Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1894-04-06
TRUST TO SINGLE TAX.
Tho Theory 10 strong and II Growing
StronSer-DOO,O 900 Advocates.

Ghe Theory 10 strong and IL Growing
stronser--1OO,O0O Advocates.
Among all men worthy Of the name, all
men the world over who do little think
ing of their own, says the Chicago
Herald, the conviction is rife that social
and economic reforms are needed as q
cure for some of the grave ills modern
society lie suffering from. About that
there is general tacit agreement. No
ones optimism is robust enough to
conclude that things are we'll as
they are. The only difficulty lies
in the fact that there are 90 many
remedies proposed. While one body Of
men considers that the panacea for all
the evils men labor under lies in concen.
trating all initiative, public and private,
in the hands of the government, another
body just as enthusiastically swears by
individualism and dsmns all state power
Other organizations again, in various
lands, believe in sn:idotes for whose gen.
eral application no sound and logical
arguments can be advanced.
1t is a number Of years ago-not 30
many either-when Henry George issued
his book, Progress and Poverty" 1t
was q book which made hard reading.
The writer knows that himself from act
ual experience. But below this calm,
passionless and impersonal reasoning,
free from all invective and only here an
there bit enlivened by a pat metaphor
or little illustrative case, there lay con-
cealed power which works wonders in
In the book, in fact, the writer
since grown Observation-Disclosures the pre-
vailing system Of taxation in all the civ
ilized countries of the globe, proved the
system based on q fallacy, and made
deductions from it tending to show
that much-in fact, nearly all-of the
poverty existing nowadays was direct
consequence OF this injurious sy stem oil
taxation. AS remedy he advocated the
adjustment Of that system and the sub
stitution in lieu Of it of a single tax-s
tax on land values
1t is q part of current history how this
book-since followed by hundreds Of 9th
ers, which in their aggregate constitute q
whole branch of contemporaneous litera
ture-after first attracting but little atten'
ton, acted like the tiny mustard seed. L
was translated into every tongue-ever
into Japanese-and won adherents BY
the thousand in every land. 1t hal
become the gospel for new school O
economists. And it's influence, insteat
of diminishing with the flight of time
fate which befalls even UNUSUAL,
good books now and then, grew ant
grew day by day and year after yea
above all in this country. 1t is not nee
essary to go into all the details of tn
rapid spread OF the propaganda in favo
of the single tax, for every attentiv
newspaper reader has followed the ca
l reer of the prophet Of this movement
has read about the tireless work on tn
lecture platform and in the editors chat
of Henry George, has followed him o
his proeelyting tour to Europe and sui
t seauently to Australia. Single tax club
: started into being all over the countr
and theirs was not mushroom growth
= for they steadily gained in numbers an
!. public influence and their convictions b.
(, came more and more deeply rooted 6
3 time went by.
Suffice it to say, therefore, that "Prol
8 ress and Poverty" the first seed COW
l out on the fallow land OF thought, al
e peared in 1877. Today, seventeen yea
Q later, there is an army of 500 900 sing
J, takers in the land; there are, in rour
g numbers, 5000 single tax clubs in exie
Il ence; and there are-most important
all-some seventy five members in co
n gress who are single takers. The latt
q fact is given on the authority of IL
n librarian of congress, Mr.. Spoffor
d who probably knows. All of whit
l. shows that the single tax doctrine b
If not only spread with enormous rapidit
a. but that it has, already accomplish
enormous practical results. In 9th
=, words, it has been lifted out Of Il
- =, broad domain of theory, domain
Il often sterile in actual results, into 4
e field of practical, working politics, b
=, become mighty factor in our nation
~ political life, one which bids fair to co
=, siderably modify the lines of action
~ our great political parties, nay, viii
has already exercised such influence tc
considerable extent, often unperceiv
IN by the needless eye OF the great mul
" tude.