The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-03-24
1--we QUESTIONS.
A Series of Articles Contributed BY
Advanced Thinkers.
TIE SINGLE TAX.


Key to Free Land AID Free Labor.
The single tax IS proposition to raise
all revenue for national, state and town
purposes by levy upon land values
only. Most men who hear Of it for the
first time think It inapracticable, AID,
in tie second place, think it tax On
land. AS to the first objection, the an
sver is that the single tax is already in
operation as far as its collection goes. 1t
is raised every year and paid ever every
year by land users TO landowners. Be-
ing in practice already, it is not imprac-
ticable, for it is not a tax Oh land, but
on land values.
An acre of land on a city street has a
value of $1,000, 900. All the land Of a
country town. more than 20, 600 acres,
is not worth as much. There is nothing
arbitrary in this. The land on the city
street Will actually yield annually a
greater net return than all the land in
the country town does to all the farm
Iers there. In both cases, however, the
men who use the land pay its annual
value to the men who own it.
The single tax would simply be a
change in practice. Under the single
tax the men who use the land would pay
itsannual value into the public treasury
and pay no other taxes. The men who
own the land would get what they earn
as landowners or landlords That is
Nothing, with big n. Land is one
thing, but lapd value is another thing.
The man who does not understand this
will never make money as landlord.
Being already in practice, the single
tax is not impracticable. And if it is
said that the land values of the country
are not sufficient to provide a revenue
for all expenses Of government the an
swer is that from the best information
attainable this is not so. The land values
of the country are ample for the purpose
But the revenue derived from them
would be distributed differently. Roads,
schools and the care of the poor would
be provided for from the national, state
and county levy, and net from the town
levy. Then we would have the best OF
roads and schools and no paupers.
There is an old book, SO Old that mcst
people have forgotten what it says,
which tells us that where there is no
vision the people perish. The man who
wrote these words was q ruler and corr
mander Of the people, king in "a
oriental monarchy. He did not know or
understand a modern republic. But lie
knew we'll that provision is IS essential
to the good Of men as sight itself 20
therefore did not despise visionary 12e1-
And, then, he thought it worth his
while to understand what the visionaries
saw before he dismissed them.
The vision Of Henry George, then
that poverty might be aEolished-fnds
its response in every human heart, for
10 man desires to be poor. Henry George
went to California when land had TO
value ard 20 one knew Or cared very
much who owned it. ac saw land
where all had ercugh, for the gold dig
girgs were open 30 al, and the least
man could make IL the diggiags fxed
the wages Of labor But he saw these
natural opportunities gradually close
as the Mexican land grants We're deter
mined and settled in American courts
and the digginss gave out, and before
Re left California the man who could
not find vcrkSthere was just as poor and
Just as hopeless as the tramp IS every
where-nct because there was nothing
to be dore -;icre, but land was mcaopc-
liZed and held cut of use. And now, III
this magnificent country, we'll called
Gods country by these who dwell there,
there is a farming community no better
off as general thing than our New
England farmers-no roads to speak ct
and schools 10 better than they should
be. Henry George asked the reason fo1
this, and. being an honest seeker, found
an honest answer, according to the
promise, Seek and ye shall find . He
did not invent the single tax. Buf he
discovered it just as truly as Columbus
discovered America and as Newton dem
onstrated the law of gravitation.
He proposed the single tax as rem
edy for the existence of poverty in the
presence Of the greatest natural abun'
dance, not to concentrate all taxes cn
real estate, for to tax real estate means
to tax improvements, and to tax I'M
provcments, the product of labor, is only
another way to tax labor, to fire men
fer working. A tax on Improvements
will rest upon the user of land, not upon
its owner. Mr.. Georges idea is to tax
land values only, for land values arise
in the natural difference in returns
which one piece of land will yield over
another to the same application Of labor
and capital. Such difference in returns
docs not come out of labcr or capital,
but from the land itself. 1t is site val
no If cxiStS in the nature of things,