Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-07-14
EDWARD G. RHOADS.

great city, II appalled, anu VOTIueHteO
me, and would not let me rest, for think
ing what caused it and how it could be
cured;" to men who have felt this, but
have seen no remedy except in some
form of socialism, and who can not bind
themselves to the injustice of socialism,
to such men the doctrine of Henry
George has come as a revelation. For
there is pointed out a cause of poverty
which consists in definite social injus-
tice, and a remedy, which, to those who
fully grasp its meaning, is not a viola
ton but natural corollary of the COM
mandment: Thou shalt not steal"
For the law of poverty right is what
gives significance to this commandment,
and it is evident that the fact of produc-
ton by individual agency is the basis of
individual rights in property. A natu-
raj right to anything which has not
been produced by individual agency can
rot, therefore, inhere in individuals.
It is evident that natural opportuni-
ties (land) are not produced by indi-
vidual labor, nor is the value which at
taches to land by virtue of the growth
of community the product of indi-
vidual labor. The theory of private
property in land is, therefore, without
foundation in natural justice. Accord
ing to the Scripture account, there was
definite means provided for man to
make living. He was created with
certain powers which constituted abil-
ity to labor. He would have been help
less had he received nothing more. The
earth was given him to labor on. His
labor, applied to its natural conditions,
Ike 4
There has never yet beer any other way
discovered to produce daily bread,
though it may be obtained by begging
or stealing. Just as man, in the in
fancy of the world, must have died or
become dependent on his fellows, if de-
prived either of his power to labor or
his right to the use of land to labor
upon, so he must be under the same cir
cumstances in the present day.
The Creator has made no less pro-
vision for every child who comes into
the world to-day than he made for
Adam. The right to his own labor and
to the use of land are birthrights of
every one; take away either in part or
whole, and the individual becomes par
tally dependent or entire helpless to
make living. Yet that is what our
present social system, by permitting
property in land, is doing. Men are
struggling, not for ability to labor, but
for chance to work. Capital is doing
otherwise. Land spectators are OBJ
tanning wealth without producing it.
/ know there are some minds to whom
abstract statements do not appeal, who
must have something concrete; but
even to such is there not enough in this
brief statement to make prima facie
case, which is worth investigating in
view Of the terrible concreteness of the
problem? If this be true solution of
the poverty question, we have in the
single tax (which would transfer the
value of land from the pockets of indi-
viduals to the Golfers of the state.
thence to be returned to the people in
the benefits of government a measure
which, whatever else it may be, is
fundamentally right.
Yet have heard it honestly objected
to the single tax, that it is violation
of the command, Thou shalt not steal"
Truly it seems to me that the law of
property is what needs to be taught in
the world. for the spirit of theft is
abroad. Prof. Ely asks, what is the es-
sencc of theft?" and replies, SIS it not
trying to get something for nothing?"
II this be true, how much of the nature
of theft is there in the business transac-
tons of the present day? Some years
ago there lived in Chester county, Pa,
an old Friend, remarkable for his in
tecrity and a devout Christian. 1t is
related that he once bargained for n
yoke Of oxen with a business ac9uaint-
ancc, who named price which our
Friend thought too high, and offered
less sum, which he said he thought was
all the oxen were worth. His offer was
accepted and he took the oxen home and
butchered them, and soon after sent to
the seller the difference between the
amount asked and the amount paid,
saying that he found he had been mis- |
taken, and the price first named was
not too high.
Another farmer living near the same |
locality had a barren piece of land on |
which some prospectors thought they |
found valua BILE ore, and offered him a |
large price for it. His unsophisticated |
however. would not let him |
take what he felt that he had in no |
wise produced. Such instances may not |
be safe guide to business morality |
now. but l can not help thinking if |
more protested Christians had as keen
an instinct of the correct basis of prop
erty right as these two, there would be
more who would see the beauty Of the
single tax.
The Christian churches ought to fur
nish full contingent of single takers,
for the inheritance of Christianity is
full of the love of justice. Nowhere in
the history of ancient legislation has
the Jeffersonian principle, The land
belongs in usufruct to the living" re-
ceived stronger Endorsement than in the
of the Jewish law, which
said: 1.-The land shall not be sold in
for the land is Mine, for We
are strangers and sojourners with Me-"
Christianity was, at its rise, move
ment for freedom of the individual. 1t
deals mainly with the problem of indi-
vidual life, which, as Henry George
says, '.iies behind the problem of social
life and is higher and deeper still"
And single tax men should be Chris
tians. for even in the present day the
Christian church upholds the standard
of duty. around which, as the patient
MaZzini said, rather than around the
standard of self-interest men must rally
10 win the rights of man" If there 10 .