Iron County register., 1892-10-06
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT
Single Tax Enthusiasm.

| De enthusiasts IN their expectations OF
its results Such criticisms spring from
failure to realize that the wrong in
| question is no mere fiscal mistake, but
involves a breach of natural order
| whose consequences must necessarily
| extend to the farthest limit of the cham
of cause and effect Tracing out the
| connection of these consequences, we
may find in the removal of their cause
wherewith to justify some enthusiasm
on the part of workers for that end.
| In every community some locations
have a value above others, which, in no
respect the product of individual exer-
tion, results from the distribution of
| population, and increases as population
increases. This value is the natural
community fund. Its appropriation by
individuals is the robbery of the COM
| munity. Legalize such spoliation and
| the individuals thus enrichad hold the
| key TO the situation in their ability to
control the land market Not only is
it true that the growing population can
create less with the same exertion
than on prefera BILE sites, but out of this
less they must pay with one hand an
ever-increasing proportion to swell the
unearned wealth of their landlord, and
with the other to replace the commun-
ity fund thus diverted into his private
| Golfers
The fate OF a community founded up
on such basis is simply question of
the rapidity of its growth, and, how
| ever delayed, is certain. Given the
source of the stream, and the general
| trend of the land which it waters, and
whatever may be its windings we know
| what ocean it must find at last. The
differentiation into the very rich and
| the very poor. begins with the presence
| of its cause and will cease only with the
removal of that cause.
The very rich and the very poor.
| Vast wealth. Abject poverty. What
do the words imply? Abject poverty
means the loss of self-respect and of the
respect of ones fellows. 1t means to
| suffer, and to see ones dearest suffer,
from cold and hunger, and never-rested
| WEAKNESS. 1t means to toll on through
| pain and disease till death opens the
| door of escape. Yet more than this; it
| means every temptation to drunkenness
| and crime: it means the dull brutality
born of despair. 1t means children
| growing up without home or parental
care, ignorant of the refnements of
cleanliness and the safeguards of de-
cency; familiar with evil from baby
hood. Hopeless want and all the vice
that springs from it; this is the mean
| ing of abject poverty.
To escape such fate, to reach the
standing ground of unthreatened COM
| petence-ever harder and harder to
| gain-becomes the goal of the frantic
4 - e sol, IL
success of one means the disaster to
many. Public opinion, debauched of
necessity, condones more and more of
baseness, dishonor, and even crime,
| whose outcome is the attainment of
| wealth. Honor is reserved for riches
alone, and the ostentation of its
| evidences becomes the occupation of it's
possessors, and the strained efforts OF
those who, to hide a lack become
shameful. strive to make a show behind
which there is no reality. When ideals
have fallen thus low: when work has
become badge of disgrace; when sue
cess in money-getting is the standard
of conduct; then are the teachers of
morals but as salt that has lost it's
SAVIOR: public spirit and patriotism but
words left for the hypocrites of party to
con jure with: then the Incidence and
vice born of luxury; no less than the
Incidence and vice born of want: leave
their lurking place for the broad light
of day. Class hatreds flourish; class
wars prevail, till social order perishes
and chaos comes again.
Such being TIE evils which must re-
suit from private ownership of land,
there is surely enough in the removal
of their cause to wal1en enthusiasm in
the minds of those who love their race.
bolish this cause, and those whom it
forces into poverty and vice are released
from its fatal pressure. The fines which
it has exacted from industry and thrift
checking production and thrift-are
no longer levied. Those whom it has
enabled to live in luxury at the expense
of their fellows are no longer able to
draw an income from such a source.
With the dread of want dies the deifca-
tion of riches. Temptations to oStenta-
ton in living are minimized, for as
wealth loses its prestage, its evidences,
call for more of envy or admiration
than a string of seal ps or an elaborate
pattern in tattooing. Morality and
patriotism and public spirit, no longer
trodden under foot in the mad race for
money, once more lift their august
heads, and class hatreds must disap-
pear as class lines tend to vanish
But this is not all. A righteous re-
form not only casts out the devil, it
opens the door to the angel. Natural
law being in its nature beneficent, its
violation is the reversal of a mighty en-
gine for good. And SO renewed obedi-
ence results in negation of evil. All
the force of the power that was hurry
ing civilization to destruction now car
ries the race forward. Turn your
selves and live ye," said the prophet of
old. The change of direction involves
q change of goal, and is vital
But who supposes that, the single tax
once in operation, humanity is to ship
its oars and drift? Rather is it then
only worth while to row when freed
from the swift current that sets to-
| ward ruin. To remove an obstacle
makes progress possible. The man
who has gained one height is in a posi-
ton to scale a higher. Cause enough
for enthusiasm if we may hope that our
faithful discharge of the duty of our
day and generation may enable those
who come after to see, with purged vis-
ion. tasks hidden from eyes dimmed by
familiarity with the long night of in
justice and misery.-Margaret S. Lit
tell
A Farmer on Farmers.