The Penn's Grove record., 1911-02-24
LAND AND IRIS INCREMENT.
Statesmanship of a High Order Need
ed to Stop disruption of Power.

EDITOR PENIS GROVE RECORD:
Much OF the agitation on economic
problems governing society and the
labor world could be eliminated if the
moral law and not sordidness prevailed.
So long as there is no equality before
the law, as too commonly adjudicated by
a corrupt judiciary; so long as there are
laws enacted by too plant tools of the
political machine, we need not expect any
reform. The case is not helpless, how
ever. The people have the power through
the ballot that silent messenger OF
strengthened in some communities civic
purity is an accomplished fact and the
CRATER has been disenthroned and his
efforts throttled by the election of a bet
ter and more intelligent class of represen-
t~atives.
There are monoplies of various kinds, |
and, in many respects, there are none
worse han land monopoly, which had its
beginning during medieval days, and
has been developing ever since. This
condition is the cause of much of the ills
that handicap labor and smother indus
trial progress. When this land is held
for speculative purposes it should be
taxed according to its full value in the
market. This is Henry Georges ''pet
theory" and he has a wide c%lientel, who
firmly believe that. land SO taxed. by a
rigid enforcement of the law, would be
| untailing panacea for much of the unrest
in the industrial and labor world.
AS Frank Stephens in an able and
lucidly written article in the PhiIadel-
phia RECORD, says; "Tbere are laws
enough to meet the question of land
monopoly. Let the land be assessed at its
full value, and let those laws be repealed
which, by taxing Improvements, business
and labor, act as a fine upon industry
and a check to business enterprise"
This is the cardinal principle in the
platform of the Single Tax advocates
and it is single tax in truth. 1t would
remove the barriers to progress where by
nine-tenths of the coal lands in Penn
sylyania are owned and controlled by
railroad companies, much of it being idle
most of the'time. They have a monopoly
in the mineral products of the earth and
adjust rates to suit their town sweet
Wills" the consumer being, az is always
the case, the chief victim to this vicious
system or sordid greed.
ssIt is a condition and not a theory that
confronts us''-as ex-President Cleveland
would say-and the condition needs be
removed. 1t is claimed by economists
that if land values were ~equitably assess.
ed, private as well as corporate interests
would be affected, because no land owner
monoplist, especially, would hold land
out of use while paying the whole value
of that use in taxes; for as the land value
increased the assessments would increase,
which makes. profitable speculation i'm
possible.
There are thousands OF acres Of land in
our states owned by a few, many of the
owners being aliens. Much of it is idle,
and held for speculative purposes. Under
the single tax scheme they would either
utilize the land themselves, thus giving
work to labor or else sell it to some one
who need braun and muscle to develop
idle capital. As the price of labor is reg
uIated by supply and demand, there
would be a better chance for the man
who supplies the brains and the man who
supplies the muscle. l opine that the
day is not far distant when the results
will be achieved.
l am not cynical or envious because of
my neighbours prosperity or wealth.
Wealth obtained by dishonorable methods
and not through legitimate channels is
what / take umbrage at and refer to in
my criticisms. There will always be
giants and weaklings, and the latter must
necessarily give way to the former in the
race for intellectual as we'll as physical
progress.
Health is wealth because it brings a
contented, cheerful mind, and allows
ambition full swing. That man is wealthy
financially, who derives the same pro-
portion of contentment from his wealth.
Not otherwise. Mere money, or what it
may represent is wealth in theory, but in
practice it is no more thar poverty, I'M
less it brings more. The miser is the
poorest of Gods creatures-poor in his
wealth. He is most miserable who de-
rives no satisfaction from wealth; but in
the accumulation of wealth care should
be exercised that others interests are not
destroyed through ''creed' for gain, by
working on the principle of "doing evil'
(or doing othefs), instead of ''doing
good"to others. The people who depend
upon questionable methods to stifle all
honest opposition or competition.
This country is frequently referred to
as the "asylum for the oppressed, where
religious and civic liberty doth abound"
in the light of modern business methods,
under the lime-light of certain disclosures
under the pseudonym of graft, and poem
age as practised in the South-with all
these to it's discredit-it would seem a
misnomer-a very ''travesty on Justice"
1t would do us all good, whether "fat" or
slean" in purse, to remember what the
| Talmud teaches us. $40 befriend the
poor and unfortunate, and to deal justly
| by those who observe and obey the law.
VIM. B. BRAKER
| At the "Coye."