The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-23
SINGLE TAX.


rs I1Ven NnOQe 0OnSlOef0t1On.
TO the Editor y
Experience long ago taught the writer to
beware of too many reforms. The single
tax reform is one that have been 10th to
discuss either pro or con. l have always
felt that it had not the Importance which
it's votaries claim for it. In fact, see but
one strong point to it, That is it's SIM
scheme with all those who do not own land,
and if it is ever made to prevail in this
country or state it will be because of the
great landless majority. There is no .ques-
ton that the advocates of this method have
some fairly good arguments, can it be
denied that it's adoption would do away
with some glaring evils But there is dan
ger that the single tax, like the man who
contemplated suicide feared that
I'm trying one riddle to undo
Might knit a hundred others new"
The one basic argument of the single
takers is that land is the natural inherit
ance of All the inhabitants of the earth,
like air and water, and that it's value is
determined by population; that the value of
land being dependent upon population or
society should innure to the public good;
that it is wrong to tax industry when the
unearned increment of land will more than
pay all taxes. 1 am not going to combat
this proposition by denial of it's premises. I
only wish to call the attention of our single
tax friends to the fact that the value of
everything depends on the presence of pop
ulatlons. Surely gold, silver and all the
metals derive their value from the fact that
man lives in this world and that he wants
them just as much as he wants land. What
value could all the property in the world
have If there was only one man living in
1t? All the great staples, all the neces-
saries and all the luxuries of this life have
value for precisely the same reason that
land has value. If the parallel is not appar-
ent in all respects it is because land is not
movable as other property is. The value
OF ginseng in Minnesota is caused by
large population in China who think gin
seng Is a great remedy.
Again. l hold that land values, like all
other values, are the result of labor. If
men did not work and produce, it is diff
cult to how land could have value
When the aborignes held this country
land had but little value, and it ALTERED
not how sparsely thickly the land was
settled. Zee
1t is hard to see any philosophical reason
why land values should pay all the taxes
and every other form of value should go
scot Free since the value in each and all
is the result OF labor. The great fac
tories would be worthless if it were not
that people live and want the products of
the factories, aha other people are willing
TO work and produce. No man can ac-
cumulate wealth even legitimately without
being put under a Lasting obligation to the
public from whom he obtained it.
Suppose Mr.. Donnely had made a mill
ion dollars from the sale of his books. 1t
is clear that every dollar of it would be
due to the presence Of popula ton, and not
only that, but that kind of a population
which appreciates his books. Why should
he refuse to pay back to society moiety
of the profit he would in that case have
drawn from it?
Edison and others have given us wonder
full inventions in electrical appliances. The
value of them is due to a laboring and ap-
preclative population. Neither Donnely
nor Edison could hope to make dollar
out of their productions if they were de-
pendent wholly upon savage population
Just Tor moment contemplate the cost
or rearing civilization even to the de-
gree we have now attained, and then mea-
sure the crime of mec who would plumber
1t as it has been plundered in the last two
decades. There is a monopoly in land
which should be curbed, but there is mo-
nopoly in all other forms of property
masses in the same way and in the same
cases to greater extent. To say that a
plan OR method which would break up a
monopoly in land would free every kind
OF wealth, is nonsense. So it seems to
me.
There is ''unearned increment" in trans
portation. in banking in money loaning
and many other lines of business WHY
should they not all support the state?
State Auditor Braden. in one of his re-
ports said that all property might be put
INTO two classes for purposes of taxation,
VIZ: visible and invisible, and that the Wis
IDLE was paying nearly all the taxes The
true tax benefactor will be the man who
can invent plan to make the invisible
property pay it's proper share of the public
expense. l think if l wanted to invent
new reform or fad l would insist that
since the land is charged with the burden
Of sustaining all life, and affording cloth
ing and shelter for the human race beside
it should be relieved from taxation en-
tirely. The single tax seems to me to be
gaining a consideration altogether beyond
its Importance. THOS. c. HODGSON