The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-10-07
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
CHICAGO HERALD LOOKING TO-
tsA WARD THE SINGLE TAX. tfa.

- WARD THE SINGLE TAX. t'a.
Thatwc are making progress in Chi
cago is shown,al think, by the tone of
the daily press, which was only a year
or two ago SO hostile that no;good word
ever found it's way into the editorial
columns of any of the papers. To-day
it is 'stril1ingly 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 to the tax re-
form movement The columns of the
Times fairly bristle with rouri funda-
mental arguments, and those of the
Herald are 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
Spcnccr's cowardly retraction of his
famous chapter on 1.-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
philosopher on his most recent deliver
ance touching land ownership and ut.
terly repudiatcs his doctrine that to
change the present inequitable system
oflaud 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
the hope that Mr.. Spencer may yet
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: ~ q tat s'ss
"Thatth land belongs temporarily
to the people of the world now living
| on it is fact that it does MT take a
philosopher to discover Mankind is
rich in land in the aggregate. The
question is as TO the particular man,
what rights. if any, has he to suf-
| ticient portion of the soil to support
himself and those dependent upon him?,
The people of Great Britain in the ag-
I gregate may be said to own the land in
| England, Scotland and ireland, but it
| is also. a fact that ayminority of that
aggregate claim to own it, and in real
ity have titles to it. Philosophy bears
most fruit when directed toward the
principles. of justice by which the ir-
regularities and inequalities of human
action and conduct may be corrected,
and is least valuable when employed
in apologizing. for the inequitable do
| ings which have gone on during past
thousands of years. That man has a
right to the products of his legitimate
toll to the extent of providing for him.
self and family may be accepted as
true without carrying with 1t the right
to the enormous unearned increment,
! which is the product of a highly organ
| lied state Of society. Yet how to draw
| the line, and where to draw it, in these
cases is a problem society has not yet
attempted to solve, except in the crud-
est way. The correction of these in
equalities and injustices is proper
subject Of thought for, the philosopher
and statesman. In the United States
the government disposes of its own land
on equitable 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 ofmillions from becoming the own
er of as many square miles of land as he
can pay for. Thus, for instance, Mr.
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-fv miles in breadth, or L.
5000 acres of land-an empire in it.
self. The Herald pointed out some
months ago this tendency in America
to follow old world customs in monop-
o!:zing the land. When. as John Nor
ley has asserted, As per, cent. Of the in
habitants of England who reach the
age of 60 years become paupers it is not
very encouraging to be told by Mr..
Spencer that on theswl,ole 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 10000 acres in extent, the other
1900 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 and
overlaps itself. Individual ownership
of land has been found to be most equit-
able and satisfactory. What is needed
is legislation that will make it, if not
impossible, at least highly Improbable
for any one man or corporation to, own
vast tracts Of fland. To further public
sentiment in this direction by influence
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 and
injustices.' .T.t
AS sign of the times it seems to me
that such deliverance is in the high
est degree encouraging No single tax
man will mistake the Herald's meaning
Warren Worth Bailey, in N. Y. Stand
ard &.
A Single Tax Man of i84o.
:
How true is the old saying that
There is nothing new under the SUM"
The following letter from Edward