Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-06-15
increase of the tax.

land owners. All would alike be ten
ants of themselves-the people or gov
ernment-and there would be no land
owners to shift the tax. But, even as
under the present system all rents and
all taxes levied upon land and upon
buildings used for profitable or income
producing businesses are included in
mot added toy the prices of all wares,
commodities and services rendered, SO
under the single tax system the rent or
tax would continue to be included in
such prices. / think 1 have clearly
proven this in previous communications.
Occupiers and users of valuable land,
then, all being alike tenants of the gov
ernnent and paying for the use of land,
NOR rent than any one else would pay,
would simply act as tax collectors for
the government and included in the
price of their goods, wares and COM
modities would collect the single tax
and pay it over to the government.
now want to prove by Mr.. George
that under the siRgle tax system there
would be no individual land owners
and that have correctly stated the eff
fects and workings of the system.
Upon page 1s2 of Protection or Free
Trade" i find the following:
No matter how complex the indus trial organ
ization, nor how highly developed the civiliza-
ton, there is no real difficulty in carrying out
these principles All we have to do is to treat
the land as the joint property of the whole peo-
pie, just as railway is treated as the joint
property of many shareholders, a ship is
treated as the joint property Of several owners.
In other words, we can leave land now being
used in the secure possession of those using it.
leave land tn 10 he falx
session of by those who wish to make use of it,
on condition that those who thus hold land shall
pay to the community a fair rent for the exclu-
sive privilege they enjoy-that is to say, rent
based on the value OF the privilege the individ-
ual receives from the community in being
corded the exclusive use of this much of the
common property, and which should have
reference to any Improvement he had made in
or on it, or to any profit due to the use of his
labor and capital In this way all would be
placed upon equality in regard to the use AID
enjoyment of those natural elements which are
clearly the common heritage, and that value
which attaches to land, not because of what the
individual user does but because of the growth
of the community, would accrue to the COM
munity, and could be used for purposes of COM
mon benefit AS Herbert Spencer has said of it:
''Such doctrine consistent with the highest
state of civilization may be carried out without
involving community of goods, and need cause
no very serious revolution in existing arrange
ments The change required would be simply
a change of landlords Separate ownership
would merge into the lolnt-Stock ownership of
the public. Instead of being in the possession
of individuals the country would be held by
the great corporate body-society. A
state of things 50 ordered would be in perfect
harmony with the moral law. Under it all men
would be equally landlords, all men would be
alike free to become tenants. Clearly there
fore, on such system the earth might be in
| closed occupied and cultivated, in entire ub.
ordination the law of equal Freedom
Under such system land would be
held solely by virtue of the ownership
of the improvements thereon and no
man could sell more than the improve
ments, with the right of occupancy, so
| long as the single tax was paid. Under
such system the occupier and user of
| valuable land would pay no more of the
rent (taX) upon the land he occupied
than would any other individual who
consumed as much as he did; i. e., whose
cost of living was equally as high. Now
here is my contention: l claim that,
conceding that under the single tax
system taxes were very largely reduced
and prices correspondingly lower ed,
whatever taxes remained; Ito wit: the
! single tax, or economic rent of the ma
tion;) would be an indirect tax upon con-
sumption and would fall the hedcGest upon
tie poor tGbOring classes. Mr.. George on
page AZ of Protection or Free Trade, -
aptly says:
still more important objection to indirect
| taxation is that when imposed on articles of
| general use (and it is only from such articles
! that large revenues can be had) 1t bears with
| far greater weight on the poor than on the rich.
Since such taxation falls on people not accord
| in0 tn hat fl,a1yh h.xr lo,,to
they consume, it is the heaviest on those whose
| consumption is largest in proportion to their
means. AS much sugar is needed to sweeten q
cup of tea for a working-gi as for the richest
| lady in the land, but the proportion Of their
! means which tax on sugar compels each to
| contribute to the government is in the case of
| the one much greater than in the case of the
other. So it is with all taxes that increase the
cost Of articles of general consumption. They
| bear far more heavily on married men than on
bachelors; on those who have children than on
| those who have none on those barely able to
| support their families than on those whose in
! comes leave them large surplus II the mil
| lfonaire chooses to live closely he need pay no
| more of these indirect taxes than the mechanic
| 1 have known at least two millionaires-pos
| sessed not of one, but of from six to ten mil
! lions each who paid little more of such taxes
| than ordinary day laborers
That is just exactly the objection that
l find to the single tax
My position is this: l claim that it is
not individual land ownership, but nom
occupying landlordism that is response
BILE for the existence of the factor, econ
omic rent" That non-occupying land
lordism acts in the nature of a protec-
tive tariff in protecting occupying land
owners in the absorption of economic
rent" That if ''use and eccupancy''
were made prerequisite to land own
ership the natural law of competition
would first wipe out economic rent
and then cut down profit and interest,
while the single tax would perpetuate
rent by collecting it as tax That if
all revenues were raised by graded
tax upon incomes and upon estates and
inheritances, net income of 81 900 be-
ing exempt, that labor would be as
sured of a comfortable living, free from
al tdrdtioa while the taxes would have
to be paid out of the unearned incre-
ment accumulated through the factors
rent, Gf any remained)' interest and
profit.
Now, l am in perfect accord and very
earnest sympathy with the object of
and result aimed at by the single tax
advocates. If one is to believe the
utterances of the prominent men in the
movement. such object and result is the
entire emancipation of labor from all
taxation. l contend that while the
single tax would largely reduce taxa
ton, the taxes that remained, economic
remit would be almost entirely horne
by productive and distritutive labor
by the poverty instead of the wealth Of
the nation.
VIII now outline what in my hum
Die opinion would be just and eauit-
able, simple and scientific system OF
taxation 1t will be readily conceded
by all that the taxing prerogative. O,
power to levy and collect taxes. can
and may be, and has been in the past
utilized for other purposes besides and
y j.. =. -