Iron County register., 1892-02-11
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
EVER WITH US.
christian Men Who Would Helm the
Poor.
e.ev. Charles r. Baker, in the Church of
the Messiah. Again Reinforces tho
Single Tax Views of Henry
George-Another and
Vigorous Attack on
Monopolies.

|
REV. Charles r. Baker delivered lect-
nre on 'The Single Tax of Henry
George" He said:
In considering these remedies for pov-
erty, which have been proposed at va
rious times, it is a great pleasure at
last to come to one proposed by Chris
tan man. Too often the church has
taken position of hostility to the
wants of the poor. It is continually
necessary to remind us that Christ's
first word was BLESSED are the poor,
for theirs is the kingdom of God"
They, better than the rich, understand
what it is to pray to God. 'Give us
this day our daily bread" Every great
impulse that the human z.ce has known
has come from the germinal force of
Christ's own mighty, large hearted
love; and why should we cast away so
mighty force as this? It is a great
relief to turn to a man who not only is
Christian man, but whose whole theory
Is permeated through and through with
the ethical enthusiasm of Christianity.
No one. / believe. can read the first
half of Mr.. Georges progress and
Poverty" without feeling the heart
within him stirred. His Reply to the
Pope" given out last year, reads like a
homily. like the answers of St Bernard
or some of the other great men who
stood for humanity against wrong in
the middle ages 1t is a strong petition,
strong address from the side of
Christian man 1t brings to bear all
through scripture and Christly sane
tions, it draws its inspiration from the
scriptures. Not only is Mr.. George in
his whole spirit moved by Christian i'm
pulses, but he is man of unusual
ability. He is one of the most eloquent
men of our day. The cardinal point in
Mr.. Georges theory is his conception of
property. There are three kinds of
property: First, natural or Individual;
second, artificial, and third, common
property. Natural property is based
upon the right which man has to him
self. Man has an inalienable right to
his life as we'll as to liberty and the
pursuit of happiness What l make
with my hands is mine and nobody's
else. What 1 invent with my brain is
mine, and l have an inalienable right
to the possession of both. No govern
ment and no man has any right to take
away from me either one.
1t may be necessary, for the support
of the government, that every man
should contribute a certain share of
what belongs to him for the common
good, but no government has any right
to take a larger share from me than it
takes from any other man; and it has
no right to spend it except in such a
way as shall be for my good and for
the general good If you carry this
theory out nything like a progressive
income tax is not fair or just, Artifi-
cial property is that which passes to
mans heirs or legatees in accordance
with the laws of the state. Then there
as common property and that is the
gift of God or else made by all men to-
gether. The air is common property.
1t was made by God, and it is neces-
sary for every man to breathe it to live;
and there is no man who has any right
to put me or you into a dark room
where the air has been all exhausted
and then deal it out to us at SO much an
hour and charge us for it. The same is
true of sunshine. Sunlight is neces-
sary to our life and health, and
1t belongs to God, who gave it
for all his children, and no man would
have any right to make us pay Him for
it In some parts of the West are large
tracts of land that is sterile in summer.
There are great stores of water which
fall at certain seasons in the mount
aims. and it is marvellous to see how
God has provided mountains for reser-
voirs very near all these great arid
tracts, and how the rivers flow down
these great slopes toward the east In
the summer you see these rivers supply
ing water where it is needed to refresh
fhnf To
gardens. No man has any right to
usurp property in that water, to take it
away from other men. A man may
construct great works for irrigation
and build great reservoirs; those are his
property: but on abstract grounds of
Justice he has no right to appropriate
these water sources Mr.. George says
no individual has any right to seize
coal mine and say, THAT belongs to
me-" God made It and God made it for
all men. Perhaps it will be clearer if
ask you if you suppose God created all
those coal deposits in the Wyoming
valley for the Wilkesbarre coal COM
pany, or whether he created them Tor
man.
That is the point. OF course the
shafts that are sunk and the buildings
long to the men who make them, but
the idea is that no man has any right
to fence in a certain place and say: "All
this coal that lies under here is mine.
How did he get it? Did God create our
coal fields for the Wilkesbarre coal
company. or the Lehigh coal company,
or the Philadelphia and Reading coal
company? That is the point Mr.
George asks: Did God make the land
for His children, or for these great land
comranies, for the Union Pacific rail-
road and the Northern Pacific railroad?
Land is Just as necessary for man as
the air and the sunshine and the water.
You can not make any man live by
suspending him above the land and
keeping him there: he must not only
live and move on the land, bnt he has
to get his food out of the land. Mr..
George asks us to look at the titles By
which men hold land, Look in Cali
fornia. A man says, 81 trace my title
to the Mexican government, which
ccnfiscated all the lands belonging
TO the Spanish crown after
the revolution" Where did the
Spanish crowns title come from?
From the pope. What right had the
pope to give away all Mexico and Cali
fornia to the Spanish crown? There
we are stuck What right had he to