The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-07-14
C M tDalag ailG SalltI)rroosas,
WEDNRsDAY, JULY IA, 1897.
LIVE QUEsIoNs.

LIVE CUES IONS.
IA series OF Articles Contributed by
AdvaGced Thinkers.
s FUNDAMENTAL pRoBIsM.A Sun
MARY AND CONCLUSION.
By Frederick NJ. Crunden, Public libra
rian, St. Louis.
VI.
Let me summarize in tcese 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,
I the state should not deprive the indi-
viiduaI of any part of his earnings.
Second. The economic proposition:
Any impediment to the conjunction Of
; HE two essential factors of all produc-
tion, land and labor, necessarily lessons
production, and if that impediment con-
asts OF the monopoly of natural re-
sources by favored individuals, renders
distribution unequal and inequitable.
Third The sociological considera-
tim: Great inequality in the condition
of It's members is contrary to the inter
ests of society, and any law or custom
5 that tends to promote such inequality is
contra bonum publicum- Private own
B ership of land has such effecs in high
degree; therefore, fer the welfare Of So
ciety present and future, private OWL
ership Of land should be abolished.
Fourt.a. The ethical view: Every IN
diyidual owns himself and may claim
The fullest liberty to exercise his facul-
hes 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.
g The earth is the Lords and the full
ness thereof. y He gave it to all his
children as their common heritage.
Would he have theen God OF justice if
! be had allotted the soil of England to
William the Conqueror and his murder
oas knights, to them and their heirs, to
theexclusion Of all other men?
To the question why sossef evident
proposition embodied in the code of the
greatest '1awgirer in history presented
TO the modern world 100 years ago, ad-
vanced by so distinguished philosopher
as Herbert Spencer and advocated by q
book: that ranks among the FIVE that
have had the widest circulation through
Ont the civilized world-why 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 GaIilei's contention that the sun
was fixed and the earth rotated was
pronounced by the holy Office absurd
IN philosophy and formally heretical. .
For the same reason that Siepherson,s
prophecies regarding his locomotives
were laughed at and the memory of
Copernicus was anathema for three cen
tnries-Yiz, the inability Of people to
escape from the intellectual thraldom
of. their environment and think their
own because, as NJ Tarde
says. What the individual hypnotizer
is to his sleeping and aoncralally plastic
subject, such almost precisely is society
Ito the waking and, normally plastic
@man. .
There is another reason that applies
with special force to this particular
question, which ] give In the words OF
Nifti. t{e Italian economist:
.S 81 Had the propositions of Euclid af-
fected economic interests, they would
still appear a doubtfuls hypothesis Of
arduous solution - Or, as some one else
has expressed it, If the theory Of gray-
itation had conficted With any vested
interest, it would still he subject of
controversy.
There is also this reason for the fail
rre Of the single tax to gain practical
acceptance-i5 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-
siye 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 workingnen, and. you
will find it is known and received with
favor. Glance through English publica-
hons on economics and sociology, and
yea will see that it is no longer ignored
and seldom ridiculed. It has enlisted
the enthusiastic support f Thomas G.
Sherman and 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 CT Massachu-
sets, who see in it continuance Of the
great e,mancination movements that has