The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-03-07

|
from two sources only. viz. from
ground rent and from labor. The
economic question which confronts
| the world today they believe to be
this: Shall the revenues of the state
be derived from ground rent or
from the earnings of labor? Shall
the land owner, the privilege-mon-
ger, the monopolist, pay, or shall
| the .laborer continue to bear the
double burden of ground rent to
the landlord and taxes to the tax
gatherer? One or the other will
have to give way.
Single-taxers have for many years
followed the difficult struggle that
has been under way for the self
emancipation of labor from the
chains of landlordism, and have
hailed each successive milestone on
the way to freedom. The early New
Zealand experiments in the taxation
of land values, followed by those of
the various colonies Of Australia;
the advance along the same lines
more recently made in Canada,
South Africa and Natal; the tremen-
dous upheaval in England at the
time of the Lloyd George budget in
1909-followed by the shearing Of
the veto power of the House of
Lords; the little known but import
ant agitation in South America for
the taxation of ground rent, accom-
panied by notable legislative pro
gress in Argentina, Brazil and Uru-
quay; the whole revolution in Mex
leo, based as it was on the emanci-
patton of the peon and the recov-
cry of communal rights in the land ::
| the progressive land legislation
| which marked the life of the colony
of Kiao-Chau; the introduction in
| Germany in 1911 Of the so-called
| Increment tax" which clearly
marked the unearned increment of
land values as a source of national
and municipal revenue; and lastly
the great revolution in Russia I'M
| der the promise of Land and Lib
erty," its aim, let us hope, only
temporarily perverted by the vag-
aries of Bolshevism-al of these
happenings encourage single-taxers
to believe that their vision of The
Land for the People is being realiz-
ed by the event.
SingletaXers maintain that the
land question is the fundamental
question-by which statement they
mean that everyone has a common
right to share in that vast appan-
age and accomplishment of civiliza-
ton known as ground rent, and
that no individual or class has a
rightful claim to any part of this
vast fund as his own property, any
legal title to the contrary notwith-
standing Correlatively, single-tax-
ers say that the best land (meaning
| the best locations and the best ma
tural opportunities of all kinds)
which is found to be free of ground
rent at the margin Of production
may by right be entered upon for
occupation and use, subject to the
payment to the community of
ground rent whenever such ground
rent appears. This is a proposition
known as the single tax. 1t is seen
that it will destroy privilege; for
the tribute now levied by land
owners for the use of their land
will, when ground rent is appro-
priated, cease to enrich them at the
expense OF labor 1t will make la
Dor and industry free; for the taxes
which fall so heavily on consumers
through the exactions now placed
in a dozen, nay a hundred forms,
on production and exchange, will
disappear; and if the producer of
wealth be called on in a crisis to
contribute from the products of his
labor to the national defence it will
not be for the purpose Of relieving
the owners of land of the rent due
from them to the state, nor for the
purpose of establishing privilege
and monopoly to lay heavy bur
dens on the shoulders of the poor.
So that the entire natural earn
ings of labor will belong to and
accrue to the laborer, at the same
time that land monopoly will have
received its death blow. At present
what Is the value to the average
man of the multiplied production
accomplished by the wonders of
science, skill and organization when
after all his exertions he obtains
no more of the fruits of this en-
1irnpiDO civilization than n hare