The herald., 1894-07-24

BUT SINGLE TAKERS MOVE IN THE
RIGHT WAY.
So Argues Rev. Il. NJ. Webster In . Pub
lilo Address-Ths Meeting VI the
Single Tax Ciub-CIarsnce
KILLERS Opinions.

gathered at single tax meeting in this
city was seen last night IN Unity church,
every seat in the lecture room being &C.
cupied, the audience including numer-
GUS prominent men and women of high
social standing as well as superior intel
lsctual attainments. After announcing
that Col. w. A. Harris would address
the meeting to be held one week later,
President Hoyt introduced Rev. r. III.
Webster as the speaker of the evening
who spoke ON The Single Tax and the
Kingdom OF Heaven. Following is q
condensed report of Mr.. Wsbster's ad-
dress:
He commenced by stating how q
friend read from Henry Georges Prog
resu and Poverty the folio wing:
Sat the beginning OF this marvellous
era it was natural to expect, and it was
expected, that labor-saving inventions
would tighten the toll and improve the
condition Of the laborer; that the enor-
NOUS increase in the power Of produc-
ing would make real poverty thing OF
the past.
Franklin or q Priestly-have seen, in a
vision of the future, the steamship tax
ing the place OF the sailing vessel, the
railroad train of the wagon. the reaping
machine of the scythe, the threshing
machine of the fail; could he have
heard the throb OF the engines that, in
obedience to the human will and for the
satisfaction of human desire, exert a
power greater than that OF all the men
and of all the beasts of burden of the
earth combined; could he have seen
the forest tree transformed into finished
lumber, into doors, sashes, blinds,
boxes or barrels, with hardly the
touch of the human hand; the
great workshops. where boots and
shoes are turned out by the
case with less labor than tho old-fash-
toned cobbler could have put ON q sole ;
the factories where, under the eye of a
girl, cotton becomes cloth faster than
hundreds of stalwsrt weayers could have
turned it out with their hand looms ;
could he have seen steam hammers
shaping mammoth shafts and mighty
anchors, and delicate machinery making
tiny watches; the diamond drill cutting
through the heart OF the rocks, and coal
oil sparing the whale; could he have re-
allied the enormous sa' Dor re-
sulting from improved facilities OF ex-
change and communication sheep killed
in Australia, eaten fresh in Eng and
the order given by the London banker
in the afternoon executed in San Fran
cisco in the morning of the same dag
could he have conceived OF the hundred
thousand Improvements which these
only suggest, what would he have in.
ierred az to the social condition OF man
kind?'
Ny friend paused moment. and said ;
"Listen! -
Then, with q most infectious enthusi-
asm, he read on:
1t would not have seemed like an in
ference, further than the vision went; II
would have seemed as though he saw
and his heart would have leaped and his
heart would have thrilled, as one who
from height beholds, just ahead of the
thirst.stricken caravan, the living CLEAN
of rustling woods and the CLINT of laugh
ing waters.
This great apostle of the single tax
has made it SO perfectly plain that land
10 the common inheritance, that private
monopoly of 1t is injustice and works in
Vulnerable mischiefs, and that so long
as private monopoly Of land exists, lib
erty and equity for the masses of the
people are out of the question, that no.
body any longer denies it.
The question how to prevent private
ownership and to secure to each one his
equal right and share in this common
inheritance is answered in this book
thus: Let the private owner be taxed
each year, for the use of the land he
holds, a sum equal to its rent value.
This, it is claimed, would make every
member of the community an equal
landlord with every other member.
Do think the single tax would bring
the kingdom OF heaven?