Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-03-10
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
About Competition.

w. w. Head, secretary OF the Shear
! ers' Union, writes me from Wagg;
Wagga. New South Wales, saying:
| Socialism of the Bellamy brand i.
spreading here. and the only thing W.
have to offer here as an argument
| against their doctrine is an admission
that the single tax will and must neces
sarily bring voluntary cooperation ant
less governmental machinery-lessr rule
| or more law and less force-anarchy o.
sort OF course, there is no great
1 fight between us, as Socialists admit
the pooling of land values is the frs
step toward reform; but they set rs
much value on the naturalization OF
banks and capital as that of the land
and want to start right away to nation
alize those things which we believe are
not in their nature monopolies. and
which would not be monopolies if land
| values were taken by the people. In
short. they do not believe in competi.
ton and want to abolish it right away.
| If we stick to competition and regard
it as almost natural law, what about
the waste involved in our present in
| dustrial system? Taxation of land
values will not prevent the employment
of labor uselessly in advertising, etc
etc, or will it? If so, how?
Answering Mr.. Heads question in
spirit rather than in letter, 1 would
say: Yes; it will. For while the use
less expenditure of labor in advertis-
ing or any other branch of effort could
not be prevented without interfering
| with natural rights and without stiff
| ing useful effort l take Mr.. Head to
| refer to that waste that goes on where
| three stores are started in place where
| two would suffice, or where a
hundred men are found in business or
| profession in which sixty or seventy
| men could do and would be glad to do,
all that is needed. This waste of eff
fort, which is very striking all over the
| civilized world the socialists propose
to prevent by abolishing competition
that is to say, by abolishing the liberty
of men to dispose their efforts as they
please They would have the state
manage and control all production and
exchange, so that many men land
necessarily such and such men) should
be assigned to this branch and place of
effort. and SO many men, THAT is to
say, such and such mem should be as
signed to that
On the other hand we, who for want
of better term style ourselves single
tax men, but whose fundamental idea
would be better expressed by some
such term as equal rights men, or in
divldual rights men, or natural order
men, propose to get rid of this diff
Guilty in much easier and better way.
Instead of abolishing competition,
we would abolish restrictions on COM
petition; instead of imposing more re-
straints on individual liberty. we would
remove all restraints upon the liberty
of any one to do any thing that did not
interfere with the equal liberty of 9TH
ers. The reason for, and the efficacy
of. our method will be seen when the
cause of the waste of which our Aus
tralian friend is thinking is traced
From what does overcrowding of
businesses and professions proceed?
Does it not proceed from that seeming
glut in the la Dor market which causes
the opportunity to labor to seem a
boon, and reduces the wages of labor
IN the primary occupations to SO low a
point? And from what does this spring?
Does it not manifestly spring from
those restrictions which deprive men
willing to labor of access to the natural
opportunities of exerting labor? Is
this not clear whenever we consider
that the natural opportunities for the
useful employment of labor offered by
the globe on which we live are simply
illimitable and SO long as desire con-
tinues for things that the exertion of Ia
Dor produces there must always be an
unsatisfied need for the useful exertion
of labor?
What the taxation of land values ir-
respective of improvements would do,
would be to make land useless except
to the user; to make the mere monopo-
lizatien of land Improbable and inpos-
sible. And thus it would open to la
borers the primary necessity and oppor-
tunity for all labor. At the same time
by taking for the use of the community
the great sums that now go to non-pro-
ducers, it would do away with taxes
that greatly lessen earnings in all
branches of productive effort, and re-
move the restrictions they impose.
With land thus opened to labor, and
with the products of labor thus freed
from taxes, the one-sided competition
that now shows itself in the seeming
overplus of demand for employment
would be met and relieved by the de-
mand for labor and the products of la
Dor This relief in the market for the
primary forms of labor would necessa-
rily show itself in all others, that is to
say, in all businesses and professions,
10Th by withdrawing the competition
Of those not needed there. and for whom
oetter opportunities would be opened
where they were needed, and by
the increased demand for com
modities and services consequent on the
Increased purchasing power of better
employed and better paid laborers
Men would cease to push into places
and vocations where they were not
needed, for the simple reason that
places ard vocations where they were
needed would be open to them, and
would pay them better. And the play
of this free competition would have the
effect of determining, through the free
will of individuals, what number of
themselves to each of the multifold
branches of industry, in order to secure
for society at large the most econom-
ical use of the productive forces, and
the largest result in desired satisfac-
tons But it can not be said that this
would absolutely end useless effort, for
the reason that, as to many things,
what will be useful and what useless
can not be determined without expert
ment- All new inventions, discoveries
and adjustments involve experiment
and the liability to useless effort; but