The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-03-05
SINGLE TAI. BEPARTMENf
INCIDENCE or THE Single TAI
HENRY GEORGE.

An objection 10 the single tax. ia
milisr 70 all who have followed the
discussion, Is that heowners of land
would commensurately increase the
price Of land and of its products This
objection, where It is honests comes
from careless assumption. From the
fact that most Of the taxes levied un-
der the present system add TO the cost
OF production and increase prices. and
are thus shifted by first payers to the
shoulders of ultimate consumers. it is
assumed without INQUIRY as to the rear
son of this that IL Is true of all taxes
The earlier files of the Standard show
n constant recurrence of this objection
But thanks to the thorough exp!ana-
tions that have from time to time been
made, and to the diffusion of economic
knowledge which our agitation has
produced, il is now seldom met with
where there has been~any single tax
discussion
But in another form the same old fall
lacy occasionally crops out even
among single tax men. For instance,
/ have letter from gentleman in
Ohio. who begins by saying, II am a
believer in and teacher of your doc
trines" And then he goes on to ex-
press surprise that in my letter to the
pope / should saw anything to imply
that taxes on land values would not be
shifted through the medium of prices
upon all consumers of goods, with
which admission he thinks ''our posi-
tion would be stronger and nearer the
truth" nf Il. s.
A still more striking instance of the
same confusion is given by the Detroit
Evening News, a journal that has been
active in propagating the single tax
idea In an editorial article entitled
''The Question of Taxation" in its issue
of November IS, in which it urges the
adoption Of the single tas. occurs the
following:
"If all taxes were placed on land
only. every pound Of pork, every sbushel
of wheat, every horse and COW, every
form of personal property would be
taxed. The user OF the land wonld
simply add the tax to all these things.
ana every pe1soueho ssedthem would
pay his jdst'propof&ion.
> Whereupon a correspondent writes to
the News asking, whether this con-
struction oftheNews is in harmony with
the single tnx as outlined by Henry
George
Printing this inquiry. the News re-
plies: II A.
Perfectly; otherwise the single tax
scheme wonld be off little value,
indeed. less than no value Mt all.
Unless the tiller of the soil, is COM
PEELED to pay directly the whole cost OF
government, could add the taxes to the
prices of the things he produces, be
could not till the soil with any profit "a
himself, and agriculture. upon which
the human race depends for existence
would be rdined" IA
Here is al instance of the single tai
being advocated on 2 ground that is NOT
merely nntensble in itself, but that mt
terly denies . fppdamental principle Of
the single tax theory. Since all have
ever written On. he subject of taxation
is based on the toposition that tax
on land values c4nnot fall on produc-
ton and increase prires, and since there
is no error that have been at SO much
pains to correct as thai the tax we pro-
pose would fall on land users and.
through them on consumers, it is hardly
necessary for me to deny that my views
are correctly represented by. the News.
But it may be worth while to point out
the error into which at least more than
one of the professed advocates of the
single tax have fallen. Nothing is to
be gained by having the single tax ad-
vocatcd for wrong reasons. Men
bought over by erroneous arguments
can never be relied on in q cause that
must rest on truth The unsound sup
porter is, in fact, more dangerous than
an opponent :. 80 L.
Unless he sees that taxesgon land
values of economic rent. which is what
we mean by the single tax. must be
borne by the owners OF the valuable
land from which it is collected, and
that it can not fall on users ofeland as
users, and can not add to thsa<, st of
production or increase prices. no one
can possibly appreciate either the
moral side of bur argument or the full
weight of its fiscal side To him the
on which dwelt in my re-
cent letter to the pope that what we
propose I'VE propose, not as cunning
device of human ingenuity but as a
of human regulations to
the will of God" and that the single
tax ''is the way intended by God for
raising, public revenues" is wild as
and the reform to which we
look for the emancipation of labor be-
comes nothing more than mere eco
way Of collecting taxes On
labor. That this is so is shown by the
editor of the News, who in answering
his correspondent goes on to say:
1T 1.-THE single taxi is defensible
merely as the, NEST Economical and
equitable means OF spreading among
all the people the expenses of govern
ment- 1t. would -,dophtless remedy
many evils Of our present extravagant
.retsxx, h,,x ~ ~rox,1d MI b~;pr, ~, tho