The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-08-05
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
SINGLE TAX THESES.

L
| 3t
J.. Lowering the margin of produc-
hon, other things being equal, raises
rent and lowers wages, besides lessen
iog production.
2. Holding valuable land out of use
lowcrs the margin Of production, other
things being equal.
8 Land speculation involves the hold
lug OF valuable land out of use.
4. Land speculation is unavoidable so
| long as land owners receive the in
,rease in value created by the commu-
| iity.
5. The single tax would make the
holding out of use of valuable land un-
| profitable, and would thus throw open
| for use that which is now SO held,
either from speculative motives or from
| 40 motive.
6. The single tax would thus raise
wages, thereby being help to labor
ers. 1t would also help capitalists. by
relieving capital from taxation. It
| would hurt no one but landowners, and
| them only in so far as they were neither
laborcrs nor capitalists.
I. The landowner, as such, is Of no
use to the community.
s. All men have originally an equal
natural right to land
| O. There exists theoretically no way
in which this right can possibly be
| alienatcd
| TO- A landowner can require another
to pay him any price he asks; if this
other must use his land.
H. Every man must use some land.
L. Therefore 40 and 1D, where all
land is in the hands of owners, they
can force the landless to give up a cer-
ain amount of property to them, land
they do it,
IL. There is no sufficient reason for
| giving the increase in value created by
The community to the landowner. 1t
| belongs to the community, and no ono
suffers hardship when the community
takes it.
| IA. Movable or produciblc property
tends to go from place where it is
heavily taxed to place where it is
! lightly taxed, or is permitted to escape
taxation. Therefore the abolition of
taxes on such property in any nation,
state or town would be means of at
tracing such property, while the strict
and impartial enforcement of laws for
its taxation is means of driving it
away.
49, Income and succession taxes like
wise tend to drive away the rich.
IT, A tax on property which is the re-
suit of labor, or which has been saved
by thrift, lessons the inducemcnt to
such labor and thrift.
| II. A tax which increases the cost of
owning or using any implement or car.
rying on any process of production or
trade, hinders such production or trade;
except that sometimes such tax con-
centrates the business in the form of
monopoly, whose power may be a
superior advantage.
Is. Such tax always tends to mo.
nopoly and to the crushing ont of small
producers by increasing the amount of
capital necessary for carrying on
given amount of business
10. Such tax, entering into the cost
Of the goods is paid by the consumer in
his purchase, and falls on consumers in
| proportion to their purchases. But in
general, the larger Z mans income is
the smaller is the proportion of it which
he spends for his own consumption.
Therefore, among those who pay any
| such tax it falls heaviest on the poorest.
20. Such a tax takes from the con-
sumcr an unnecessary amount beyond
what it gives to the government, be-
cause the tax enters into the cost of the
| goods, and thus the trader must charge
q profit on the tax as we'll as on the
other cost in order to get the usual
profit on his whole capital The effect
of the tax in encouraging monopolies
may make production cheaper, and thus
neutralize this, but the monopoly is
more likely to involve an additional tax
on the consumer
81. Such q tax, by its interference
with private business, give private
parties 4 direct pecuniary interest in
having it laid or removed, not necessari.
! ly coinciding with the interest they
have in the well-being of the communi-
| ty as whole, and thus increases the
! inducement to corruption in govern
ment. This is especially true where it
falls on one particular industry, as with
each Of the multitudinous special taxes
| which make up our tariff.
90. The increase in the price of land,
occasioned by land speculation (see
Nos. 1-5l, is in effect such tax on the
holding and use of land, and as such is
especially obnoxious to the objections
of Nos. 1910.
90. A tax laid on land by the State
| would not increase the cost of holding
cr using land unless the tnx were great
er than the present rent OF the land, be-
cause whatever is added = the tax is
subtracted from the rent or purchase
price.
"a. The advantage given to an Amer
lean manufacturer by tariff on his
| product, enabling him to sell 1t at
higher price. is in the nature of boun-
| ty paid by an indirect tax (see Nos. IT.
t-2tl collected by the private manufac-
turer from the consumer. Granting,
for the sake of argument, that pro-
tectiye tariff is an eifectual encourage
ment to American industry, and suppos.
ing that the abolition of taxation on
| capital under the single tax would not
be sufficient equivalent for any bene-
fit which the tariff can be supposed to
confer it would yet be every way more
desirable to pay bounty from direct
tax collected by the frnrernmant