The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-03-23
LABOR STRONGLY. !.
SUPPORTS SINGLE
TAX MOVEMENT
Advocating Land Value Taxation
to Eliminate Unearned
Incomes.

NEW YORK, March Il. - The
growing interest exhibited by organ
lied labor in the taxation Of land
values, otherwise known as the single
tax, is one of the significant develop
ments Of the day.
In California, the State Federation
of Labor is the strongest single in
fluence in favor Of a constitutional
amendment exempting improvements
from, taxation and so throwing the
entire tax burden on land values.
In Missouri, the Homestead Loan
and Land league is urging a similar
amendment for the election Of next
November. And the leagues chief
support comes from organized labor.
Its president Is Frank P. Walsh, chair
man Of the Federal commission on
industrial relations and a member.
of the new Federal board of labor
policy. Its treasurer is Charles A.
Sumner, secretary-treasurer of the
International Union of Sterotypers
and Electrotypers. And r. T.. Wood,
GRAFTON of Labor, is a member of it's
advisory committee.'
Mine Workers Favor Single Tax.
Samuel Gompers recently urged
land value taxation upon congress in
a letter to Congressman Heating, and
delegates representing 100000 men,
bers of the United Mine Workers last
year adopted a resolution urging tax
alton of land values as a. means of
forcing all idle land into use, increas-
ing opportunity and lwering the cost
Of living.
In an open letter, Mr.. Walsh says
Of the Missouri campaign:
Missouri, like other states in the
Union, has a grave problem facing
it. Thousands Of our citizens are
tenant farmers and city renters; mill
lions Of tillablc acres and valuable city
lots are held idle for speculation-and
conditions are getting worse every
year. The Homes for the Homeless
program will put an end: to tenancy
and landlorGism and open the land
of Missouri to : her citizens. It will
solve the problem of food shortage
and high prices. When Missouri makes
this great step, others will fall in line.
It will sweep the nation"
Producers and Consumers Unite.
Equally significant are the alliances
being formed in various parts Of the
country between labor organizations
and farmers in support Of the single
tax and other reform measures. The
Nonpartisan league of North Dakota
carries a modified single tax plank,
ard so does the new Union Of Work.
ers and Producers recently organized
in California. Many officers OF state
oranges and other farm organizations
have become preachers Of the single
tax, asserting that. the average farmer
who actually works his own land. has
everything to gain and nothing to lose
from system that would exempt i'm
provements> from taxation and levy on
Stacker acres at the same rate as acres
that are being intensively cultivated.
In England. the Labor party has
placed a single tax plank in its eco
nomic platform.
Proponents of the single tax among
labor men are: urging that it would
accomplish the same result as Social
ism in doing away with unearned In
comes and giving every worker the
full product of his toll, while avoid
ing the deadly leveling and regiment
/ ing process that repels the individual
istic American when he is asked to
place all ownership and control in
the hands OF the state.
!. It begins to look as though single
tax program might be American Ia
boris contribution to the much dis
cussed Reconstruction after the war"