The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-12-23
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
A WOMAN TO WOMEN.

H. Aressta Howard, in the Standard
of Octoser Z, says: II am as much sur
prised that men should seek to enlist
the sympathies of the DISTINGUISHED in
questions of public welfare, as that
women themselves should lend their
energies to the furtherance of any
movement until their own liberty is at
tanned"
l will leave single tax men to explain
their position to Mrs. Howard, while l
try to show her why ,sagle tax women,
or those at least who are advocates of
woman suffrage, are glad to lend their
energies to another reform than that
1t 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 we'll;
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 I'M
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 natnrai 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 will
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-
cided by it's lowest and most numerous
class. Rome fell because her crop of
men gave out. She was rotten at the
foundation.
l 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 l
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 ] would take il. II
they offered me woman suffrage or the
single tax | would take the single tax,
knowing should then have both. II
is not certain that the single tax would
follow the Acknowledgement 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 il
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 have said elsewhere, single tax
ers propose to turn the stream of un'
earned increment, now DETECTED from
it's 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 6
common fund for common expenses in
place of the multitudinous taxes now
draining their life of all that makes il
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 ant
male children alone? If we could spiri
away into space all the women and fe
male children in the world, wouldn'
land values drop? Apart from senti
mental reasons, US political economist
say, that is, eliminating from the prob
lem the sorrow, dispair, discomfort an.
confusion caused by such an event, AM
eliminating also consideration of tn
fact that such loss would mean tn
extinction of the human race, and look
ing at the problem simply from an ecc
nomic standpoint, wouldn't the remova
of half the population cause shar
decline in land values? No sane ma
would deny it, and no single tax ma
can fail to advocate woman suffrag
without proving himself only one d,
gree better than the landlord. The la
ter says: This is mine to be spent {
I please" The former says: 9TH
enormous sum belongs to the peopl
because created by them. 1t shall |
spent for their common good, but spel
as one-half of them thinks best"
And if we 20 deeper than this v
come to the same problem. Is n
woman a land animal as well as mai
| And does not Henry George base h
whole theory on the proposition tn
man is a land animal? If any o.
could prove that man is not land a,
NAL. Progress and Poverty" wou
have been written in vain Shall '