The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-08-06

by the farmer himself. He pays it in
lessened price for what he produces
and sells.
The direct tax Is but a mere trifle in
comparison with the terrible weight
of indirect taxation that is now crush
ing the life out of the American farm
er, who, If he could be relieved OF
this burden, could we'll afford to pay
an increased tax on his land. And
this brings us to the second point:
Would the rental value of farming
land under the single tax exceed the
direct tax that the owner of such land
now has to pay? This is of course a
speculative question; but when we re-
feet how scanty is our population in
comparison with our boundless extent
of territory, and how few of us there
are to each square mile; that the ma
jority of us live in towns and cities,
and that we actually use but small
part of the land, it is at once appar-
ent that the present value of farm
ing land is almost entirely speculative
and monOpolistic, and as the single
tax would wipe out all such values, it
is evident that the farmer, except in
populous neighborhoods, would have
little or no tax at all to pay.
Consider it from another standpoint.
There is no question but that the
farmers of this country now pay from
one-third to one-half of all the taxes
collected-many farmers would claim
that they pay more; but how much OF
the land value of the country is owned
by working farmers? Not one TWEEN
tieth part! The value of the site of
the city of New York alone is more
than the entire land value of whole
states. Then to abolish all other
taxes and collect all revenues by a
single tax on land values would great
ly reduce the direct tax that the farm
er now pays, and would relieve him
entirely of the immense burden of in
direct taxes, which cannot be COM
puted in figures, but which he pays,
nevertheless, in a higher price for
everything that he buys and les
sened price for everything that he
sells.
One last objection that may be
urged against the single tax in the
case of farm owner is that it would
destroy the selling value of his farm.
But he cannot now sell his farm and
with the money received for it get off
the earth. So long as he lives, he
must live on the land Land if he sells
the land that he now owns he must at
once buy or rent other land. Nor will
the single tax come into operation
suddenly and at once wipe out all land
values. 1t will be introduced slowly
and by degrees, as one tax after an
other is abolished, and the elimina-
ton Of land values will be a gradual
process extending over a period of
years. And the farmer will not be a
loser even as land owner, for Just
as his absolute individual ownership
in his particular piece of land disap-
pears, his joint or common ownership
IN all the land of the country will take
It's place. So that, unless he now owns
more than his equal share of the en-
tire land value of the country, he
would be the gamer. AS much the
greater portion of this value is in the
gold, silver, copper, iron, coal. and
other mines, in railroad rights of way
INV IL ehC oAtCo VI ClIicS, IOW1S ana
villages, 1t may be safely assumed
that very few working farmers own
their equal share of it.
The truth is that with the exception
OF the underpaid wage-earners, the
industrial Slaves" there is no class
that would benefit more by the adop-
ton OF the single tax than the work
ing farmer, whether he be owner or
renter. Its adoption would leave to
the producer all that his labor pro-
duced. What the farmer paid az rent
would not be deduction from the
full product of his labor, but would
represent the increased productive
ness that the presence of the COM
munity would give to his land. or to
his labor exerted on the land. It is
only when we consider how enorm-
ously the wealth-producing power of
labor has been increased by the vari-
ous improvements in the arts of pro-
duction, SO that one man can now
produce as much wealth as twenty
i've or fifty men could produce hum
dred years ago, that we can realize
the wonderful Improvement in the
condition of the working classes that
would result from the adoption of a