Smyrna times., 1896-04-08

But the title to capital is valid, simply
because capital is produced by labor.
The title of a man to the ownership OF
himself is from on High; and, since he
owns himself, he rightfully owns that
which his labor produces, therefore
taxes upon capital is robbery.
The single tax upon land value would
not put our millions of unemployed on
farm on their own account. People
are more desirOus of using city and
mining land than farming land. The
difference in the value of these lands is
sufficient proof of that. Tax to the
rental value our idle city and mining
land. so that it will no longer pay to
keep it idle and the bitter cry of the
unemployed will be heard no more.
The increased demand for labor would
insure good wages to the toillnG
masses, who would in turn constitute
good market for the sale of the farm
ers' products and good market IS the
thing that the farmers want
The single tax would abolish land
lOrdism, as it would take for the com
mon good the ground rent that the
landlords now get. No man could |
then collect tribute from his fellow
man for the permission to use the sur
face of the planet that the Almighty III
His goodness provided freely for the
use of all His children equally. But
as men cannot use land unless they
have exclusive and permanent posses
sion of it, man will not plant if an
other can reap; neither will he build
house or sink a mining shaft if others
can dispute possession of the ground;
so the single tax would leave men in
private possession of land but would
call on them to pay just what the pos
session is worth, viz: the ground rent,
so that the equal claims of all other
men would be satisfied. Thus the
whole earth could be enclosed and held
in private possession III entire subordl-
nation to the law of equal freedom.
As long as possession of some pOr-
tions of the earth's surface is more de-
sirable than the possession of other
portions, rent will continue to exist;
and we could no more abolish it than
we could abolish sunshine, for it is the
measure Of the desirability of the good
! land over the poorer land. For IN
stance, an acre of city land in Viii
mington is much more desirable than
an acre of farm land in Kent county.
The difference in value between the
two is measured in rent. The value OF
. the former is 100000; the value of the
= latter is about So. The rent of the
. Wilmington acre would be the Interest
on the selling value of 800, 900, which
at 4 per cent. would be $4,000 a year
80 while the rent of the Kent county acr'
of farm land would be only 20 cents
year. The question now arises t.
whom should this rent go? Singl'
= Takers say that it is the natural rev
= enue for the government; that it is
value that attaches to land by reasOl
of the presence of population; vaiu
that is created by the community as
" whole and not by individuals, and tina
- to allow it to go into the pockets of in
dividuals is to rob the community
=, - The taking of this value in taxatiO
would encourage industry, first, b
- making it Improbable to hold valuabl
- land idle; and second, by exemptin
. from taxation all improvements in {
on the land.
If a man makes, by labor of hand {
brain, one dollar or a million dollars /
80 has right to spend it where he please
ne and to live where he pleases. The sill
he gle tax is not proposition to infrins
ne upon any mans right to equal freedom
TO on the contrary it is a measure for Il
lld preservation of equal freedom.
Iu- The poor man to-day has no shO
'es for desirable sites; if he possessed d
'hU sirable sites he would not be po
ms man. Single Takers do not want po
lu- men to compete with their hand lab
as against machines. Tax valuable Ian
est so that it will not pay to keep it id
and the capitalists who own machin
ls' will be glad to employ poor men to II
Is them. What the poor man wan
Vns first of all is steady employment
la' decent wages, so that he may. have
or opportunity to save some money a
oor thus become his own capitalist a
ses employer if he so desires.
mai Neither Justice nor Thos. g. She's
ION man hold that speculation and mono
'ne oily in anything is good, but they
10 hold that land monopoly is grea
evil than all other monopolies co
l%osV % bined; that land monopoly is to otl
fbe monopolies what the trunk of the Il
lars is to the branches and as with I
lres death of the trunk comes the death
nor l the branches. So will all other mon,
;rn, olies die with the death of the mon,
are oily of land. LEONARD TUTTLE
ave Smyrna, Aarch 81, 1896.
the