The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1896-11-27

men who are really free than it can
oppress the birds of the air. There
is a large class of labor Of the COM
mon, unskilled sort, that would
gravitate to this free land, get a
COW and pig or two, with some
Ichickens, have a garden plot or
small farm-or as large a one as
they could cultivate-and thus
cease to be competitors in the labor
market. The work they have been
doing for fifty cents to a dollar a
day would have 10 be done by some
one, and the $50 man will be
called on to do it. If he thought
he could do better by "squatting"
on free land, he would not do it,
either; and labor Of higher grade
would be called on. Thus the army
of the unemployed, partly employed
and poorly paid, would vanish from
the labor market and 60 to produc-
ing the thousand and one things
that are needed to purchase the
products CT the Others. As de-
mand for commodities is demand
for labor, there would be an in
increasing demand for labor, until
the laborer would receive the full
value of his labor. The capitalist,
no longer controlling the natural re-
sources Of the country, would have to
be satisfied with the mere wages Of
superintendence, which would bring
Just what they are worth and no
more, with whatever a natural de-
mand, freed from monopoly, might
establish as the ruling rate of in
terest for his actual capital.
! Does any reasonable man who
has taken the trouble to study the
single-tax doubt that these results
would follow? Then why do We
continue TO fritter away our energies
on strikes and boycotts? Why do
men commit violence and thus de-
feat the aims which might be peace
ably attained through the single
tax? Why do we fsgitiously vio-
late the law of equal freedom by
compelling men to join us in these
enterprises when far greater results
might be attained by this simple
change in the incidence Of taxation?
( Henry George has told why: ut
; is not kings, nor capitalists, nor
land owners that anywhere really
enslave the people. 1t is their own
Ignorance"
4 / would call the attention of
'lthose interested in moral reforms to
1.-THE ease with which an honest liv-
ling could be made under the con-
ditions l have described, which
could not fail to make more and
more distasteful the less honorable
occupations, beginning with the
lowest.
With the lapse OF time it would
be quite possible for every man to
become his own capitalist, and the
rate of interest decline for want of
demand. Labor would thus tend
to assume the cooperative form, as
great economies are thereby posi-
BILE. Whether or not this would
eventually develop into the dream
of the state socialist l am not pre-
pared to say, but ! am sure it would
contain the soul of socialism with
out infringing individual liberty.
When will men learn that logic
is as truthful as mathematics, and
its conclusions to be as implicitly
trusted! When will they learn
that truth, and only truth, is con-
sistent with the best aspirations Of
humanity?
As l note the apparent inability
Iof large masses Of men to compre-
hend the profound, yet simple,
philosophy Of the single-tax, and
listen to their "unanswerable"
arguments against it, l am filed
with contempt for the astounding
stupidity of the race.
STEPHEN BELL.
New YORK. N. Y.