The herald., 1897-07-08
SINGLE TAX LECTURE
NATURAL LAW IN THE SOCIAL
WORLD
3. F. Longstreet, A. M, Tells of
Factors Which Produce
Wealth

B. F. Longstreet. A M, of Chicago
gave free lecture last evening in the
Southern California Music hall before
an interested audience on the subject of
Single Tax" Dr. Longstreet said. in
part
1t is natures first mandate that law
shall pervade her vast domains. This
fact affords us the strongest evidence of
the existence of a Supreme Intelligence
and Power. Law governs everything;
hence order prevails throughout the uni
verse. In ancient times the belief was
general that unseen intelligence con-
trolled the forces of the physical world.
About the close of the middle ages the
spirit of skepticism arose-the spirit of
inquiry-when men began to take au-
thority from truth instead of truth from
authority, and science was born to estab-
lish the belief that every atom of mat
ter is subject to unvarying natural laws
Science. revealing the secrets and laws
of nature, has harm essed it to his SER
vice
Just as in the physical world, so in
human society, events must proceed ac-
cording to unvarying laws. Disease,
misery and poverty are indications OF
violated natural laws. That nature has
made ample provision fer all her chill
dren is evident. This is easily proved
by the fact that wealth increases faster
than population. In 1880 the population
IN the United States had increased to
fifty millions while the wealth increased
to fortylfour billions. 1t is clear, there
fore, that there is nothing in nature or
natural laws to produce poverty or ne
cessitate hard times
The trouble must be looked for not in
production, but in distribution. We
should accordingly inquire after the nat
ural law of the distribution of wealth
if we would find the remedy for our
present social ills of misery and poverty
We have already learned that wealth
is a term used in the science of political
economy to express all artificial things
There are two primary factors in the
production of wealth.. e., land and la
bor The term labor is used to express
all effort of brain or muscle in the pro-
duction of wealth The secondary fac
tor in production, capital, which is wealth
used in the production of other wealth,
ldDOI sdNeQ up, lS SHtlllcu " WdSeo
(called interest) just as direct labor is
entitled to wages (cailed interesD just
as direct labor is.
I'VE may say now in reply to the
question. BY whom is wealth producedT 2
that all wealth is produced by land and
labor We will give portion of it to
land. the first factor and the remainder
to labor, the other factor in its produc-
ton. That part which justly belongs
to labor we will call wages and that
part which justly belongs to land We
call rent The entire wealth of the
nation, then. consists of wages and
rent
"WTho produces wages? Laborers. Men
and women who are employed mentally
or physically in productive efforts.
"Who produces rent? No individual
ever did. ever could, produce the smallest
possible amount of rent. Ground rents
are produced alone by society as whole.
Then justice. which demands that
wealth should be his who produces it,
would give rents to the community
This social law of nature is as unal-
terable and as inexorable as that of
gravitation. Its violation is RESPONSE
BILE for all our social distress This nat
ural law of the distribution of wealth is,
the only solution of our veXing social
problem. 1t must be recognized and
obeyed, or civilization will be destroyed
the world is in effect an island from
which men cannot escape while they live.
It's surface, the land, is one factor in the
production OF the things by means of
which they must live, labor the
other factor. Equal freedom means
equality of access to the natural
opportunity, land, nothing less, for the
man who owns the land owns essentially
the people on the land"