The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-03-20
SINGLE TAX PALACES


To the Editor of The Herald: "Give the
poor the right to land and your social
problem is solved. and until you do that
everything else you can do will be of no
avail =" said Henry George recently at a
meeting of the Social Reform Club in
| Cooper Union, New York City. 1t is
difficult to understand how one possess
! ing any knowledge of economic conditions
could make so indefensble a statement.
II there is one fact that stands out in
bold prominence it is the remarkabl
change in economic conditions that has
been effected within the past thirty years
| by the IN production and use of labOr-Sav-
ing, or rather Misunderstanding, machin-
| cry. Hardly a week passes but the news
papers record the invention of some
machine or process by which labor is dis
| placed. Even so conservative an authority
as MIR. Wilson, the author of the Wilson
] tariff bill, can be appealed to. Mr.. Will
son stated recently at banquet in New
York City, l think, that if our country
was under full tide of prosperity we
could not keep our factories, and the men
employed in them, employed more than
six months in the year. Improved ma
| chinery and processes and concentration
of business making every day fewer men
necessary to carry on production. The
introduction OF recently invented cot
place $4,000 laborers during the cotton
! picking season, while glass-polishing
machine. WILL. when fully introduced,
displace thousands of skilled hand polish
ers. The Possibilities of the use that cleo
tricity may be put to in the near future
the need for coal for fuel, and the hun
! dreds OF thousands of miners and others.
who would be at once thrown out of EN-
ployment in consequence, almost takes
ones breath away Everywhere it is the
same story, machinery and concentration
of business, thereby eliminating competi-
! ton, is continually making fewer men
necessary for productive purposes. This
is the problem that confronts us: What
is to become of the thouasnds-yes, mill
ions OF laborers-whose services are rem
dered unnecessary by the remarkable eco
nomic changes effected during the past
three decades. The answer of the single
taXer is to give free access to land and
natural resources to all upon the same
terms, and the problem is solved" The
answer reveals kindergarten conception
of the problem as singular as it is dis
creditable. What, can the average
man without capital, or even moderate
capital, do in competition with the gigan-
tic trusts that monopolize industry? How
many skilled workmen are there in Amer
lea who could compete with Carnegie in
the production of steel ship plate? How
1lHIlN are pneTe WHO COulu compete WltH
Pullman in the sleeping car business?
With free access to mines. how could the
average miner compete with the capitalist
who owned costly labor saving machin
cry, and who. by its aid, could produce
iron, S liver, copper or coal at one-tifth
the cost of the miner without capital?
Indeed the subsistence wage paid by the
capitalist employer would probably be
twice as much as the average miner could
make by applying his labor directly to
natural resources" Even agriculture is
rapidly falling prey to capitaistic
methods. Fifty-cent wheat pays the CAPT
talst bonanza farmer 80 1-3 per cent
profit. We have combined harvesters and
threshers that cost from five to seven
thousand dollars, that cut. thresh and
sack grain at the rate of three or four
sacks per minute. and at a cost of as
many cents per sack. a friend of mine
recently informed me that he had seen
written contract for the plovil :; of IL. 600
acres of land in one of our mid lie coun-
ties for twenty cents per acre. OF what
avail is free access to land" to the
avIage farmer in competition with such
methods and cost of production?
Take All illustration. Suppose that
under a single tax regime hundred shoe
makers are supplying the wants of certain
community with shoes One OF the shoe
makers invents machine or set of
machines by the aid of which, and the
laDOr OF twenty men, Cnc 1ull supply OF
shoes can be produced, and at a educ
ton in cost of ay 40 per cent. One or
half dozen OF the shoemakers starts fac
tory. reduce the price OF the shoes and
supply the market, what are the eighty
idle shoemakers to do? Take to the land?
Suppose they do; they find the steam pillow
and harvester render their labor as I'M
necessary as the shoe factory had done.
1t may be explained that there could be
nothing to prevent the starting of an OPP
position factory. Granted and we may
assume that the second factory drives
the first one out of business but the ratio
bertween the number of EMPLOYERS and
employees remains the same. The adj
dition of an extra factory does not in
crease the output of shoes. Twenty men
are still able to furnish all the shoes re-
quired. while the labor of eighty is rea-
dered unnecessary. This is problem
that no single taxer or other individual
list can overcome. No other solution is
possible or conceivable than cooperative
production and distribution. We must
have access not merely to the land but to
all the means and instruments for the
production and distribution OF wealth.
The Prince of Wales has always taken
great interest in the drama and considers
himself competent theatrical critic.
Farther more, it has just leaked out that
he has made several attempts at playwrit-