The morning call., 1894-05-16
LABOR AND LAND.
The Single Tax Question
Discussed.
LECTURE BY LOUIS F. POST.
Land Monopoly the Cause of the
Hard Times.
PROSPECTS FOR ITS REMEDY.
b. Held That Labor and Land Are at
Present Divorced, but May
:, ....... Easily Be Reunited.

s.It a:man owns a vacant lot of land and
wants to buld thereon he naturally in
:auires about taxes. Doesn't he get dis
rcoutaged if lie finds that he has got to pay
:Sl0Oa year more for his land if he builds
!. on it than If he doesnt?"
H.. Such was the burden Of a lecture given
at Metropolitan Hall last evening by Louis
+. Post. Mr. Post is lecturer of the Single
Tax League of the United States and is on
tour of lectures upon industrial depres-
siOns, their cause and cure. The particu-
lar subject of. last evenings lecture was
the question. why increase Of want with
increase of wealth."
1t was mass meeting and The hall was
crowded. The lecturer had prepared
humber of revolving diagrams 10 illustrate
the various stages through which labor
passed with the progress OF civilization,
and all with view 10 illustrating the
ravages made by what be called lard mo-
nOp0ly.
The lecturer held that each variety of
labor was equally in need of circulation,
from that Of thu 'foOdmaker" up. The
demands of the fOodmakeT," he said. set
tailors at work, the clOthesmakerS set
servants. servants luxury makers and so
on, always reverting back TO the food
makers. All these makers constitute one
man.
l. Labor must be exchanged for labor, and
as-the power Of production lncrea sed so
shall labor grow. But statistics showed
that it did not Why? Illustrating the
various kinds of la Dor pieced off in great
revolving wheel, the lecturer showed that
If as the wheel went round intinitesimal
pieces were pared off each kind Of labor.
: then some one must get labor without
labor. So diversion creates disease.
what Is the eause of this? Mon OpOly.
It is monopoly that interferes with labor.
The interests of labor are Identical, and
the interests of labor are opposed to the
, Interests of monopoly" So, speaking Of
the various kinds of monopoly, Mr.. Post
held that The money monopoly vas the
: worst. Money was the common medium
TO prevent the labOTer having 20 exchange
the results Of his toll for some other prod
uct Of labor. The kind Of money did not
III after; il all depended upon mans con-
ndenee in il. Banks were merely hook
Keepers, and men went on bartering labor
and goods just as before.
J.. That being so, what was meant by the
present strngency in the money market
= Was money scarce? No. The money was
not scarce, but the collateral, the food,
clothes, produce, etc, was. Let them
make these as before and money would be
easy Let there be no more dlvorcing of
labor from land
Take the railroad monopoly, such as
we have here under the one great road that
guards the existence of this city. Ii the
farmers had free railroad, free transport
tltiou, wOud they be any better of? No.
For what the road did not lake the owners
of the land gould.
o.. Look what we pay for land. A mora
labor comes, Land becomes less produc-
tive to the labOreT, because it rises in
value. So, land values rise with progress.
As acity grows The value of land in it in
screases. There IS more demand, conse-
Quently greater value"
The lecturer said that in Texas they
told him that the hard times were due to
the drought. and in Iowa they laid the
blame on the wet weather. That, he VEN
tured TO assert, was not the cause. 1t was
''the absolute ownership of land, the specu-
latiOD in il and the enormous values placed
upon it thereby" Already in New Yea
land the people were better off because
they were doing away with that land
monopoly. and if other countries did the
same they would be better off, too.
What is the remedy then for all this (?
The exemption of labor from all taxation. -
The lecturer said he meant by this that
there should be one tax put upon land and
not upon labor. At present if a man quilt
upon Ut otherwise improved his land, he
was taxed for those Improvements, that is
TO say, with the results of his own labor
in addition
This was the corrupt principle that
caused people to cry out against the hard
times. Let it be 'Temedied. Let there be
a uniform tax upOn land, but not tax
upon land and labor BOTH Let the people
see things IN The right light. and, like Con-
gresham Mcguire said the other day,
they would "see.the cat" This was the
Only'Temedy, ana not until it was put into
execution would labor and land be re-
runItad