The independent., 1903-05-07

some single taxer please enlighten him
on these points
Why, yes, as a single taxer ] shall
be pleased to answer any Mr.. Brown
Smith, Jones or other real person who
lives somewhere and has the courage
to ask his question over his own prop
er signature and locates himself some
where for identification, although tho
pretended dilemma of our Nebraska
Farmer" has been fully explained and
his questions answered by no less a
parsonage than Henry George himself
in Progress and Poverty" that can
be had of any general book store for
Sue in paper cover, or The Director Of
the Independent School of Political
Economy by merely paying subsequent
postage to the next farmer" tha.
is willing to be convinced" In such
case he will get the real thing" j. e.,
the doctrine, logic, argument, or what
else you may term it, but the con
vincing' process, that is different. The
farmer has the knot end of the rope
in his own hands and qualification
over a non de plume or by Mr.. Blank,
who lives nowhere, Is SO easy that.
like the Springfield Republican, whose
ipse dixit, anent the address of Mr..
Fillebrown to the Landlords OF Bos'.
ton," ct al, has not only been an
swered time and time again, ad in
finitum, but fairly annihilated. STILL.
ever and anon he. or 'ft," y" that soul
less thing, the newspaper corpora.
tion," comes back to the reading pub
lict whenever. it sees. the. present vic.
ious, immoral, rotten system OF taxa,
ton get a hard rap such as. men like
Mr.. Fillebrown, ct al, can, give it.
with their doubts about the moral
feasibility" or ..practicability' of the
project unless present holders are full
ly compensated Shades of immoral
inconsistency; qualification stultified
and self-confessed at that. Reading
the farmers dilemma and questions
and the addenda of the article recitlng
the lecture of Fillebrown under cap
ton, Single Tax in Boston," issue of
Independent, April 80, suggests the
propriety of classifying such willing
converts together and killing two
birds with one stone, the only diff
Guilty about it being that neither of
them, after being several times killed,
too dead to si.in good, sneak up ont OF
the grave of qualification without arm
or leg to stand on and swear they
never were hit at all and are more
willing to be convinced than ever.
The editor of the Springfield Repub-
lican remarks with an air of sarcastic
nonchalance, eve are not told that
the landlords present were so far i'm
pressed as to be willing to accede to
this proposal" Oh, we'll, Mr.. Editor,
there are other pebbles on the beach
and if you count noses you will find
that on the United States beach near
ly 70 per cent of the people are not
landlords in any sense and under the
present system of land tenure and tax
alton neither they nor their children
or chiidren's children may hope even
to have a little home they may call
their own and that this class is year
ly on the increase, alarmingly so. II
the truth was known this Is really
the fact that sticks in the incorporated
editors craw. He knows they are
mostly electors" and only need to
fully understand where they are at
and what the single tax will do for
them that they will so vote on this
question when it comes up, nationally,
land come it wilD in the near future
that the consent" of these dogs in
the manger and those yet waiting and
willing to be convinced won't cut
much ice.
Truth is that l feel like ignoring
such Holsters as the Springfield Re-
publican that never get red by being
cooked, while the Nebraska Farmer"
is, perhaps, worth few shot But
there are so many answers to his
dilenmic questions and inferences ly-
ing between the lines of his awful
condition that we hesitate on the mat
ter of The Independents space. First
of all, he should remember that there