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THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
MAT 14, 1903.
Ethics cf the Single Tax
(Written for Henry George Edition
of The Independent)
By "ethics"' we mean that which is
universally right between all classes
and conditions of men.
This has a divine insistence in that
basic principle, "What ye would that
others should do unto you, do ye also
unto them," and with this our dis
senters must have their disputation
with God.
Long before Henry George gave to
the world his perfected philosophy of
the single tax, many other social in
vestigators had recognized that In
time the "joining of acre unto acre"
would bear fruitage in the most seri
ous consequsrces. lhai their suspic
ions were well-founded is evidenced
in the fact that when Henry George
came to review this premise, he was,
with all his well-known modesty of
speech and carefulness in conclusions
constrained to characterize it as a
"most henious crime." "Neither shall
ye sell the land any more, for behold
I have given it unto my people for an
everlasting Inheritance," is as old as
Leviticus, where we read it. The
physiocrats of France more than a
hundred years ago saw what Mr.
Herbert Spencer so logically declared
upon in the 9th chapter of his "So
cial Statics," the truth of whiclj (i.
e., that all men born upon the earth
were, by the law of nature, endowed
with an equal right to the .free use of
the earth in such measure as was
necessary for the "supply of all human
needs) has never been gainsaid by
any one whoso self-respect encouraged
its negation over their own proper
name, for the public print
Man came and lives upon the earth
under the same natural law as do the i
beasts in the field, the fowl of the air
or, the fishes in the sea and it is mis
nomer to say that, under any circum
stances, can he be in possession of
land for he is so corporally possessed
by the land that he cannot get off it
if he would nor can he live without
it To fully comprehend this it
should be observed that "land," in the
broad sense of. which all economists
of any note use the term, Includes the
air, water, heat of the sun and all
those fructifying influences that are
necessary to the maintenance of ani
mal and vegetable life. Title, as we
call it, by deed, is no more necessary
to the full enjoyment of the blessings
of mother earth than in case of beast,
fowl or fish, it adds nothing to" its
productiveness nor does it afford as
secure occupancy of any particular
site or location as would obtain under
the single tax system of tenure. In
stance the thousands of foreclosures
and evictions of homesteaders, not
only in this state, but wherever land
deeds are known.
The ethical side of the single tax
Is its strong side, its benefits are
multiple; it forces the settlement of
other vexing social questions without
purpose precedent while most im
portant of all it equalizes the distri
bution of wealth by freeing natural
opportunity to produce without stint
and while increasing all wages, will
give equitable return for the use of
capital which now, like wages, is ab
sorbed by rent, while unearned tri
bute will be shorn of its power to ex
act from the brow of toil. It will
furnish a natural mode of revenue for
all purposes that will automatically
increase as the growth of society
makes increased revenues necessary
while this burden of taxation, as we
now have it, borne as it now is chiefly
by industry, the working people, will
take upon itself a new name, become
the handmaid of government in so
cial progress, leaving the few who
are "getting something for nothing"
to congratulate themselves, perhaps,
that so vicious a system of land ten
ure and taxation had served their
greed so long.
The expressions, "unearned incre
'ment," "economic rent," "speculation
value," as used by Henry George in
bis philosophy, mean the value of
, land in its natural state, caused by
the presence or prospective presence
of the people upon or who may come
upon it Fifty years ago the present
population of Nebraska was only pros
pective, the actual presence of people
was but a mere handful, land values
were from $2 to $5 per acre. The
then presence of the people caused
this value. - The presence of one man,
without prospect of others coming,
could create no land value whatever;
so also, if all the present population
should , emigrate and an embargo be
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At U drug tores.
25 Dates 25c
placed upon other occupants , taking
their places, land values would as
surely go back to zero, i. e., become
nil. Hence, we single taxers assert
that land, in itself, has no value, in
which all economists concur. If, with
the presence of ten thousand people,
ten thousand dollars in land values
were -'created, the proportionate con
tribution of each to that value would
be $1, yet no one individual would be
entitled rightfully to appropriate to
his own use this $1 of land value be
cause he alone could not have caused
it There must be a competitor for
the use of land before value can arise.
Therefore each dollar of such land
value is rightfully a communal fund
and all such values, to whatever
point ihey may arise by increase of
population, must of right belong to
the community as a whole, while with
much greater force can it be said that
one living in a foreign state or coun
try, who never was upon Nebraska
land, cannot be entitled to take it,
and if statute law enables him so to
do, it is by force of legalized error
which has always put a knot in the
end of Its own lash.
With the coming of the people to
Nebraska as elsewhere and always,
there came also the need of govern
ment for the protection of society and
the establishment of civic institutions
and for all of the various internal im
provements in which all of the people
had, or should have a communal inter
est, such as schools, courts, highways,
both of iron, dirt, macadam, asphalt
or mud. Vast sums of money must
be continually expended in the main
tenance of government for there are
no interregnums In its need nor has
a hiatus been known in its increase,
which, with all honesty in executive
detail, the increase f such cost is
naturally,, with automatic precision,
in keeping with the ratio of increase
of population and with this same au
tomatic precision do land values arise
because of increased competition for
the use of land. Hence we assert the
single tax upon land values to be a
"natural revenue."
