The morning times., 1896-12-27
FAULTY SOCIAL CONDITIONS.

NJ
legislature elcctedttot enact, alter and re-
peal laws is a standing acknowledgment Of
their present imperfertion. Every ballot
cast for legislators is registered protest
against some legaliZed evils and every
voter living witness that there is much
room for improvement Otherwise our
present laws could be accepted as ideally
perfect.
Every so-called reform movement is an
organized, aggressive protest against ex-
listing social conditions and an earnest
effort to greatly change them.
Rem. dying the imperfections of an in
tricate machine without discovering their
exact location, and rcmedying our social
evils without discovering their fundamental
cause are alike impossible. We must first
know the cause in either case before we
can prescribe the remedy. And, that the
remedy may be perma we must know
the Fundamentals! cause and dprcscribe funda-
mental treatment
Bearing these facts in mind, single takers
have diligently sought beneath the surface
for the fundamental cause of social evils,
and, having discovered it, propose a rad-
cal remedy removing the cause. This can
be SO mildly and gradually applied that 1t
need produce no jarring discord whatever.
By !, 2, 5, 10 or 20 per cent yearly in
crease of land value taxes, in lieu OF
corresponding reduction OF all other taxes,
we caE gradually inaugurate the single lax
at the rate of / 2, 5, 10 or 90 per cent
n year, thus necesSitating 100, so, 20,
10 or years to put it fully in force, and
thus giving all ample time to adjust their
affairs To its coming
OTHE MONEY QUESTION.
Next to knowing the cause of an evil
is knowing what Is not the cause, thus
mario wing the ground of research. Like
wise, knowing that certain proposed RENE
dies are inefficient narrows down the
ground whereon the real remedy lies CON
cealed, and brings us nearer to it. Hence,
single takers endeavor not only to point
out the cause of and remedy for social
evils, but 10 expose the faIacy in other
proposed remedies. They do this not
because OF any antipathy toward other
so-called reforms and reformers, but with
the laudable desire to benefit them by
bringing them nearer to truth.
is the money question, some advocating
gold standard, some a silver standard,
and others a so-called bimetaIiic stand
ard, as the great cure-all for social dis
orders generally. But as money is sim
ply the measure whereby men exchange
services, how can mere change in the
substance of which this measure is made
benefit either party to an exchange with
out equally the other?
Can changing the measure whereby
the exchange OF services is effected in
crease the services you receive in ex-
change for yours, without proportioDately
reducing the services your customer re-
ceives in exchange for his? The con-
verse Of this proposition is equally true.
If he with whom you exchange services
receives more of yours than formerly for
a given amount of his. certainly you must
be the loser to a ike extent. And as
all labor products are simply services
materialized in the form OF goods, no mere
change in our money system can increase
the services some men receive in xchange
for theirs without proportionately de-
creasing the services others must receive
in exchange.
The possible benefit any of these advo-
Gated money systems give to one class
must, therefore. proportionately iniure
another class And, presumng all lines
of business to be equally just and legiti-
mate, any effort to benefit one class at
the expense of another class is unjust.
But, ie any kind of business is unjust or
illegitimate, attacks thereon should he
Open direct and forcible and not ind-
rectly attempted through the monty sys-
TEN.
PAYING INTEREST.
Because money the measure of services.
if locked up in a safe does not increase,
some declare that no interest should be
paid for it, But neither will seed wheat
locked in bin increase Nor will the
most productive machinery or any other
labor product, locked out Of use. facilitate
or increase our productive capacity.
But when properly used all these things
| increase our productive capacity, for which
we are willing to give the lender Il share
| of this increase called interest And so
| long rs the loan of seed, tools, machinery
| and other valuable labor products which
borrowers lack facilitate and increases
| their production, just so long will bor-
| rowers willingly and naturally share that
| terest.
To pay interest is as natural as for two
| equal partners in a business to equally
share the profits of the business. For this
it really is, the lender virtually having
| done his share of the work beforehand
| and produced the tools, machinery, or
stock which his capital purchases for the
| business. Though men nominally borrow
,111 hot
| money buys, as Immediately after get
| ting it they invest it therein, and they
| would as willingly have borrowed the
| things they thus purchase as the money
| if they could have gotten them On the
| same terms. The only difference betwee
this and common partnership is that the
borrower, in lieu of his having sole con
troll of the business guarantees a given
rate of profit, called interest, agreeing to
! make good any deficit, for which he is
also to receive all surplus profits above that
| guaranteed dividend or interest
| Owing to freer accessito land, the reward
| of industry and profits of business gener
ally average greater in new country
than in an old one, hence interest generally
is proportionately higher there. Conse-
| quently interest, the silent partners guar
anteed share of the enterprise, is as natu-
raj as the sharing, bet tween active part
ners. 1t will, therefore, as naturally
rightfully, and persistently exist as COM
mon partnership and it's dividends.
Extremely high rates of interest, termed
usury, generally prevail only in locations
and cases where hfsff prospective profits,
real or imaginary induce the borrower
to virtually guarantee big returns. or where
his probable inability to repay the bor-
rowed capital neuessitates his Offering
| hipt, jntoraSt N ~fnduco rim lander or