The Colfax chronicle., 1892-01-02
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
CHICAGO HERALD LOOKING TO.
WARD THE SINGLE TAX.

cago is shown. think, by the tone of !,
the daily press, which was only year !
or two ago so hostile that no good word
ever found its way into the editorial
columns of any of the papers. To-day
1t Is strikingly different. We are not
only treated with consideration, but in
some notable instances with positive
favor-the Herald and the Times, the
great democratic journals of the north
west, being particularly and almost
conspicuously friendly to the tax re-
form movement The columns of the
Times fairly bristle with our funda.
mental arguments, and those of the
Herald are q delight to every single
taxer, although that paper has yet to
declare its adhesion to our doctrine. |
But it has repeatedly avowed its belief |
in absolute free trade; and on Sunday |
last, in an editorial on Herbert |
Spenccr's cowardly retraction of his
faTous chapter on ''Thc Right to the
Use of the Earth" It very plainly indi-
Gates its position on the land question.
1t sharply joins issue with the English
philosopher on his most recent deliver
ance touching land ownership. and ut
SCfty iCPudlatSS HiS 0OSh inC bhoe w
change the present inequitable system
of land ownership for one more in ac-
cordance with the principles of justice,
would work more harm than now re-
suits from the monopoly of the soil.
While rejecting his notion that a hoary
injustice can ever be right, it expresses
the hope that Mr.. Spencer may yet
come to devote his brilliant powers as
a social analyst to the real difficulties
and diseases OF the body polite" What
these are it rather broadly Indicates in
the following:
THAT the land belongs temporarily
TO the people of the world now living
on it is fact that it does not take q
philosopher to discover. Mankind is
rich in land in the aggregate. The
question is as TO the particular man,
what rights. if any, has he to suf-
ficient portion Of the soil to support
himself and those dependent upon him?
The people of Great Britain in the ag-
gregatc may be said to own the land in
England. Scotland and Ireland, but it
is also fact that minority OF that
aggregate claim to own it. and in real
ity have titles to it. Philosophy bears
most fruit when directed toward the
principles of Justice by which the ir'
regularities and inequalities of human
action and conduct may be corrected,
and is least valuable when employed
in apologizing for the inequitable do
ings which have gone on during pas'
thousands of years That a man has a
right to the products of his Legitimate
toll to the extent of providing for him
self and family may be accepted al
true without carrying with it the righ
to the enormous unearned increment
which is the product of highly organ
lied state of society. Yet how to draw
the line, and where to draw it. in thes'
cases is a problem society has not ye
attempted to solve, except in the crud
est way The correction of these in
edualities and injustices is prope
subject of thought for the philosophe
and statesman. In the United State
the government disposes of its own lam
on equitable principles, contemplatin
actual ownership and cultivation of tn
soil, vet, the title once vested in the II
dividual, there is nothing to prevent tn
man of millions from becoming the OWL
cr Of as many square miles of land as h
can pay for. Thus, for instance, Nj
John w. Bookwalter, the Ohio mil
jonaire, owns tract of 10000 acres {
land in Nebraska. A syndicate {
northern capitalists owns tract {
land in Louisiana, 100 miles in leDgt
and twenty-five miles in breadth. or
500, 900 acres of landau empire In
self. The Herald pointed out SON
months ago this tendency in Amcrit
to follow old world customs in mono
ol:zing the land. When, as John Mo
lev has asserted, As per cent of the i
habitants of England who reach Il
age of go years become paupers 1T is n
very encouraging to be told by M
Spencer that on the whole the preset
state of things in regard to landowne
shin is the most satisfactory. In lr
land matters are still worse. Lo
Sligo, in Connemara, and Mr.. Mitcht
Henry, at Kylemore, have vast estate
one of 40, 900 acres in extent, the 9th
1900 acres. In Scotland the san
state of things prevails In view
these facts it is small wonder that {
advocates for the naturalization
land have found hearers and advocatt
Yet this is the extreme remedy a
overlaps itself. Individual ownersh
of land has been found to be most equ
able and satisfactory. What is need
is legislation that will make it, II =
impossible, at least highly unprofitai
for any one man or corporation to o'
vast tracts of land To further pub
sentiment in this direction by infiuei
ing thinkers is work far more wort
of Mr.. Spencers powers than couns
ing the hopeless acceptation of our pr
ent system with all its inequalities a
injustices."
As sign of the times it seems to
that such deliverance is in the hii
est degree encouraging. No single
man will mistake the Herald's meaniI