Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-05-01
The Marietta Daily Leader.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 1901.
The Single Tax,

Inc IOllOWlHS communication 10 pun
lished by request of the Marietta Sin
gle Tax Club:
The doctrine of Mr.. Henry George
set forth in his famous book, Progress
and Poverty" published in 1880, is
stated in his own language as follows:
1--WE have traced the want and suffer
ing that everywhere prevail among
the working classes, the recurring par
oxysms of industrial depression, the
scarcity of employment, the stagnation
of capital, the tendency of wages to the
starvation point that exhibit them
selves more and more strongly mater
ial progress goes on, to the fact that
the land on which and from which all
must live is made the exclusive proper
ty of some. We have seen that there
is no possible remedy for these evils
but the abolition of their cause; we
have seen that private property in land
has no warrant in justice, but stands
condemned as the denial of natural
right-a subversion of the law of ma
ture that as social development goes on
must condemn the masses of men to a
slavery the hardest and most degrad-
ing. Il do not propose either to pur-
chase or confiscate private property in
land. The first would be unjust, the
second needless.
Let the individuals who now hold it
still retain, if they want to, possession
of what they are pleased to call their
land. Let them continue to call it
their land. Let them buy and sell and
beuueth and devise it. We may safely
leave them the shell, if we take the
kernel. 1t is not necessary to confis'
cate land; it is only necessary to con
fiscate rent Nor to take rent for pub
lie uses is it necessary that the State
should bother with the letting of lands
and assume the chances of favoritism
collusion, and corruption that might
involve. 1t is not necessary that any
new machinery should be created. The
machinery already exists. Instead oi
extending it, all we have to do is to
simplify and reduce it. BY leaving to
land owners a percentage of rent
which would probably be much less
than the cost and loss involved in at
tempting to rent lands through State
agency, and by making use of the ex'
listing machinery, we may, without Jar
or shock, assert the common right tc
land by taking rent for public uses
We already take some rent in taxation
We have only to make some changes IT
our mode of taxation to take 1T all
What I, therefore, propose, as the sim
pie. yet sovereign remedy, which VIII
raise wages, increase the earnings ol
capital, extirpate pauperism, abolish
poverty, give remunerative employ
ment to whoever wishes it. afford free
scope to human powers, lessen crime
elevate morals, and taste, and intelli-
gence, purify government and carry
civilization to yet nobler heights, is-to
appropriate rent by taxation. In this
way, the State may become the uniVer-
sal landlord without calling herself so
and without assuming a single new
function. In form, the ownership OF
land would remain just as now. Nc
owner of land need be dispossessed, and
no restriction need be placed upon the
amount of land anyone could hold
For. rent being taken by the State in
taxes land no matter IN whose name
it stood. or in what parcels it was held
would be really common property, and
every member of the community woulc
participate in the advantages OF It's
ownership. Now, insomuch as the tax
alton of rent, or land values, must nee
essarily be increased just as we abolish
other taxes, we may put the proposition
into practical form by proposing
To abolish all taxation save that up
on land values. H. George, Progress
and Poverty, bk. ch. 2.