The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-01-29


! theory, of beneficently employing the
expansive power of steam, and had
made such crude devices for its appli-
cation as in his ignorance of natural
laws and with poor materials and OPP
portunities at his command was avail
able to him. Rebecca, his wife, was
"no theorist." She boasted of being
pre- eminently practical" With that
impatient contempt in which practical
people hold theorisers, she persistently
demanded that her spouse Immediately
put to "a practical test, his wonderful
theory, which to a Mrs. Wells, next
door, she had said, ''the old fool had
argyd would be able to run ships across
the ocean, grind corn and make wood
sawin' a. amusement std o. the back
breakin' work tits now"
Look ZEE here, Deaconl" and Becky
had made the demand with frequent
and e~xasperating p~ersistency, talk s
cheap. Eff your theery g good fer any
thin WY don't ye put it t. practice an
prOUe itG"
The deacon had fastened the too
small escape pipe onto the spout of the
tea-kettle and was at the moment
caulking up the seam around the ket-
tie, cover; and Becky continued by way
of warning my beans IL be done in
half an hour an I want water from
that kettle to put the tea a drawin'."
Weary of being nagged, the deacon
yielded to the folly Of haste very re-
luctantly and replied, "Now, Becky, I,
kent prove nothin' satisfactory to no.
body. with nothin' but thet old tea
kettle to work with, your beans on the
best stove led, my kittle showed way
back on the cold corner, and the only
hot cover on the hull stove wide open
fer Mary Ann to heat her curtin irons
an you a doubtin' an a lafin' at me,
an hollerin' fer the water fer sumthin'
else"
But despite this protest, the deacon
pulled his old kettle as near the hot
spot as the bean kettle and Mary AIMS
curling tongs would permit, looked up
at the clock on the mantle to note the
hour of his coming triumph and waited
for the test. An hour or so later, some
wags down at the p~ostofice asked the
deacon, How does the practical appi
cation of steam work as a motive
powers" And they chuckled owe his
answer, for it was just Uh0t they er
pected.
"'TWOnt WOrk, boys" replied the
deacon; cts all right in theery, but
'tWOn't Work in practice"
Mrs. Wells came in ito see what on
airth had happened at Deacon J~oneses."
Mrs. Jones led her into the kitchen,
pointed to the floor slushed with water,
bestrewn with the fragments of two
kettles, and to the clock, with it's face
blown in and it's works filed with half
cooked beans, and made the usual and
to be expected remark, "IBere, didn't
TELL yoM 500 The idee of ever tryin'
to make anything go by steam. Steam
power run machines! make ships goI
saw wood! Ha, ha, ha, hal Guess
my old nan III shet up upon his steam
power theory now and turn thet parin'
machine by hand, er else use a knife
to pare UNI, Of we alters use ter, an
pared apples a good deal better n with
them new tangled machines, tew."
A single tax on land values, with no
better chance for a test than an appli-
cation to some one little spot and COM
munity, which community is also
obliged to pay many other tGres-an
internal revenue tax, a tax on CONNER
cial exchanges, and that multitude of
taxes paid by every consumer of taxed
goods (Which tax, levied at the place of
production follows them to their last
purchaser) would be no single tax at
all, and could only in a very moderate
measure benefit a very small com,
munity with such an Immediately con-
tiguous adverse environment.
The theory that that value which
admittedly is produced by all COM
munity, and eve by any single indi-
vidual, justly belongs to community,
and should defray the expense of the
government of community, and it's
just and natural complement, that the
products of personal effort and enter
prise belong to the enterprising indi-
vidual who produce them, is the single
tax theory, a very simple and logical
proposition. And to insist that Mr..
Place Owner shall practically prove
his single tax theory, by going down
once a year to the collector of taxes
and handing over TO him the amount