The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-08-02
S|NCLETAXERS
WILL ENTER THE
POLITICAL FIELD
Wars. End Opens New Era for
Taxation Reform; First Na-
tiona| Convention Held,

OF thousands of people who have
been accustomed in recent years, to
hear the words -.s1ngle tax" it is
probably safe to say that mere hum
dreds of them have ever taken the
trouble to learn what the words really
stand for. says the Christian Science
Monitor.
The phrase is not exactly of a sort
to allure those of casual mind. 1t
suggests a problem, something which
easy-going humanity dislikes to tackle
something of which a perhaps we'll
merited consideration may he put
over until another day. So it is that
the single tax movement has gathered
momentum only very slowly. There
was at first what Louis F. Post calls
the literary stage, following the ap-
pearance of Henry Georges book
Progress and Poverty" Then, in
1886, when Mr.. George offered him.
self as labor candidate for the New
York mayorality, there was the labor
stage. This, in turn, was followed by
a third stage, marked by the separa
ton of single-taxers and Socialists in
1888, and enduring until the begin
ming of the European war. With tho
end of the war came, for single tax
as we'll as many other things, the
opening of new era.
Enter Politics.
rSingle-taXers are now convinced
that their proposed reform, more OBJ
viously than ever, will solve the &C.
onomic problems facing the country.
They are therefore going into politics
wide effort positive. Already they
have had a convention, they have
mapped out their program, and Or
ganizers are presently at work in
many parts of the country setting
things in motion for a national cam
paign which, they intend, shall result
in the appearance of single-taN
ticket for national and state officers in
1920, and the election of as many as
possible of it's candidates to positions
in the government.
Fifteen states were represented in
the first national convention OF the
Single Tax party, and its is signifi-
cant of the new attitude of the pro-
motors of this reform that they de-
cided to abandon certain> other issues
for which their following has been
concerned in the past, pledging their
whole attention to the main idea.
This idea is that tax upon land
values, or natural resources, will be
sufficient to meet the government
need for revenue and will have the eff
feet of obviating other forms of taxa
ton, of saving for the worker the use
of the products of his work, of remov-
ing the burdens that now weigh down
industry, and of securing private own
tership of land and other property
under conditions that shall be equit-
able for all. The specific pledge
which singletax candidates for po-
litical office will be expected to sub
scribe to will embrace the doctrine
that 100 per cent of the rental value
the people of the nation, and that
there shall be no taxation or other
restrictive regulation on the private
enterprise and industry of the peo-
pie.
OF course, the change here pro-
posed is a radical one. But it appears
conservative when ompared to that
which is openly advocated and fought
for by the Bolshevist and I. w. w.
groups. Intelligent, sober minded,
conscientious elements of the Ameri
can populace have been for years ear
nestly studying and advocating the
adoption of the single tax, and many
who have not advocated its adoption
have admitted its essential Justice and
beneficent potentialities.
That the proposed reform is now
to be put forward politically, there
fore, is, on the whole, a welcome
development. If the plan will do
what its advocates insist that it will
do, the nation can hardly refuse to
accept it. And one need only point
to the prohibition party for evidence
to show that advocacy through polit
ical action. if persisted in, will be one
of the surest methods of bringing
the question, in time, to the point Of
= fomnrehensive national decision.