St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-17
"HENRY GEORGISM,"
Its Connection With the Murder
of Mayor Harrison.

Its Connection With the Murder
of Mayor Harrison.
To the Editor of the Globe
Though rather late, 1 would ask the
privilege to say word, by way of
protest, against the editorial recently
published in the GLOBE, attributing the
assassination of Mayor Harrison to
Henry Georgism." That squibs and
funnygraphs about Henry Georgism"
would make their appearance in most
newspapers was to be expected when
it was learned that the assassin claimed
to be single taxer; but l never sup
posed for moment that any paper
would seriously, as the GLOBE seems to
do.maintain that Henry GeOrgism is in
a measure responsible for the aSSaSSiha-
ton of Mayor Harrison"
The writer of the editorial says that
the attempt to understand the single
tax is enough to unbalance a healthy
intellect. If that be so, then shudder
to think what the consequences would
be should be attempt to master the IN
tricate mechanism of grindstone. If
he will step into the single tax primer
class, l would like to ask him few
questions-easy ones that will not I'M
balance his mud, if itI is moderately
healthy.
l. How much has man had to do with
making the land? If nothing. where
did any man get the right to charge
other men for using it?
2. Did you ever hear of land having
any rental value III a country without
population, present or prospective?
! Did you ever hear of land having no
rental value that contained population
and organized society? Did you ever
hear OF land that did not increase in
rental value with increase of population
and Industry, or decrease in rental value
with decrease of population and in
dustry? If not, then don't you think we
have found the source and the cause of
the rental value of land-presence of
population, organized society and
human industry. Without these we
find no rental value of land; with them
we find no land without rental value.
Ii a. community produces something
III common, say court house, for in
stance, do you think one Individual in
| that community should have the right,
under any circumstances, to claim that
building as his property, unless he paid
the community the full value of it?
presume you will cOncede that the
| rental value of land in a community is
produced by the whole community in
common, and not by certain individuals
| in it; ana if SO. why should not the con-
munity have that rental value just as
much as it should have Its court house?
| And if the community should take what
is its own by right of having produced
| it, it would probably develop that it
would have all the means it needed to
perform its public functions. and so
make it unnecessary to levy taxes on
! individual industry.
This is the single tax, and, as you will
| see, is several degrees simpler than a
/ grindStOne, and can be thought about
| by people of moderate intelligence with
| out any risk Of intellectual unbalancing.
Try it.
Single takers hope for great things
when society shall conclude to appro-
pirate to its own use what it alone has
produced. You see, it would then be a
losing venture to invest In vacant land
and hold it idle until other people made
it more valuable, because the other peo-
pie would be getting the value as fast
as they made it; consequently nobody
would hold land out of use. and land
cannot be used without employing labor,
and, as the opportunities to labor would
far Outnumber the labOrerS, everybody
would have an opportunity to work and
to keep the whole product of their
labor. This would abolish involuntary
idleness, and with 1t would go poverty
and crime, its twin companions.
E. q. ERICKSON.
Minneapolis, Nov. s.