The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-08-13
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
Who Pay the Taxes7
THOMAS @. sHEARMAS.

ThOMAS u ShEAhMAN
An intelligent correspondent puts, In
concise form, the question so often
asked in a vague, cloudy manner:
evil not the actual laborers of any
country be compelled finally to pay all
taxes? Can any plan be devised by
which the wealth of the country can
be made to bear the burden of taxa
tion?"
These questions can not be properly
answered with either yes or no. The
rctual laborers of any country-in.
Guiding in that term all who do useful
work-do, in fact, pay not only all the
taxes. but also all the cost of support
ing all the people who do not work,
They pay the cost of everything. Nor
can any plan be devised which will re-
lieve them from this lurden. Wealth
means nothing at all except the pos
session of power to make other people
work for us. No property which does
not give this power has any commercial
value. If own house, be it ever so
fine, it Is not wealth, unless it is SO
situated that some other person would
CC Wiling W w WOih III ihC IL l. VIM
let him use that house. There are hun-
dreds of well-built houses in the vests
ern territories or states which are al an=
doned, because no one will render any
work for their use. They are of no
market value, and therefore they are
not wealth.
But, while no one can devise a plan
,ol, 1.,1 h,1 from,
paying all the taxes, it is easy to devise
plan by which they can be saved from
paying them twice over. Nature COM
pels them to pay all taxes once, in the
rent of land. The landlords long ago
invented plan by which the laborers
were forced to pay the taxes the second
time. This is called indirect taxa
ton" The law allows landlords to coli
iect from laborers a rent fully equal to
all necessary taxes; and this right, be-
cause an memorable law of nature COM
pels this payment to be made to sorie-
body, and landlords are the people who,
also by natural law. are appointed to
collect it. But the law allows the land
lords to keep all this rent in their own
pockets, except such small share of the
taxes as they pay in common with la
borers; and this is wrong, because the
landlords ought to pay every dollar of
the taxes, since they have already col
lected them. Let the public revenue be
collected solely out of ground rents,
and the laborers will be entirely deliv-
cred from the burden of taxation. From
no no ~,
deliver them.
Here it will be asked, as usual: Can
not landlords increase their rent, If it is
taxed, so as to make the laborers still
pay the taxes over again. No; it is
impossible. Landlords now collect all
the rent which it is possible for them to
get. If all of it were taken away by
taxation, they could not collect it a sec
ond time. Suppose the average laborer,
earning $500 year (which is large al
lowance), pays 800 for ground rent
Suppose the state takes all of this from
the landlord, and then demands another
500 from the tenant and gets it. The
state then takes 5000 from the landlord,
and he demands $500 from the tenant;
and suppose-which is impossible-and
he gets it. Still the state takes the
$500 from the landlord; and he de-
mands s40O from the tenant. OBJ
viously the tenant would be re-
daced to starvation. Still, suppose
that the landlord gets it, just once.
The state again takes it all from him,
and now he demands $500 from the ten
ant whose whole income is only $500.
How can he make the tenant pay it?
The tenant would be dead long before
this point was reached; and all other
tenants, being subject to the same ex-
tortion, would be dead ;-lso. No one
would be left alive, except a few land
lords and tax-gatherers. Rent and tax
es would be alike extinct So far from
landlords being enabled to increase
rent, in consequence of a heavy tax on
rent, they would become more eager
competitors for tenants, because they
could not afford to keep any land out of
use. The idea that a tax upon ground
rent can be shifted upon the tenant is
one of the most absurd that ever en-
tered the brain of intelligent men.
The single tax upon ground rental
values is, plan which will relieve the
laboring classes from all taxes, other
than their present rent; and no wit of
man can devise any plan which will re-
lieve them from anything more.
A Significant Single Tax Declaration.