The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-02
PROTECT THE HOMES.
SINGLE TAX ONCE MORE.
A Few Reflections.

We have the best of feeling towards |
the advocates of the Single Tax |
theory. They desire to help the pro-
curement of homes by the industrious; |
they recognize the fact that repu5-
lie should be q ldnd OF homes.
Our people used to sing:
Uncle Sam is rich enough
To give us all L farm.
And he did give them as long, as the
supply lasted And then he gave his
land owners an insufficient currency;
and large part Of the farms have al
ready passed into the hands of the
capitalistic class, and the remainder
are on the way there. Now. the Peo-
pies Party should advocate the doc
trne that the country shall be so gov
erned and the laws so administered,
that every Industrious family in the
United States shall have home, which
no person can take from them; and
which shall belong to the tan'ily, not
to the head of it, from generation to
generation forever. When we have
got that the Republic will have plant
ed its feet on the bedrock, and will
endure to the end Of the world.
We do not, there fore. object to the
Single Tax doctrine because it would
give men homes; but because it would
not 1t proposes to put all the taxes
on the homes, for the homes must be
on the land, in city or country: while
the true doctrine is that the homes of
the people should be free from taxa
tion as well as from execution for
debt. Let those support the govern
ment who get most from it. What do
the common people of this state-the
plain people, as Mr.. Lincoln called
them-get in return for their taxes?
Almost nothing? They have a Legis-
lature which is owned and controlled
by banks and railroads and rings; and
every session Of which sends back to
the people a lot of sharp rascals train
ed i'm all the arts Of cOrruption; to
demoralize their constituents by the
sight of their successful villainy, dis
played in new houses, increased farms,
and all the tokens of ill-gotten
wealth. We ask the average taxpayer
to tell us what he has ever received
for his taxes? The courts? What are
they but machinery to enable the
creditors to enforce their claims
against the de cbtors, ct the eTpcnse Of the
,chole communtY. When A sues B for
hundred dollars why should c, D. e,
F and the whole alphabet foot the
bills? They won't receive any of that
500 if it is collected, and it won't
profit them any if it is not. The
great mass of the producers could get
along without any protection from the
criminal class; they would arm them
selves to defend their possessions: but
it is the millionaire, the nabob, who
most needs the protection of the law
If the multitude rose up against him
what would his wealth amount to?
He is the man who gets the benefit of
the bulk of the taxes. The poor man
is made tc hire the bulldogs to keep
the thieves away from the rich mans
house, and the rich man lodges all he
can of his share of the expense. And
the Single Takers say-"Sec, the rich
avoid part of their taxes! Let us re-
lieve them of it all, and saddle it on
the poor men,
1t seems as if there was at this time
concerted effort made to force the
Single Tax issue to the frOnt:-it may
be with a view to break up the Peo-
pies Party, or from the desire of the
wealthy to escape taxation. In a re-
cent issue of the Chicago Times we
find the following:
THE rapid advance in the growth
of single-taX sentiment, and its wide
spread manifestation without any
concerted attempt on the part of sin
gletaXers to force it upon labor and
reform organizations, is amazing not
alone to the opponents of the single
tax, but to single takers themselves.
Wonderful as the progress of this
idea is among the mechanics machin.
lists, and day laborers of the organized
trades it is even more surprising
among the unOrganized middle-claSS
and even among the extremely
wealthy. OF the latter class may be
Thomas g. Shearman and Gen. r. c.
Christianson of New York; f. Ii. Sar.
gent, the great hardware manufacture
or of New Haven, Conn.,; A. B. Far
quar- manufacturer, of York, Pa; nj
d. Harter and Tom l.. Johnson, oi
Ohio n. O. Nelson, manufacturer OF
steamfitters' supplies, ST. Louis. Mo.
and others. This list of names EN-
braces at least three milliOnaires, ant
perhaps more. thus uniting the upper
middle. and lower strata of society in
one common cause, and demOnstrat
ing beyond question that it is neither
crank nor class movement.
Even the honest farmer, who by rea
son of his isolated situation, is always
the last to grasp the exact truth of {
new proposition, is beginning t(
emerge from the darkness of supers tt
tion and Misrepresentation regarding
the single-taX, and to discover thai
the proposition is to tax, not lane
acres, but ,land values; and that as hi
agricultural acres are far less valuabl,
than the city acres, the mineral acres
the timber acres, and the railwa,
acres, he would have far less taxes t.
pay under the single tax than TIN
owners of other land. And so, at last
we are beginning to get the workin!
farmers.
The saloonkeeper is another dis
tinct class, generally supposed to b
entirely lacking in all the better AM