St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1908-03-06
An Article on Single Tax.


by opening up land so the people
could employ themselves and there
by relieve the labor market. The
single tax would reduce rent by
bringing more land into use fo
homes, and encourage building o
houses by exemptipg them from
taxation. The single tax woulc
break up land monopoly and Civ
the man who works with his hanc
chance to have home of hi
own.
The single tax would give wealth
to him who works, to him who
makes wealth, instead of the land
lord who takes all the wealth tha
labor makes.
The men who labor with theii
hands have made all the land value.
Of Portland and everything els'
worth having, and what have they
to show for all their laborl
Suppose all the men who own ne
land were to leave Portland, wha
would the land then be worth to
its ownersl Who will get the ben
efits from the building of the grea,
Swift packing plantl Will it moi
be the land owners who have now
advanced the price of lots near the
site 100 percent in expectation that
many men who work with their
hands will need this land to live on,
and raise their children'
The single tax would make this
land cheap to the man who wanted
to make use of it, and the sordid
land speculator could not well at
ford to hold it out Of use as he does
now, and make labor come to his
terms.
New York has had rent strike
in the tenement district, and the
landlord and his court have evicted
the poor workers by tine thousands.
Had the single tax been in vogue
in New York those workers would
own the homes now rented at ex-
orbitant rates.
The single tax would settle the
child labor question. No father or
mother would send their children
TO work in the mills II they could
support them with the wages Of the
father.
The single tax would give the
children OF the laboring man their
playtime, with better schools and
better clothes TO wear to school.
One Portland block, 400 feet
square, bounded by Washington,
Alder, Third and Fourth streets, is
worth So, 400, 600. This would buy
% 900 acres of farm land at $50
per acre. That amount of land
would make a strip one mile wide
and 100 miles long. The owner.
ship OF this city block is the same
as the owning of many shares, as
Il takes an army Of working men
to pay the ground rent,
One prominent class of opponents
to the so-called single tax amend
ment is those who know nothing OF
the single tax philosophy, but think
Il is something bad because they
have heard some one say that il
means to tax land only. That,
they think, would put all the taxes
OH the farmer. when, in fact. the
single tax would benefit the farmer
more than II would any other class.
The farmer has not much land
when you measure IL with the
dollar, and, since the single tax
proposes 10 tax land according TO
is value, the most taxes would be
levied on the land in the cities.
Portland has more dollars worth
Df land than all the rest of the
state, This is abou, the way you
ind land values:
Portland and suburbs 62 per cent
Railr'd land, franchises s per cent
Timber, grazing land q. S per cent
)ther cities, s,,,,,,,,,,,IS per cent
faih lahd ,,,,,,,,r,,io per cent
Under the single tax Portland
md the other cities would pay "
Der cent OF the taxes: railroad aud
imber land IS per cent; farmers,
10 per cent,
When you hear man or a paper
aging the single tax is something
O hurt the farmer, you can put ,
llm down as a man who knows
lothing about the single tax or he
5 knave who is interested in per.
the land monopoly and is |;
rying to fool the poor farmer"
whom the land monopoly has en-
laved through all the ages.
The land monopolist thinks the
irmer can be fooled all the time,
nd is now banking on the ignor-
nee OF the farmer by telling him !
nat the object is to exempt the !,
ch manufactures from taxes. The !.
lets OF the case are that every land y
lonopolist and all who are fighting = =
lis amendment would be whoop-
q II up for eNempting manufac- = =
Irers from taxation il that alone "
ere submitted, because they know
&c growth of manufacturing would