The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-05-14
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
About Competition.

W. w. Head, secretary OF the Shear
ers' Union, writes me from Wagga
Wagga, New South Wales. saying:
Socialism of the Bellamy brand il
spreading here. and the only thing we
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 and
less governmental machinery-less rule,
or more law and less force--anarchy of
a sort OF course. there is no great
fight between us, as Socialists admit
the pooling of land values is the first
step toward reform; but they set as
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 a 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. cts,
etc, or will it? If SO, how?
Answering Mr. Heads question in
spirit rather than in letter, 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 / take Mr.. Head to
refer to that waste that goes on where
three stores are started in a place where
two would suffice. or where q
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 et
fort, which is very striking all over the
civilized world, the socialists propose
to prevent by abolishing competition
that is to say, by sbolishing 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 il to
say, such and such men) 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
dividual rights men, or natural order
men. propose to get rid of this diff
Guilty in a 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 labor 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 1t 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-
lization of land Improbable and impos-
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
VIC SfCot cuuAS tuob INV 20 W uOu- 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,
both by withdrawing the competition
of those not needed there. and for whom
better opportunities would be opened
where they were needed. and by
the increased demand for COM
and services consequent on the |