The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1909-12-11
Continued from hrst page.)

since TO advocate the single tar was
to be considered q deep-dyed anarchist,
and a foe to progress, TO poverty and
everything else. Now II IL recognized
as q matter Of governmental policy
rather than n political issue, and men
Of all parties advocate Il, not enough
yet to make II applicable, but plenty
to prove that the spread Of the idea
IL steady aud that II IL growing Ia
weight with thinkers. II In a simple
proposition. A single tar IL n tax
levied upon the value Of land, irrespec.
table Of the value Of improvements, and
NO regulated M to equal the economic
rent, or "unearned increment" ~
land. By taking the full rent 81 tho
land. the government would in effect
assume the ownership and become sole
landlord. The primary principles Of
the single tar were enuncisted by the
p~hysiocrats, French political econo.
mists Of the 18th century, but Henry
George was the first TO fully develop the
/ ANf'NN w VIZ NbHNfNH hUu fONtTNNs
published in 1879, which made the ques.
ton of the single tar an issu. In mod
ern politics aud political economy. Ac
cepting the classic law % rent that
1.-the rent If the land Ii determined
| by tn. excess ~ its produce over that
which the same application can secure
from the least productive land in use"
he derives his law from the wages that
: wages depend upon the margin Of
%production or upon the produce which
labor can obtain at Jhe highest point
Of natural p~roductiveness open TO II
without payment Of rent and M TIE
law Of interest that "ths relation he
tween wages and interest IN determined
ply the average power Of incroasc which
attaches TO capital; as rent rises, In.
terest will fall M wages fall, that In,
will be determined by the margin Of
cultivation. Thus the economic basis
of the single tax theory is that wages
and interest in the last analysis are
determined not by the productiveness
Of labor and capital, hut by the value
~ the land. and that M land becomes
more valuable (that IN, the economic
rate greater), wages and interest will
become relatively less, therefore the
only way to prevent the land owners
alone from reapinR the benefit OF in.
crease In the value Of hand to the de.
triment of labor and capital. IL to make
land common property; and this IN best
accomplished by society appropr,ating
all ron In the form Of taxation. and
thus obtnining for society the full bcne.
ft VI increase in land values. The
single tax IL also defended on the
grounds OF justice, the expendieney, as
"a method of taxation. From the point
Of view Of Justice, the right Of private
ownership is given by labor only. and
rs land Ii In no way = product OF man Is
labor, IL should not properly be owned
by individuals, but equally shared by
ali, and M the value Of land, accord.
ing 10 the law of rent, is not absolute.
but relative to the best land which may
be had for the using; an increase in
value depends upon the increase in
population and general improvement in
the arts aud sciences, this increase ON
value should properly belong to society,
as not the result as any individual
labor. As q method Of taxation the
single tax has the advantage Of not
bearing upon production, because the
value Of land Is not n product of man y
labor, but rather makes speculative rent
impossible, and the holding Of land
not in use unproftsble, No more land
producers; another advantage is that
such tax can be easily collected, for
land can no, he concealed, but the val.
ne can be easily asccrtained, and with
assessment once made comparatively
few officials would be necessary to col.
lect this one tax; and also II bears
equally upon all for IL takes for the
community what is the creation Of the
community. The benefits to society
claimed for the single tar are rs fol.
lows;
Ii would stimulate production by
removing all hampering X from
productive industries, and, as has been
said, by preventing tho holding Of land
for speculation, not for use; that the
distribution of wealth be more equal.
because the natural increase in the
value VI land resulting from natural
laws would be taken by the community
aud would be shared in by all, and
the unnatural increase in values caused
by private monopoly and speculation,
would he preventedj il would finally
result in the increase Of social wealth,
so that want would be abolished, and
an advance In civilization made possible
which Is impossible under the present
conditions.
These are academic phrases, and while
possible Of correct analysis may be bet.
tor understood by saying that the sin
sle tau simply means that a tax on
land shall take place and Of all other
taxes, that all land shall pay its pro-
portion, that without regard to the i'm.
nfovamanta m II Tha nfonaaifian In i