Since it is the presence of the. peo
ple, as a whole, that gives rise to land
values and in fullness of all govern
ment needs, equity demands that gov
ernment, I. e., the state, take over
to its use and exhaust this fund in
the maintenance of all public institu
tions from the executive chamber
down to dog pounds, pay also out of
it its due proportion to the general
government, maintain its schools,
courts, hospitals (there would soon be
no need for poor houses or prisons),
highways, both of iron and dirt, etc.,
and all municipal easements, water
service, lights, parks, baths, tram
ways, etc., before drawing, under the
name of taxation, upon the wages of
the workman, clerk or teacher; nor
from the interest upon capital, nor
yet from the proceeds of all those
hydra-headed scorpions with which
our present vicious, discriminating
system of taxation and of land tenure
has so infested the cosmic lair of
crime.
To any careful thinker, this fund
is all sufficient for both present needs
and those to accrue, with a standing
reserve for internal improvement
without first voting bonds with which
to burden coming generations as well
being a source of vexation and re
proach upon ourselves.
Witness the profligacy of the recent
congress and our retiring legislature
that there is no danger of such fund
becoming too large.
Under our present system, millions
upon millions of this fund which, un
der the most liberal interpretation of
ethics, can only belong to the com
munity in which such value arose,
go abroad, to alien land holders in the
form of rent anu interest upon money
capitalized in land, while there are
those among us who, claiming super
ior intelligence to those of other na
tions, boast that our exports exceed
our imports by from three to five
hundred million per year, and it is
cniefly from this source that the le
galized robbery is continued, though
the sum total of which the home peo
ple are drefrauded has never been
half told. Instance, if you please,
those values held in foreign brokerage
offices located in the United States
and those which have not yet become
the subject of remittance abroad, yet
are resident in the paper title. It has
been carefully computed by those pos
sessing a knowledge of such things
that the amount thus appropriated by
our foreign cousin3 from the incre
ment of land properly belonging to
the people at home, together with
interest paid and due on stocks -and
bonds that in part go to make up the
wealth of .this country, is sufficient to
buy up all the railroads in the United
States and operate them free of cost
ta the people.
To appropriate this fund to the
use of home government as the sin
gle taxers propose, at once obviates
the need of any other tax, In fact,
the word "tax" might then be strick
en from our vocabulary for it is not
a tax upon the people, individually or
collectively, when collective society
merely takes that which is clearly its
own product Where this fund is so
taken and expended for the mainte
nance of public institutions and all
cosmic needs, it comes back to the
people resident where such value
arose in benefits to all alike, for
which, otherwise, they must pay for
out of wages, etc., due to service rendered-
and from the interest that be
longs to capital and, to our everlasting
shame be it said, from the proceeds of
crime. We are paying to the wrong
party when we buy land. In so doing
we buy the right to exclude all men,
but pay only cne ,and that the wrong
Cue, like the pcioociigcr WuO paid hio
fare on the train to a brass-buttoned
porter and when the conductor, came
around was obliged to pay it over
again or get off. So, the state mulcts
us in taxes (roundly in some cases)
after we "become the owner (a legal
paradox).
This is why wages are so generally
abnormally low, interest low, and fo
inability to give proper security, is
denied to those who most need to bor
row while rent is from 50 per cent to
two-fifths of the crop, risks Included.
. As a partial showing as to the cause
of this anomally, here is a list of
alien holdings of land in quantities
not less than 10,000 acres: English
syndicate No. 3 in Texas, 3,000,000;
Holland company in New Mexico, 4,
500,000; Sir Edward Reid syndicate' in
Florida, 2,000,000; English syndicate
in Mississippi, 1,800,000; Marquis of
Tweedale, 1,700,000; Phillips Marshall
& Co., London, 1,300,000; American
German syndicate, 750,000; Bryan sc
Evans, London, 700,000; Duke of Sun
derland, 425,000; Bri'.ish Land Co. in
Kansas, 320,000; Wm. Wharley, M. P.,
England, 310,000; Missouri Land Co.,
Scotland, 247,000; Robert Tennent,
London, 230,000; Dundee Land Co.,
Scotland, 247,000; Lord Dunmore, 120,
000; B enj. Neugas, Liverpool, 100.000;
Lord Houghton, Florida, 60,000; Lord
Dunraven, Col., 60,000; English Land
Co., Florida, 50,000; English Land Co.
in Arkansas, 50,000; Albert Bell. 10,
000; Sir J. L. Kay, 15,000; Alex Grant
in Kansas, 35,000; English syndicate '
in Wisconsin, 110,000; Mr. Ellerhauser
of Halifax in West Virginia, 600,000;
Scotch syndicate in Florida, 500,000;
A. . Boyson, Danish consul, in . Mich
igan, 50,000; Missouri Land Co. of
Edinburgh, 165,000. Beside 650,000
acres held by foreign corporations
with headquarters in ; the United
States.
