
ne Farmers Alliance in order to use it