The advocate., 1896-01-01
THE SINGLE TAX MOVEMENT.
Henry George and His ThOOry-ThS PhllOsO.
ply of Freedom.
BIZ W. H. t. WAKEFIELD.

AA~UV@ AVA 4 AGSAASou1 Ah 4OOOB pAOuAASAP
doctor Of divinity referred to him as the
QuiXotic champion Of q new and strange
doctrine which none could explain and
none understand. And yet this new and
strange doctrine was the world-Old one
OF the right Of man to own himself and
to enjoy the fruits Of his own labor
simply the doctrine Of justice between
men. Long habit Of condoning injustice,
Of accepting it As q part Of conventional
experience and matter Of course, as tho
law, the custom, and the policies Of our
country or community, makes demand
Gcr justice seem like new and strange
doctrine, requiring elaborate SxplsnA-
Eion and Argument 10 sustain it.
It 10 quite generally supposed that
Henry George is the author Of new
thsory-one quite difficult to under
stand; but nothing could be further
from tho truth. He was anticipated by
Thomas Jefferson, who said: "The earth
belongs in usufruct to the generation at
any time living upon it, and not to the
dead or the unborn, and one generation
has no right to mortgage the lives Of
future ones" He was also anticipated
by the Republican platform adopted ut
Chicago in 1860, and by the speech Of
Gslushs A. Grow upon the homestead
bill In 1860, delivered in the House Of
Representatives, which, unwittingly per-
hSps, was straight single tax doctrine.
The Democratic national platform of
1910 would make very good single tax
platform for to-day.
We are all familiar with the Mosaic
"Year Of Jubilee" but only recently
very learned Hebrew Of Philadelphia, q
very high authority on ancient Hebrew
literature, has published tranglations
from the Talmud, which show conclu-
SiVOly that not only the principle but tho
exact method Of applying it advocated
by Henry George was for centuries the
law in Judea-that persons occupying
land Of superior site value paid for the
value Of the privilege. This payment
was not used for public purposes in lieu
Of all other taxation, as the single tax
COntemplates, but was given to those oc-
CupyinR remote and inferior land OF small
site value, to equslize land value rights
People fail to understand the single
tax, because they do not understand GnN
system of taxation; do not understand it's
incidence and ultimate effects. It 10
often asked if the rent will not be raised
to include the tax and tenants pay it, but
NO economist ever asks this question, be-
cause he knows it is the only tax which
cannot be shifted, except poll tax. The
reaSon for this lies In the law of nature.
Land is fixed quantity, and the price
cannot be raised while the supply re-
mains the same, but any product Of labor
IL diminished in supply until the price
raises to include the tax, which is paid
by the consumer. We know that the
price Of whisky, sugar, tobacco, and all
imported goods on which duty is paid
includes the tax, and we also know that
price of land fails as the tax rises, and
that il the tax is equal to its rental value
the owner has nothing Of value left to
sell, yet the land il as productive and
pays the user Of it as we'll as il no tax Ht
all was paid.
The object Of the single tax is TO pro-
tect the user Of land Qabor) from extor-