Most of this land is held out of use
or but partially used because the hold
ers are let- do so by our system of land
tenure and taxation which puts but
a nominal tax upon it while in many
cases it is not assessed at all, the state
preferring to put the tax or fine on
improvement upon those who work
or improve their farms or other hold
ings. To the above list may be added
such holdings as those of Lord Scul
ly in Illinois, 40,000 acres, and "King '
of Texas, who can ride all day in a
passenger coach at usual rate of speed
without getting off his (?) land. In
stance also the mining lands, coal,
etc. Some of the coal lands are taxed
as high as $13,000 per acre; these are
being used, though thousands of other
acres that could produce equal value
in coal are held, idle under a tax vary
ing from 50c to $3 per acre; hence
the coal strike and that investigating j
commission.
Were these idle coal lands taxed at
a rate which their operation would
justify, as under the single tax they
would be, the so-called owner "dog
in the manger" would either eat tne
hay himself or let the horses eat it,
and the idle or half-paid coal miners
could have employed themselves and
the late coal famine avoided.
The effect of the application of the
single tax would be to liberate un
used land from speculative price, mak
ing it accessible., to those who would
use it in production and on equal
terms, i. e., such as competitive need
would demand. The terms of land
tenure thus equalized would be tanta
mount to it3 being free and when
men can employ themselves upon free
land, no one would work for another
for much le38 than he could earn by
employing himself, sharing the re
turns of his toll with no one. This
would increase all wages in all voca
tions in due proportion to their num
bers in the various vocations of life
so that the farmer, carrier, clerk,
tradesman, teacher and those of the
professions would be materially ben
efited directly and indirectly through
the bettered conditions of all those
about them who are now ostracised
from patronage by poverty. Increased
production would give a fresh im
petus to all business, import and other
taxes, with monopoly embargo, would
be removed from staple articles and
luxuries and from all building mater
ial and a healthy boom in home build
ing by those now homeless woulJ
bring all the trades la demand result-
ing of course in advanced wages; nor
would store goods go out of style oi
the shelves. . Povertyand its con
comitant, "crime," would largely dis
appear. i-
The farmer would pay what we now
call "taxes" upon the land apart from
its improvements according to its val
ue in production; house, furniture,
cattle, machjjiery, with all improve
ments of whatever nature, would be
free of tax while much land, either
of poor quality or that which lies
beyond the competitive point, would
not be assessed at all, the production
from which being put upon the mar
ket would make "corners" impossi
ble. City and town people would be
assessed upon the site value of their
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I eta oui . iiicikuauui nuuiu paj bu
the value of their business sites, build
ing and stock would be exempt; bank
ers also would pay on the site value
of the lot, the structure, vaults and
moneys being untaxed, though stocks
and securities held by them whose
value is predicated upon land, would
be reached by the assessor wherever
located in the state." ;
Railroads would pay on the ground
value of their rights of way and ter
minals. Their franchises, wherein
their greatest -value rests, like land
values, their value is caused by the
presence of the people. Without pop
ulation there would be no railroads
and franchises would go unsought;
hence, these values would be taket
by the state while their road beds,
rolling stock, buildings, etc., would be
untaxed. But as to railroads and
all like natural monopolies, Henry
George deemed government ownership
and operation most expedient becausa
of interstate commerce.
But I have not intended to exhaust
the ethical side of the single tax; the
theme is too large to ask space for
that and we are content to quit here,
leaving the leader to see for himself
benefits in th single tax regime that
are only vaguely hinted at in thU
article. E. C. CLARK.
Syracuse, Neb.
Smoke Your
Meat
With a Brush
am -
"kv 1 -a . .
uew metnoct or smoking s
meat has come to stay. It has
already come and staid so long
j in many parts of the country
J that there is no longer any t
more thought of going back to J
t the old method than of return- t
ing to the old-fashioned ox cart.
& When you smoke your meat
S with our Modern Meat Smoker, t
5 you accomplish all that could
J possibly be done by the old
6 method, and something that &
the old way does not accom- j
plish. The meat is better pro
tected ' against decay and
S against the attacks of germs
5 and insects. It tastes better, it j
looks better, and it will bring
more money. The old method
of smoking dries out the meat
6 and reduces the weight. The &
J shrinkage is often one-fifth, and
at this runs into money when you dt
consider the amount of meat
the average farmer usually s
J smokes. Our Modern Meat &
Smoker is practically condensed t
S liquid smoke which can be ap
plied in a minute with a brush
& or a sponge, and that ends the t
process. You run no danger of 2
losing by fire or theft, and save &
both time and money. Our
Modern Meat Smoker is put up
S in quart bottles only. One hot-
tie will cover 250' to 300 lbs.
of meat Regular price, 75c;
cut price, 59c. S
J WE CUT EVERYTHING IN
S THE DRUG LINE.
RIGGS
The Drug Cutter
Location 1321 0 St.
J Lincoln - Nebraska
ESS
SEE
Send an order to the Farmers' Gro
cery Co. for one of their combination
orders of groceries. Hundreds of our
readers have found their combination
bargains exactly as represented and
entirely satisfactory. Mention The
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You furnish the list of names wsf
furnish and mail the Henry George
Edition for $1 per hundred.
Five months trial trip, 253
