The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-02-27

sr.rrrr Feb. .. 1904

To the Single Tax Leagge-Ge.t6emes
accept the nomination as candidate for
mayor ON the ticket named By the single
taxe-s Of the city OF Seattle. / not only
accept such nomination, bat shall use
every honorable etfor. 70 secure the cleo
ton OF the ticket and thereby advance the
principle Of land and tar reform In the
short and heated contest which Is upon
U. reason. logic and frsternai sentiments
for our politics, enemies must Sc all times
acfnats and underlie aii our intellectual
onsiaughts. For az no distant day our
present antagonists must become our po-
liticai converts aud friends Let Us leave no
wounds which time may not permanently
heal. This 10 not the accepted methods in
politics, but il is the way that truth, and
only truth, dare assert itself Brand no
man as traitor or insincere because he
does not see the cat an distinctly As do we.
At some time he surely will perceive.
IL 10 fitting that in accepting this NOM
ination state my position to the Demo-
cratic and the Peoples party. Because
earnest friends have presented my name
before the Peoples party convention the
though. is suggested that I might feel
bound by the decision OF that body. and
the rules of partisan propriety to
accept q nomination from any other politi-
cal organization.
port neither men nor parties-but prin-
ciples. These principles are pure de-
mocracy, and are scientifically combined
In the Omaha platform, covering the three
great questions of land. transportation and
finance. The greatest and most important
of these three IL the land. And yet the
three, like the links of Odd Fellow
ship. should fem the chain with
which industrial freedom viii forever
bind its oppressors. A monetary
relief, or governmental control
of railroads, will. in our present
financial condition give immediate but
only temporary stimulus to Us. The
underlying cause OF all our earthly woes is
the monopolixation Of natural pportuni-
ties, which monopolization You, gentle
men, mean to tax. That 10, land values
irrespective Of improvements-the values
created by the community. and which the
community have the paramount right to.
The Omaha platform. section 2, says:
wealth belongs to him who creates 1t.
Every dollar taken from industry without
an equivalent, is robbery. If any will not
work neither shall he eat
And again in section II:
''The land, including all the natural
resources OF wealth, is the heritage of
all the people and should not be
monopolized for speculative purposes"
The Peoples party of King county in
convention assembled last year echoed
this land plank Of the Omaha platform by
resolving that we demand the passage
Of law exempting from taxation all i'm
provements on lands, to the end that fines
upon industry may soon become q thing
Of the past"
The national leaders Of the Peoples
party, including such grand names as
Jerry Simpson, Gen. Weaver. DR.. Nc
Glynn, Mrs Lease and Gen. Field look
upon the land plank of the party as the
ultima thule" the "dernier resort, the
great central sun in our political system,
around which. and in the single-tax rays
of which, revolve in borrowed high. the
lesser satellites of finance and Transports
ton.
White parasols and elephants mad with
pride are followed by a nation of Iandless
slaves. Give me all the land and our OPP
pressors may take all the money and the
methods of exchange-raiIroads- soon
they will be my slaves. The wise of all
sges have known this; and Moses thun-
dersd below the iightnings of Sinai, 'sThou
shalt not sell the land forever" New
Zealand today of all countries recognizes
this moral law by system of single tax,
and il alone of all the earth is freed from
the distress Of financial and industrial de-
preston.
In the late Peoples party city conven-
ton a resolution emphasizing the land
plank was ANONYMOUSLY defeated by
lot Of delegates who belong rather to the
Republican and the old Greenback parties
than to the Peoples party. Since the
convention systematic assault has been
made by these Greenback and Republican
members upon all who look kindly on the
land plank through a single tax light The
present municipal platform is not sound,
and the great principle of land reform
and the only method of obtaining it. by
the initiative and reierendum,is not imper-
sonated in the Peoples party's leadership.
The stone that the builders rejected should
be the chief OF the corner, and when a
single-taxer is ostracised from the People
party, wish to be counted with him,
until we beat little sense into the organi-
cation by showing our colors and our
strength. They have said that there is
nothing certain but death and taxes: II
shall be our future duty to prove that this
proverb should read nothing certain but
death aud the single tax. When the next
Peoples party convention meets in Seattle.
Ii will be discovered that it is not only
sound principle TO enroll the land plank
on our banner, but also very good politics.
Democracy, II IL means anything. means
freedom. Personal freedom. Freedom in
place aud freedom in motion. Freedom
in pursuit OF happiness, and freedom IN
trade. This 10 my democracy, free trans
portation, free money and free land. How
Gao any man and every man possess this
freedom of these three things without
possessing the title to them2 How can
he possess the title TO them, except in the
community sense, the collective or gov
ornamental ownership thereof? Therefore
let every man, the government, own the
money Of our country without the in
termediary of a national bank, and con.
troll the volume thereof Therefore let
every man. the government, own the rail.
roads of our country and under the single
tax control the land. This is the de-
mocraoy of the fathers: this is the de-
mocraey Of Jefferson and the earlier Dem
ocratic party. And wherein the modern
Democracy and our municipal popuIisn
have avoided the responsibility of assert
Ing these principles, then do they both
need the retormers' attention and the