Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1916-08-10
HOW TO BOOST WAGES

| tically all gone. There is no further
outlet for surplus labor. fit were not
for labor unions and other similar in
fluences, wages would soon fall to the
European level They would thus fall
because in this country there are now
more men than jobs.
Very WELL you may say. bot what
are we. going to do about it? can
give you my notion of what we ought
to do. 1 said a moment ago that prae-
tically all of this free land is gone. /
: didn't mean that 1t hasn't gone away.
It is still here. But it isn't free.
The most valuable part of it-that
which lies in the cities-is largely
owned by the Astors, the Mccor-
micks, and others of their Xix. Look
about IN your own town or city. You
will soon discover that relatively
small number own all the land. Then
in country districts there are the
scullys in Illinois and Nebraska that
own vast tracts. There are Miller and
Lux in California who own whole
counties. There are the Farwells In
Texas who received three million
acres for building state capitol.
Now most of this land is held out OF
use for speculative purposes More than
half of the land in every town ana city
is so held. 1t is the same way IN the
country Although the land Is not
used, you can not get it. At least you
can not get it on terms YOU can accept,
The landlords otherwise called groH
hogs. are too wise to permit anything
of the kind.
They want to live without work
They want to get big rentals for the
land they permit to be used, and then.
to live on the income. When they
nave occasion to employ labor theV
want it to be cheap. 1t is beautlrui-
scheme And it works. When you look
at your pay envelope, you know 1t
works ~
Now. let's beat them at their own
game, Let's get busy in politics and
work for reformation in our tax
laws We have a rule by which 10.
proceed. A tax discourages the thing
tayed. Let US then tax everything
we don't want, and untax everything
we do want. That's simple, isn't ltf
Now first of all, we don't want land
held out Of use for speculative pur-
poses. That hurts all of u.s. The
workers have to pay the drones lot
every speculative advance in land val
lues. So let's tax land speculation: But
how? Simply by placing a big tax on
the value of land-not the acreage, but
| the value, mind photographers OF
whether or not the land is used
Then the man who uses his land WIFE
TWYNn
his land out of use, or who only par
TALLY uses it will be soaked. And he's
the man we're after.
The beautiful thing about 1t is that
when land values are taxed the land
lord can not add the tax to his rent
| The law Of competition prevents that
Roughly speaking, the rent Of any STE
is its desirability measured by tn'
competttion of those who want 1t.
Now if by taxation we soaked land
SPECTATORS so hard that they could no
| longer hold their land out Of use, thew
would have to bring it into use or let
some one have it who would. That
would increase the number of available
sites. And any such increase in sites
without a corresponding increase In the
number of people who want them, In
evitably reduces rents. And reduced
rents mean cheaper land.
So. all we have to do Is to make the
tax on land values high enough, and
| all sites would then be available Since
the state of Texas has enough land to
support the present population OF the
world. think what it would mean y
land speculation were abolished In
this way.
Good land would then be almost If
not quite as cheap as Bill Jones or Tom
Smith found 1T just after the war OF the
American Revolution. Anyone who
wanted land for use could get it. prac-
tically without money and without
price. All he would have to pay would
be the taxes.
Now of course all men ARE not farm
ers. All men would not want to go
onto farms. They wouldn't have to do
so to get the benefit of this funda-
mental reform If a very small per-
centage of men did so then by taking
themselves out Of the labor market,
they would so change the ratio b.
tween men and jobs that the wages OF
all men everywhere would be raised
automatically by the competition Of
jobs for men
The man who operates lathe at the
sgear works would benefit no less than
the man who actually left the city and
s went onto farm of his own.
Just as gravity pulls rock down
the mountain side, while at the same
time 1t pushes a balloon into the skies,
so also competition will depress or
elevate wages according to the ratio
between men and jobs. And by a stiff
tax on land values this ratio-9may be
reversed SO as to increase the wages
Of all men everywhere.
q I'm for 1t. Are you? =
(Reprinted from the Indiana Forum,
Indianapolis.)