The Jamesburg record., 1897-10-16
LIVE QUESTIONS.
A Series of Articles Contributed by
Advanced Thinkers.
A FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM-A SUM-
MARY AND CONCLUSION.
BY Frederick NJ. Crunden, Public Libra
rian, ST. Louis.

L.
Let me summarize in these sentences:
First-The fiscal statement: Land
values are created by the community
and therefore belong to the community.
Hence, until all this fund is exhausted,
the state should not deprive the indi-
vidual of any part of his earnings.
Second. The economic propositions:
Any impediment to the conjunction of
the two essential factors of all produc-
tion, land and labor, necessarily lessons
production, and if that impediment con-
sists of the monopoly of natural re-
sources by favored individuals, renders
distribution unequal and inequitable.
Third The sociological eonsidera-
ton: Great inequality i'll the condition
of its members is contrary to the inter
ests of society, and any law or custom
that tends to promote such inequality is
contra bonum publicum. Private own
ership of land has such effect i'll a high
degree; therefore, for the welfare Of So
ciety present and future, private own
ership of land should be abolished.
Fourth. The ethical view: Every in
dividuaI OWNS himself and may claim
the fullest liberty to exercise his facul-
ties compatible with the possession Of
like liberty by every other man. Pri-
vate ownership of land denies this funda-
mental right; therefore it is wrong.
"The earth is the Lords and the full
ness thereof. He gave it to all his
children as their common heritage.
Would he have been a God of justice if
he had allotted the soil of England to
William the Conqueror and his murder
Gus knights, to them and their heirs, to
the exclusion of all other men?
To the question why SO self evident a
proposition embodied i'll the code of the
greatest lawgiver in history presented
to the modern world 100 years ago, ad-
vanced by so distinguished philosopher
as Herbert Spencer and advocated by
book that ranks among the five that
have had the widest circulation through
out the civilized world-wby such an
idea has not met with general accept
ance--tO this question several answers
may be given.
Here is one:
For the same reason that the project
of Columbus was declared ridiculous
and Galilei,s contention that the sun
was fixed and the earth rotated was
pronounced by the holy Office absurd
in philosophy and formally heretical. y
For the same reason that Stephenson s
prophecies regarding his locomotives
were laughed at and the memory of
Copernicus was anathema for three cen
INV tho h11i Cf
escape from the intellectual thraldom
Of their environment and think their
own oughts-because, as NJ. Tarde
saysI I"What the individual hypnotizer
is to his sleeping and abnormally plastic
subject, such almost precisely is society
to the waking and normally plastic
man.
There is another reason that applies
with special force to this particular
question, which 1 give in the words Of
Nitti, the Italian economist:
Had the propositions of Euclid af-
fected economic interests, they would
still appear a doubtful hypothesis of
arduous solution. " Or, as some one else
has expressed it, eff the theory of gray
itation had conficted with any vested
interest, it would still be a subject of
controversy"
There is also this reason for the fail
ure Of the single tax to gain practical
acceptance-it is not yet understood.
There are so many things claiming our
attention, including numerous schemes
for political reform and social ameliora-
tion, that this simple and comprehen-
sive truth, this philosophers stone of
economics has not yet won general
recognition; but it is gaining ground
more rapidly than you of the prosperous
class imagine. Go among the more in
telligent of the workingmen, and you
will find it is known and received with
favor. Glance through English publica-
tiOns on economics and sociology, and
you will see that it is no longer ignored
and seldom ridiculed. 1t has enlisted
the enthusiastic support of Thomas c.
Shearman a2d Father McGlynn of New
York, Father Malone of Denver, Judge
Mcclure of San Francisco, Tom l..
johnson, the Cleveland millionaire;
Edward Everett Hale Of the world at
large and of Eliza Stowe Twitchell and
William Lloyd Garrison of Massachu-
setts, who see i'll it continuance of the
great emancipation movement that has
made the names they bear famous
throughout the world.
The most significant incident, per
haps, that has yet occurred is the recent
acceptance of the fundamental principle
of the single tax by the British house of
commons.
On March 8 Andrew D. Provand, Lib
eral, representing a division of Glas-
cow intrndnced the following, rncn111-