The representative., 1894-12-26
SINGLE TAXeAGAIN.
4 Lady Takes Up the Cudgels in It's
BEHALF. ~
TO the Editor:

Q, Mr.. Donnelly! How did You happen
to do SO? 1 think Henr: George would be
very much amused by yeur way of stating
his theories. 1 always Suspected that you
mad never taken the trouble to study and
understand his books-all of which 1 hare
myself read, as we'll as every number of
the weekly paper he published for a few
years-and now l can but applaud your dis
Greet silence on the subject up to your is
sue for Dec. y. You enjoy the blunders of
others so much you will forgive US if we
laughed heartily over your comical mis-
takes. You have considerable illus rious
company in your "self-inficted ignorance
as Mr.. Bellamy called Gen. Walkers mem
tai condition when he attempted to refute
Looking Backward" There are some
things, you know, that are hid from the
wise and prudent and revealed unto
babes" and many a thinking man or wom-
an of toll has easily comprehended the
simple truth (and the way to make it prac-
ucaD that every child born upon this plan
ct has an equal natural right with every
other to foOthold on the planet or a
chance to get his subsistence therefrom.
That is the principle underlying what is
called the single tax
But how, under modern conditions
can we recover our natural rights to our
equal inheritance in the raw material of
the globe? We do not all want land itself
to till, or mine, build upon. And if we
dld it would be Impossible to divide it up
equally and eQualiZe estates from generation
to gene. ation. Nor can mere title of
use and occupancy give us equal rights
o Si lt
valuable than others, an acre in a large
city being priced at millions of dollars,
While an acre of good farming land may
be valued for few dollars. A city lot in
Duluth bought for $4,000 few years ago,
sold this week for So 900 If there is no
especial boom this is the result of the
pressure of population and growth of pub
lie enterprise.
Our complex civilization has made some
spots of earth very much more desirable
on account of their loca tion than others are:
hence arises ground rent, or more accura te-
ly speaking, economic rent" This ground
rent is a social growth, and is social
wealth, or commonwealth. \ woman lives
IN England who collects yearly from one
of our American cities several hundred
thousand dollars from ground rent on which
many of the permanent improvements of
that city are built. and her dissoiute fam
lily spend that money abroad. The Temple
built on Dearborn street. Chi
caeo, by the efforts of the
w. c. T. L. women stands on land for
which they pay a yearly rental Of $4,000.
The owner might be ar idle drunkari or an
l'iiot, and the money would be collected for
hlm all the same. that is the direct result
of the social growth and enterprise. The
lot may have cost him only a t,ie.
Now. If these ground rents were col
lected as public revenue and used for the
pubic expenses, for public improvements
of oil -t,,,1.-
arles for necessary officials and for max
ing many good things. now accessible only
10 the rich free for all-that would be the
Application of the single tax. 1t would be
C could hardly fail TO be-stich a goodly sum
as would make the taxation now existing
enilfelE unnecessary. The pressure of pop
u!atlon upon farming land, the demand
for II as a business location. is so small
compared with city lots, mining lands etc
that it is believed by those no have inyes-
tlgated that the mere ground rent tax
which farmers would have to pay would be
much less than a farmers usual taxes at
present, taxed as he is on his improve
ments and possessions and by the protec-
tio.l tariff on most of his purchases. For
the single tax means that one ground
rent tax alone, and no other taxes, and
even that is not really "taXation."
This is the theory of the single tax 1t
is really this naturalization OF economic
rent. 50 that no Individual can pocket that
rent which social growth produces. 1t is
the very ground work. the bed rock of en-
during national cooperation Many single
takers propose to stop right there and Oh
that basis of equality of natural opportuni-
ty carry on their business competition as
usual; tho you will see by the clip | send
You that their one political platform Gin
1850 proposed to also nationaize the te]e-
graph, the railroad and the money. and to
municipalize water light and heat. 4 good
POpulist PLATFORM. F. r. e.
st. Paul. Dec 49,