New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-06-02
SINGLE TAX AND PROGRESS.

rent would rightfully be taken t,
pay the expenses of government
The confiscation Of individual earn
ings by taxation would also cease
Property rights would for the frs
time be respected. Land. whicl
ethically is not property, but the
source of property, would be freeC
from monopoly and opened to al
on equitable terms. Property, the
product of labor, would belong
entirely to the laborer who pro.
duced it. Justice would be estab-
lished instead of the present in
equality.
From this changed condition
would result:
To the owner of unused land, a
loss of the amount invested in it.
For its only value is the privilege,
secured by law, of complete control,
the power to prevent its use except
on the owners terms and to appro-
pirate the unearned increment.
To the owner of land partially
improved (the improvements not
corresponding with the value of the
site), a burden which would compel
him to use the land worthily, or
part with it by sale to some one
desiring to use it. City lots Of high
value with miserable buildings, and
farms badly cultivated belonging
in this category.
To the owner Of land properly
used, whether in town or country,
the single tax would be a benefit,
all improvements being free from
taxation.
To the State the blessing would
be incalculable. The never ending
conflict over taxes, the chronic COM
plants of wrong valuations and
double taxation, the efforts of adroit
and wealthy individuals and cor
porations to use the tax laws for
private gain would be ended.
Wealth now driven out would stay
in the commonwealth, and that
now kept out by stupid taxes would
flow in the natural law. Eminent
citizens would not flee from city
homes before May first and cover
their plate glass windows with
shutters. At the State House the
members of tho great and general
court would lose their business of
legislating for private interests.
These are all bottomed on land
privileges and the single tax would
knock the bottom out. The lobby
would have an indefinite vacation.
In the cities, municipal govern
ment would be forced to confine
itself to housekeeping expenditures
and the prime sources Of corruption
would vanish. Bosses would lose
the power to boss and spoils would
be scarce with that abolition of
special privilege which the single
tax would effect. Honor and not
plunder would be the incentive for
Office holding.
For the capitalist, the single tax
would mean security. Instead of
laws to discourage accumulation,
every just incentive to accumulate
would be offered. Legitimate meth
DDS would find true protection.
Now, capital is the prey of rogues
and the target for political demago-
CUES. 1t would lose in a twinkling
its reputed enmity to labor, now
unjustly attributed to it because
land monopoly and laws of privilege
have been the prolific parents Of ILL
gotten fortunes. Henceforth capital
would be earned, not stolen, as
much as it is and command a respect
now denied.
For the laborer, a new life would
dawn. He would discern that capital
is his mate, not his oppressor.
Trades unions would, except for
benevolent purposes, be as useless
as last years birds nests. Strikes
would exist only in annals written
in the days Of land monopoly. Jobs
would hunt for the workers trade
being free, the benefcent law Of
buying in the cheapest market and
and selling in the dearest would be
illustrated in all exchanges. The
rate of wages would be determined
by the earnings of the free men on
free land, with no tax gatherer to
subtract from the result, and would
rise to its natural leve. Capitalists
would be steadily recurited from
the laborers, and wealth need no
partial legislation.
For the community, good morals
would accrue. The gulf between
the classes would narrow. There
would be fewer millionaires, while |
paupers and tramps and associated
charities and almshouses and other
evidences of uncivilization would
decrease. In brief, l believe that the
single tax would realize Tenny-