The independent., 1903-05-14
Single Tax and Socialism

OF those who look upon socialism as
merely one of the vagaries of human
aspiration-an utopian scheme framed
In Imagination and finding shelter in
the minds OF well meaning, but IL
logical people, whose exalted SYM
pathies carry them beyond the die
tates of reason, and lead them to in
dulge fanciful ideas Of social state
In which the poverty, wretchedness
and social injustice of existing society
shall have an end.
There was a time when socialism
was mere nebulous notion, when
in its aspiring weakness it pictured
to itself lofty ideals, and followed
fancies born within the enchanted
castles of the brain. But that day Is
past. The socialism of today, as for
mulated by Marx and Lassalle, and
advocated by the German school, is
possessed Of scientific character, is
based upon generally accepted doc
trines of orthodox political economy
and boldly challenges its opponents
to open encounter in the arena OF
scientific discussion.
From a vague ideal that for CEN
turies fitted through the minds OF
men, tincturing the teachings of the
fathers of the church and the sages
of philosophy, 1t has developed into a
theory armed with all the logic OF the
schools.
1t has been asserted that the single
tax Is but stepping stone to social
ism, that to continue logically in the
path of it's principles is to emerge
upon socialistic ground. No doubt to
many persons having but superficial
knowledge of the scope and character
of it's aims and principles the single
tax may appear to lead in such di-
rection, but in reality there is all the
difference between them that there is
between freedom and restrictiOn-all
the antagonism that there is be-
tween opposing forces in nature.
This may be made clear by briefly
contrasting the principles of the two
doctrines.
The theory which the great Ger
man socialist, LassaIle, borrowed from
the English economists, and from
which he drew all his deductions, Is
that theory which has been termed
the iron law" of wages, and which
is briefly this: That the tendency of
wages is the minimum necessary to
existence and reproduction; that how
ever wages may fuctuate, this Is the
point to which they inevitably tend.
This has been the accepted theOry
Of political economists from Turgot
to John Stuart Mill. That such is
true under existing adjustments cam
not be successfully denied, for how
ever much wages may rise during an
era Of great invention and while we
are wooing the virgin soil of new
continent, the ultimate and inevitable
tendency is downward. 1t is this ac-
ceptance of doctrines of orthodox po-
litical economy as taught in the
schools that gives to socialism its
formidable character. 1t is the re-
lentless logic which they apply to
these tenetS that wins for the social
istic theory such favor in cultivated
minds. With faultless reasoning they
show how the wage-earners pitted
against each ether in fierce competi-
tion, bid away greater and greater
share of what they produce, in ex-
change for tho mere privilege of pro-
ducing; resulting ultimately in the
acceptance of a wage barely suffic-
lent for their subsistence.
Regarding this law of wages to be
as immutable as the laws which gov
ern the physical universe, the social
lists declare that in order to rescue
the wage-earning class from its re-
lentless force, all the means and in
struments of production should be
owned collectively, as being the only
possible way in which labor can Sc
cure It's full earnings, unimpaired by
the profits Of the capitalist or the ex-
actions of the landlord. There are
other arguments which the socialists
advance in support of their program,
but they are merely incidental to the
theory and in no wise form any es-
sential part CT the basis upon which
their scheme rests.
That socialism finds it's great
strength in current economic doctrines
is evidenced by the fact that Leib-
KNIGHT, a socialist leader of great in
tellectual ability, in addressing the So
cialist congress at Halle, took occa-
sion to warn that body against ooun-
tenancing measures that would tend
to divert the movement from its econ
omic basis. So long, he declared as