The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-05-17


imagine how much more so it would
prove when extended to the millions
Of acres of quarry, mining, forest and
valuable agricultural land now held
out of use on speculation, and think
you will readily see how all classes,
without exception will be benefited.
Respectfully,
SAMUEL DANZIGER,
Rosedale Place, AvOndale, Cincin.
hati, o.
LAUGHToN, Kan, May g.
Editor Weekly Statesman:
You ask the question in an editorial
of April 10: Does Mr.. Georges
theory propose relief to all those
classes?"
The single tax upon the value of
land is the doing of justice; justice to
the community and justice to the in
dividual. The present system of tax
alton both national and state is injus-
tice to all. Taxing labor and improve.
ments is oppressive and burdensome.
All CLASSES" suffer by injustice, even
those Who seem to prosper by that in
Justice; in the end they suffer. For
what amount of prosperity can make
amends for injustice! This question
is of the highest social order and goes
to the bottom of our social life. Give
men free access to land and it will not
only benefit agricultural interests but
all Industries, as all production in the
last comes from labor applied to land;
and can we have too many good
things? Millions OF men are debarred
from producing the good things of life,
they being excluded from the natural
factor, land. The single tax will
open those natural opportuni>
ties so that some men will
not have to pay to other
men tor the use of the earth but all
will have that freedom to use the por-
ton he prefers by paying to those ex'
Guided the value OF each opportunity.
Although fortunes may then and
would come to some 1T will then be
only through work, and surely they
surely have right to it. 1t is when
they are made rich by the work of 9th.
ers that their riches are menace and
oppressive to their felloT man. The sim
gle tax is the foundation for justice, for
is it not only by justice that states are
long lived?; and whatever conduces to
that end must be for the good OF all
classes
This is one of the nuts cracked" for
YOU and the kernel must be OF fine
flavor for those who see the cat. No
doubt there are other nuts to crack, !"
but this is the one that makes all 9TH
ers easy. E. z. BUTCHER.
WACO. May1.
Editor Statesman.
In your late criticism of the single
tax you say: MANY of us obtain with
ease all the Injuries and comforts of
life without using an acre OF land. i"
Land for the purpose of taxation, I'M
der the single tax system, would not
be assessed by the acre, but according
to Evalue. Thus The STATESMAN
would probably pay a greater tax on
the fraction of an acre occupied by
its building than would be paid on an
ordinary 400.acre farm. So, THE
STATESMAN can see that it is quite an
extensive user of land-eXtensive in
value, if not in area. But you think
you could get along without the use
of an inch IF land. You may have in
mind the idea of taking your compos'
ing room and offices up in a balloon or
on a ship out on the gulf. But in
either case, the component parts
which 90 to make up balloon or
ship are drawn from the land
in their production occupied more
than an inch of land. In delving for
the ore and the manufacture of the
type and presses more than an inch or
an acre of land was used. Even the
of your force, from the
editor to the devil, must be drawn
from land.
If the annual value of the land of
the United States, which exceeds
81 900, 100000, instead of being di.
verified to the pockets of Il compara.
lively few individuals, was taken for
all public expenses and an equal sum
now taken by government in taxes
from the product of individual eXer-
ton was left in the pockets Of indi-
who produced 1t, the wages of
labor would be increased to that eX-
tenr-an average of about $50 per
family per annum. That is no tritling
sum in these hard times. No one
would be robbed or unjustly dealt
with, because tie economic rent or
land value which would be taken for
public expenses is produced by the
public and rightfully belongs to the
public. The public would be
but taking its own, Government
appropriating the earnings of the
Individual, while allowing individuals
to appropriate the proper revenues of
all the people collectively, is what
causes the great disparity in the dis
of wealth. The
robs the many individu-
ais, while allowing the few individuals
to exact toll from the many. So that
the many, the masses, are held up"
both ways
Then speculation in land booms its
price and has the effect
of limiting its supply. Men
who wish to use land are forced
by thousands of acres of rich. pro-
ductive land, out to the desert places
where they are in luck to raise crop
once in five years. At that point the
return to labor-wages-are at the
If land was taxed to its
full value annually, no one could
afford to hold it out of use. All the
best and most available land would go
into use or be thrown upon the mar
ket. Settlers upon the staked plains
and upon the arid stretches along the