Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-08-13
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
A SIMPLE, NOT A COMPLEX
CURE.

The Unionist, printed at Memphis
and edited by the agent Of the Farm
ers' Alliance, says it does not believe
that the sub-treasury is panacea for
all our ills 1t adds: perhaps it will
not stand the test of experience as a
cure for any of them, but in the alb
sence of better proposition, and in
the face of our overwhelming need we
say, take this as a means to an end, try
it fairly and squarely, and if it fails let
it go down before something better. No
one remedy can cure our disease. 1t is
of complex origin and demands COM
pick cure. A tax on land values may
do good, but it is no cure-all No free
trade, nor protection, nor nationalized
railroads, nor sub-treasury warehouses,
nor any other one proposal will do the
work, though there be elements of
truth in all. The problem is too COM
pick"
Here is a singular illustration of the
methods of thought among many who
are disposed to call themselves reform
ers and who imagine that mere change,
without regard to its direction, is to be
commended. The evils of which men
complain are complex, but it does not
follow that the cure for those evils need
be equally complex. On the contrary.
if we are to reason by analogy, the
probability always is that the more
complex the disease the simpler is the
cure. The tendency among modern
students of medicine is to trace almost
every disease to a distinctive germ and
to assist natural processes in extirpat-
ing that germ. The problem that trou-
bles the farmers North, South, East
and West, and that presses equally up
on the workingmen in the cities, is that
of the persistence of poverty in the
midst of increasing productive power.
The notion that wealth can be created
by any pawn brol1ing device will not
bear thorough consideration. We must
have for the purposes of civilized life a
sufficient supply of currency; but all
the currency in the world will not pre-
vent an unjust distribution of the pro-
ceeds of labor, if the passive factor in
all production is monopolized by those
who have the legal power to levy black
mail on the producers. The possession
of this power which, while constantly
growing, is passing from year to year
=
proportion of the people, is the cause of
the misery and despair of the city work
man and the rural farmer; and they
will find no permanent relief until they
cease giving themselves up to stupid
ideas and following weak and purpose
less leaders, and give their whole minds
to determined thought on the problem
with which they are thus far merely
trifiing.
We do not undertake to insist that
every man must necessarily be a single
tax man; but we do say that any man
who presumes to propose remedies for
existing evils and to lead discontinued
men in efforts for the betterment of
their condition is absolutely inexcusable,
if he has not in all sincerity, with all
of the mental power that he possesses,
stuc led the problem SO admirably stated
in Progress and Poverty" and found,
after such study a sufficient answer to
the proposal of a remedy in that book.
These people can not but know that
one man claims to have put his finger
on the germ of the disease in our body
polite and to have shown the way for
its extirpation. They know that thou
sands of men, at least their own equals
in intellectual capacity, have, after
candid consideration, accepted that
remedy. They are, therefore, as hon
est men, who would avoid being blind
leaders Turing their followers into the
ditch, bound to actually know what Mr..
George proposes and by what argu-
ments he sustains his proposal, before
they ask people to trifle with palliatives
and revamp discredited herb doctor
kind of empirical political economy.
These active mouths and pens pro-
PEELED by almost any other motive
power than that of deep conviction,
honestly earned by persistent thought,
are the real enemies to any true re-
form; and the disposition manifested
here and there to get all such people to-
gether is due to an absolute lack of
fixity of purpose in behalf of any def
mite and clearly apprehended principle.
For our part we regard Lord Scully,
the typical landlord, as far more
powerful factor for true reform than
the gulf or the Pacific ocean who are
urging ignorant men to adopt the first
fancy that commendS itself to their I'M
trained minds, and to seek through
some fantastic remedy a cure for evils
that result from our persistent defiance
of the natural law of human associa-
ton, which is as fixed. immutable and, in
the long run, irresistible as the law OF
gravitation itself.-The Standard.