The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-01

poverty. ffe contended that the only way equal light to the use of land could be secured was to require each to pay for the benefit Of all. the value of such portion of the land as he wished exclusively to hold and that this at the same time affored the natural and just source of revenue.
 1 to the teachings Of Henry George. with other single Taxers he had hoped l tor some way of putting them into practice. It was the theory of Henry George that the whole State the whole country should be governor by the Single Tax theory. that Is that land is the great store house of nature and k that the man who used 1t exclusively should pay an adequate rental and | that rental should so towards the be- | fitting of the whole citizenship. It I involved . government built up on this principle. Any practical applica- tion of the George theories in their entirety seemed dream of the res mote future.
 MT. Gaston conceived the idea of forming a company buying all the land that was needed. holding 1t in com mon, renting 1t out upon the Single Tax principle and devoting the rem tals to the community as outlined by Henry George. Mir. Gaston's tdea was the same as that of George except that the company Instead of the same State should own the land.
 T think this idea which have put into execution" said Mir. Gaston, should have been copyrighted. 1t has been successful. And right here Is the only Single Tax Colony of the world. A company at Philadelphia is at work on some plan to put the teach ings of Henry George into practice but they have not yet succeeded. In Lon- don the Guernsey House Association Is working along some lines, but neither corporation has yet achieved anything practical"
 Mir. Gaston got into communication with the leading Single Taxers of the country. The feasibility of his plan impressed them. In February, 1904, the Fairhope Industrial Association was incorporated at Des Moines, Ia. 1 The membership fees in the associa- tion were placed at S200. They have since been reduced to s100. These fees were first fixed to purchase lands and they continue to be put to that pur- pose as the association continues to
 increase its land holding in Baldwin County. The association having been
 
 ducted through correspondence and
 later by paper called The Liberty Bell, a paper which was later changed to The Fairhope Courier and which is still published.
 How came the Single Tax Colony to be established in Baldwin County9 The association which colloquaiiy called the colony having been formed
 committee was sent out to select a l location for the colony and the town which was to be established.l The Ecommittee travelled for three months and visited nearly a dozen States. A large majority favored point in Bald- win County on the east shore of Mo- bile Bay. It was a fine site for i town. it's advantages having been re- cognized as early as 1S44, when the 1 town of Clifton was founded there, a | town whose name was later changed to Alabama City. The remains of the long wharf that ran out from the town into the bay may still be seen. The move for the colony was made from Des Moines in November 1894, Because of various delays the final until January 1, 1895. At that time the colony bought 14o acres of land for $771, a deal which practically emptied the treasury.
 Fairhope at the close of 1904, has population of 400 persons, The col ony now owns about 1,e00 acres of land and there are about 160 dwellings on colony land. On private land, that Is land adjacent to colony land there are about 100 persons living. A man leases his land from the col ony at price fixed by the executive colony. The rental value of the land is changeabie. 1t is in fact changed in nearly every year. A lot along the bay front rents for $15 a year at the present time. The highest rental charged Is s50.> for the best business lots in the city. In the outskirts of the city good building lots rent for $2.50 annually, and some of the farm ing lands belonging to the colony was rented as low as fifty cents an acre, but the better farm lands brings about S2.50 an acre. The colony last year collected very nearly &3,0O0 from land rentals and from it's wharf. It is in- timated that there will be an increase in the charge for rentals in 1905, and that the colony expects to receive $5,o0O from this source for the com ing year,
 The officers of the association or colony are Frank L. Brown. Chicago, president: Mrs. Carrie B. Sykes. vice. pEeSluenLs phiEuopos ana ID. b. GaStOn, secretary and treasurer, Fairhope.
 The internal affairs of the colony are, however, in charge of an executive committee which is at present com posed of J. Beelange, M. v. Watros, c. w. Wood, John A. Peterson and c M. Bancroft.
 Tn public meetings this committee fixes the land value of every building lot and every acre of land belonging to the colony. The holders of the lease can put any improvement upon the land he may desire.
 Suppose a man should come into the colony and build a house worth say s2,000 on the lot he rents, and suppose that he objected to the rental placed on land by the executive committee after building the house, what re- course would he have?" I asked Mir. Gaston.
 We have the referendum here," re- piled MT. Gaston. "A vote of the peo- pie can be called for on any question from the renting of 8 lot to the re- moval of an officer. upon the presen- tation of a petition signed by per cent of the members of the colony. If the man should think he was not fairly treated and could persuade per cent of the members of the colony that he had been unfairly treated the secre- tary would on receipt of a petition signed by the requisite number of mem bers of the colony order vote to see if the action of the committee should be sustained"
 T suppose that the referendum is frequently resorted to-" I said
 IA