The independent., 1904-11-10
The Philosophy of Freedom
An Open Forum for Single Takers

good
Perhaps the first logical change that
takes place inside the Uranium of en-
bryonic single taxer is the recognition
of the distinction between the things
produced by God or nature, and those
produced by man. Then if he takes
any stock in the idea of the fatherhOO1
of God he realizes that all His chill
dren have equal rights to the things He
produced At the same time he real
ICES that each individual has an abso-
lutte right to the things he, himself,
produces. There is no possibility Of
his getting into the new light SO long
as he does not fully recognize these
two producers-God or nature, and
man-and the rights of individuals in
the products as indicated above.
Next he will probably begin to think
about values, and then he will see that
all values depend upon the demands
Of men for the articles to which value
attaches. At the same time he will
see that value and labor are very
closely associated and that the values
attaching to man-made articles are
due to individual labor exerted in pro-
ducing those articles: this pen with
which 'wr1tg afssl7 this. napeT on which
l write. for example; while he VIII
realize also that the values attaching
to G0d-Or nature-made articles are
due to labor exerted not by any in
dividualS on the articles themselves,
but by the people in general on arti-
cles economically associated with the
articles in question. for example the
vacant lot and the unused coal beds
near which l write He is now pre-
pared to assimilate the fact that the
former class of values, being produced
by individuals as such.- should belong
to the individual producers, while the
latter class being produced by the in
dividuals as members of the commun-
ity should belong to the community.
Casting about for names for the two
classes Of articles our student finds
that though it includes more than he
has been used to including in the term,
land is a very good name for the God
or nature made articles, and wealth.
though it does not include SO much as
he has been accustomed to including.
in the term. is good title for the
man-made articles.
AS he further ruminates he sees that
through our institution of taxation we
commit two grievous sins. In taxing
wealth we rob the individual and give
the proceeds of the robbery, minus the
expense, to the community. BY our
failure to take the whole periodical
value of the land by taxation we rob
the community and give to the indiv-
ii u u. E4esa sees further that the one
robbery does not by any lilssssssssss ffesnts
the other, for on investigation he
learns that financially the relatively
poor lose and the relatively rich gain
while spiritually the rich and poor
both lose much and neither gains any
thing.
Early in the process of his meta
morphosis he recognizes the fact that
land. and land alone. is the passive
factor, and that labor and labor alone,
is the active factor and that all wealth
is their joint production. AS he con-
tinues to exercise his gray matter he
realizes that the fundamental function
of government should be to secure
and maintain mems rights in regard
to these two factors of production
Then he sees if this were done the
rest would be easy He sees further
that so long as this is not done the
rest is impossible. Continuing along
| this line he sees that government has
but one general function-the estab-
| lishment of justice involving the aboli-
ton of special privilege mainte-
nance of liberty, the prevention of
gratis.
The patient usually has to undergo a
long course of eradicative treatment
to get out Of his system the protective
idea in government. Perhaps not one
in million is born entirely free from
all taint of this economic disease. Its
manifestations are numerous. and It
has existed in changing forms from
the beginning of government and will
continue till we reach the stage of
pure democracy. In studying present
conditions he will observe that it's
most glaring manifestations appear in
our own government in the protective
tariff the belief in the necessity of an