The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-12-20

the fsld. But the condition on which
alone this is possibl is that We should
respect the equal rights OF sll-shst we
should do to others az We would bs done
by. Aud to secure aud maintain this
equality OF rights in the m ost important
and fundamental Of all human adjust
msnts is the aim and meaning Of the
single tax.
Get over the idea promulgated by the
advocates Of monopoly that the single
tax is tax on farmers. The single tax
would benefit Rll-sVsn, l believe, the
very rich, for une8rned wealth in the
midst OF poverty soon turns into curse.
The farmer is in reality an improVer, q
producer, q lsborer. As producers, Rs
lab orers, they will bs relieved Of all the
tsxss they now pay. Take the tenant
farmers, great and increasing class,
into which, it present conditions con-
tinue, all farmers must come. They
will not only be relieved of all taxes, but
what they now pay ia rent will be greatly
reduced by the sb )likion of prospective or
speculative rent, and what rent they do
continue to pay, will, with the reat of ell
more valuable land, 60 to general fund
in which all are sharers. Take the own.
,ng farmer. Will not the abolition OF all
the taxes he now pays on his improve.
ments, and on all he uses, be more to
him than the increased taxes he must
pay on his land, il indssd he pays any
more taxes on his land, for the value Of
farming land, IS largely speculative.
Take the mortgSged farmer, will not the
remission Of all taxes on labor and the
produce OF labor, the improvem ant in
general conditions, the throwing Opsn Of
land now held on speculation, enable
him to get out of this first form OF ten
sncy? The farmer who owns land would
really lose only in the selling value OF
land. But this is only such loss as be-
falls a man who has bought machine
for $l00 when the price is reduced to
$50. And against this purely relative
loss there will be the great absolute
gsin-the gains that would com from
the throwing open Of the sources of pro-
duction and the freeing OF it's processes
and results from all burden, the gains
that will come from the increase 10 the
earnings OF labor, when the privilege OF
laborlng pays no toll.
But farmers make mistake in con-
sidering only the interests OF farmers, as
mechanics make a mistake in consider
ing only the interests OF their class. The
important man to consider is the mere
lsborer, the man who is beginning life
with only his natural powers. Imnrove
the condition OF the lowest class and the
coalition of all is improved. But i'm
prove the condition OF mere class and
nothing is secured. In the accidents Of
life some are sure to fall, in the nature
of things our children are certain to fall
into conditions that, for the moment, we
may think we have escaped. To leave
our children q social condition in which
undeserVed poverty is unknown,is to leave
them greater security than is now pos
sihle for the very richest. Fundamental
reform that is to be true and lasting
must be the application Of that golden
rule that we should accord TO others
what We ourselves recognize as just.
[Mr. George then announced himself
as ready to answer questions, and replied
to q number put from the audience, ex-
plsininR the methods of the single tax;
why it proposed to exempt stocks and
bonds from taxation; why it is impossi-
bic to tax capitalists by taxing capital,
and how such taxes always fall on the
borrower or user; how the single tax
would leave the possession of land So
cure, etc, In concluding, he aid:]
In speaking for an evening on such a
wide question, all can hope to do is to
provoke thought. I do not ask you to
conclude from what 1 have said; but
do ask you to examine the matter fur
ther, to give to it your bast thought and
study. 1t is the most Important qles-
too before the country, before the civil