The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25

| y
B'nai Birth Hall under the name OF the
, Land and Labor Club. This club reorgan-
lied as the San Francisco Anti-Poverty So
ciety at Grand Central Hall, corner of
Sixth and Market streets, where 1t held
meetings every Sunday night for some
thing over a year. The society next
moved to 9091a Market street and changed
its name to the "Single Tax Society OF San
Francisco" Here the society remained
several years, holding meetings every Sun
day evening. 1t also maintained read
| ing-room in the old Jesuit building on
Market street for several years. 1t now
meets every Wednesday evening at For
esters' Hall, 102 O'Farrell street. 1 believe
l am well within bounds in saying that
during the many years the society has been
in existence no other fundamentally has
done more to instruct the people OF San
Francisco in sound economic principles.
The man of ordinary natural capacity who
| has regularly attended its meetings and
carefully read the literature it has dis
tributed is able to hold his own in the dis
cussion of economic questions with the
best informed men of his time.
The range of subjects discussed at its
meetings has always been and still is wide
and varied, taking in everything pertain
ing to human well-being. Its members
have actively and effectively cham
pioned every practical reform calcu-
lated to advance the public well
fare, notably in the case of the Aus
tralian ballot reform. As society it has
done an educational work in economics in
this community of which it has just
10 no Ar &c,
ings the members have derived an instruc-
ton and drawn an inspiration that have
greatly aided them in their individual eff
| forts to advance the cause to which they
are so earnestly devoted. 1t may be of in
terest to know how believers in Mr..
Georges land views came to be called sim
| gle-taxers, and the doctrine of land value
taxation the single tax.
On the 18th of January, 1887, Thomas G..
Sherman, the eminent lawyer, economist
and statistician, read paper before the
Constitution Club of New York City. At
the request of Mr.. George, who was then
publishing the Standard, he sent it in for
publication. When the article was set up
the foreman asked Mr.. George what head
ing he should give it, and he told him to
call it the "Single Tax" 1t went into the
Standard of May %, 1887, under that head.
and was afterward published under the
same title in the Land and Labor Library
in the form of a tract. The movement
was at the time looking for name, and it
adopted the title thus given to Mr.. Shear
mans article.
Great movements have sometimes had
to 60 long way from home to get their
no bo Col of let
called Christians not at Jerusalem but at
Antioch, and single-taxers got their name
not at San Francisco but at New York.
San Francisco ought to be the
first to accept and adopt the gospel
of the single tax, for it was first
proclaimed to her people. But unless
she speedily bestirs herself her sister city
of New York will get the start of her in
adopting, as she did in naming, the single
tax. The manner in which she turned out
to welcome and honor her prophet in 1890
when he passed through on his way to
Australia inspired hope that she might
lead the way, but she is too far from the
center of thought to justify that hope.
Some one may here inquire, What is the
single taxi I am not writing this article
for the very few who now need an answer
to that question. I refer them to the Gen.
fury Dictionary for definition of the
term.
It is the remedy for the ills that now
Cypress and threaten the existence of our
civilization which the people are going to
adopt. This conclusion is justified both
by reason and observation. An eminent
citizen of this State is reported to have
lately stated, as the result of his observa-
ton, that the people are going to adopt
the single tax, whether it is right or
wrong. When he comes to investigate the
subject more deeply he will discover that
the people are going to adopt the single
tax because they know it is right. Rea-
son teaches US that people occupying the
vantage ground now held by the American
people cannot permit their civilization to
perish from the earth. Those who imagine
that this Republic is going the way of the
Roman republic have not considered the
differences between the two peoples. Rea-
son also teaches US that such people as
the American people are reasonably sure
to adopt for the preservation of what they
cherish those means that involve the least
cost and that will cause the least disturb
ance to or interference with the institu-
tons they have established.
Kidd says that the end which the devel-
opmental forces at work in our civilization
are apparently destined to achieve in the
social life of the people is, to complete the
process of evolution in progress by event.
ualIy bringing all the people into the ri
valry of life. not only on a footing of po-
litical equality, but on conditions of equal
social opportunities. The single tax fur
nishes not merely the shortest but the
only road to that end. To those who are
able to see only the surface Of things this
fact is obscure6 by the tumble of reforms"
that now clouds the social atmosphere.
But the fact is there. and it will soon be
clearly perceived by all. The single tax
is in harmony with American sentiment,
thought and aspiration. It clears the way
to that greater freedom and that fuller OPP
portunity which it is the ambition of every
true American to attain. 1t will restore
and forever preserve that personal inde-
pendence and magnanimity which free
dom and boundless opportunity in the
past stamped upon the American National
character.