Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-05
OUR MAIL POUCH.
Land the Source of All Wealth.

Land the source OF All wealth.
To the Editor OF The Dispatch:
The growing interest in the subject of tax
alton, and your remarks in a recent issue Of
THE DISPATCH with reference to the deciara-
tfons set forth in recent circular issued
by single tax men, prompt me to address
you.
You state: "An taxes must be paid from
earnings, and all earnings must be those of
either capital or labor. The assertion, there
FORE that this system of taxation (the Single
taxi will release the earnings of capital and
labor from taxation Is tantamount to the al
Turing promise to furnish the revenue Of the
national, State and municipal governments
from nothing at all"
Now, If as you say, all earnings are either
those of capital or labor, how does it come
that the mere land owner gets so large a
share OF what they produce7 It will not do
employed in the production OF more wealth,
but land is not wealth any more than a
Southern slave was wealth Tne emanc1pa-
tion of the slaves did not decrease the wealth
OF the country an fota; 1t merely deprived
some men Of the power Of robbfng other
men Of all the wealth they produced except
what was sufficient to maintain them in
While land is not wealth, it is, however,
the source of all wealth; and the value of it
in exchange depends upon the power which
the wealth produced on It by labor; just as
the value of q share depended upon the
power OF the owner to appropriate the
slaves earnings. To call land capital or
wealth is to mistake the source for the sub
stance.
The power to appropriate share of what
laDor produces from land has value just as
o power to appropriate the earnings OF
slave had o value. The owner who sold
slave did not transfer any wealth to the
purchaser, he merely transferred the power
70 appropriate wealth to be produced by the
slave in the future. The transfer of a title to
land That has rental value does not trans
fer wealth, but merely the power to COM
mand share of the wealth produced upon
: No one will deny that all taxes are paid in
the products of labor, and that rent-that is,
the price paid for the use of ground alone
Is also paid in such products, yet while a tax
upon ground rent or the value OF land must
be paid in the products of labor, it is paid
out OF that share of what labor produces
which it cannot retain, and which, If not
taken in taxes, goes into the pocket Of the
landowner. The law of rent has all the per-
sfstence of a law of nature. 1t is not within
the power of man to annul it. So long as two
men want the same lot of ground, or so long
as one piece is more productive than
another, or one site or location will afford
greater advantages for purposes of trade or
exchange, so long will men be willing to pay
a premium for the exclusive use of such s1-
per1or natural opportunities, and so long
will rent exist.
Thus we see that the earnings of labor and
capital, where rent exists, is limited to the
amounts they can retain after paying the
land owner the price demanded for the use
of the natural opportunity. Under existing
adjustments labor and capital pay a large
share of what they produce for the mere
privilege OF producing, and bear the great
burden of taxation besides. Now it may be
seen how taxes laid upon ground rent or the
value of land. while being paid in the prod
ucts of labor, would come out OF that share
of the produce of labor which it cannot re-
tain, and which If not taken in taxes will be
pocketed by the land owner, and, hence, it
becomes apparent that taxes so laid cannot
serve to decrease the earnings of labor.
This value which single tax men would
draw upon is a value which attaches to land
by reason of the growth of the community, a
value created by the presence of population
and not by reason Of any effort on the part
of individual owners. Being the product of
social growth it is a value that should be ap-
piled to social needs before the earnings of
labor and capital should be drawn upon for
that purpose. JOHN B. SHARPE,
March 2. 601 Penn avenue, City.