THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
JUNE 11, 1903.
The Philosophy of Freedom
An Open Forum for Single Taxers
With some the word liberty may
mean for each man to do as ho
pleases with himself and the product
of hia labor, while with others ! he
same word may mean for some men
to do as they please with other men
and the product of other men's la
bor. Abraham Lincoln.
: OHIO SINGLE TAXERS.
The , following Resolutions were
passed at the annual conference of the
Ohio Single Tax league, held at Co
lumbus, May 31: -i
Whereas, The single taxers of Ohio
have in the past given liberal support
to the reform movements In other
states. : ' r
Whereas, Public Interest in th
abases and .discrimination in taxa
tion laws has developed in Ohio to
high degree, therefore, be it, i
itesolved, That the single taxers it
Ohio be urged to concentrate their ef t
forts on the work of taxation retorn.
in this state and call upon our friends
throughout the country for their co
operation. : "
Whereas, The laws of . Ohio bearing
most heavily as they do upon personal
property and Improvements, which
are the product of labor, and exempt"
ing as they almost entirely -do, mo
nopoly and' special privilege, which
are created by the-state are a direct
means of promoting fraud and cor
ruption, and a constant discourage
ment to industry and thrift, and are
therefore, unscientific and unjust; an 3
Whereas, They promote fraud a.id
corruption not only by taxing prop
erty that nature has made It impos
sible to reaqh, but by permitting such
public values as street and steam
railway franchises to remain hi pri
vate hands, thus tempting and even
compelling individuals and corpora
tions in order to get possession o'
them to bribe city councils and cor?
rupt legislation; therefore,
resolved, That tnftil the repeal of
these laws can be brought, these spe
cial privileges should be taxed on the
same basis as the farms, stores,
houses, factories and other property
within the state, and not be permit
ted to escape as they now do at about
one-third of their taxable value, and
further,
Kesolved, That we commend and in
dorse, 'and pledge ourselves to aid In
every honorable way the efforts' "of
Mayor Tom L. Johnson of Cleveland
to bring about these reforms in coun
ty, state and nation.
Resolved, ' That we appeal to tht
people of Ohio to lend their aid to all
candidates for office regardless of par
ty who by their words and acts aim
to institute thesy reforms.
Channing says: "The spirit of lib
erty Is not merely, as some people
Imagine, a jealousy of our own partic
ular rights, but a respect for the
rights of others, and an unwillingness
that any man, whether high or low.
should be wronged or trampled under
loot."
Copies of "The Bugs and the Bees"
can be had from A. C. Thompson, Sin
gle Tax association, room 22, YonT.
st. Arcade, Toronto, Ontario. 3
cents per 100.
At Zion Church, College st, co?.
Elizabeth st, Toronto. The Rev. S.
S. Craig preaches every Sunday even
ing on the "Social Applications of
Christianity."
DO YOU SEE THE CAT?
Chapter I.
The Journeymen, imbued with the
spirit of the times, had organized. So
had the Masters.
Chapter II.
At a meeting of the Journeymen's
organization, they had decided i :
make certain demands: higher wages,
less hours, and certain other matters
of detail. The Masters refused these
demands, and the result was a strike.
Chapter III.
(Scene: Horseshoeing Shop.)
The employes of that particular
shop were discussing the strike, anl
its successful issue:
- First Journeyman "WTe won all
our points, boys. One dollar a wee.
extra pay, and one hour a day less
work."
Second Journeyman "How much
did it cost us?"
Third Journeyman "It cost me $60
four week's pay besides my share
of expense to support the union."
Fourth Journeyman "It cost mo
more than that for my wages are $1S
a week, but I would rather lose t ie
money than lose what we were out
for. Our work is deserving of more
pa v. even more than we will now re
ceive." Enter Master, with a letter in his
hand and a very blue look on his face.
Reads:) y
, Jan. 1, 1903. Mr. J. Smith.
Dear Sir: As I intend improving
my land on which you are doing
business, I hereby notify you to va
cate said premises on February J.
landowner,
john a. Mclaughlin.
" Providence, R. I.
P. S. Do you see the cat?
Captain Ashby's Visw
,.4 In a letter to The Independent Cap
tain Ashby. says he has changed his
mind about writing a criticism of the
single tax for this issue of the pape.
but prefers to wait until after the
Karl Marx Edition comes out, when
Li wishes to take up' both theories
and attempt to show "these skimmers
who dart so swiftly over the surface
of things how utterly Inadequate the'r
theories are, and upon what a com
plete misconception of things these
doctrines have been founded." realiz
ing, of course, that he has a life-sized
job on hand.
Anent the single tax, however, h
drops this hint: "You may, if you
feel disposed, point out that I have
already, in 'Money and the Taxing
Power,' indicated enough to show,
what will in later chapters be made
clear, that it is entirely immaterial
whether the tax levy be made upo l
my property,' or upon my eye
brow, so long as government refuses
to permit that tax to be paid-in
anything I have or can produce, anl
eojnpels me to obtain, at no mas
ter what sacrifice, the coin it gives
free of cost to the man who can bring
a piece of gold to carry it away on,
as the only thing it will accept in pay
ment of that levy."
This the associate editor has a'
ready touched upon elsewhere in this
issue. .
POST'S IDEA
Mr. Elllngston Criticiiea Mr. Post' Defi
nition of Value la th Cooper Union
DebaU
(Written" for The Independent in
answer to the Henry George Edition i
Editor Independent: The single tax
1 sue is at hand.' Its single tax is
goot ; but I hope that Louis F. Post's
idea of value, as he expounded it at
the Cooper Union, will not be re
garded as its basis; for that would bs
to assert the single tax as baseless,
value, he said, is not a concrete
thing; true, if by this is meant not
visible; but if force may be regarded
as concrete, value is concrete.
He said it was not an entity. That
is, not to be considered by itself;
(and if not to 1 3 considered by itself,
if at all it must be as a fragment of
something else or it should not b3
considered at all).
He said that value was nothing but
H device for comparison a mode of
measurement; as, he says, we com
pare differences of quantity in terms
of inches, ounces and quarts; so we
compare differences in exchangeable
ity--in terms of value.
A very remarkable set of state
ments those, upon which to found an
entire economic system. Without
values there can be no economics. Wa
may adopt some other term to ex
press the conception, but the concep
tion remains the same; and that con
ception must be true or it must be
false. Mr. Post contends that it is
false, when o says that value is but
a device for comparison. And strange,
very strange, that neither he nor h.s
opponent could understand that if
value was not an entity, there could
be no need of a device for comparing;
that that does not exist!"
And his mode of measurement de
velops under Investigation into a sim
ilar result for there can be no quan
tities of nonexistent to compare. But
it is quite as rational as his next
statement How can there be differ
ences in exchangeabilities? The dif
ference, if any there is, must be in ths
things exchanged or in the mental
ity in some form of the parties to the
Mr. Post in The Public is a clear
headed thinker, far above the average
editorial writer. Mr. Post at the Coop
er Union discussion is mentally mui-dle-heuded
or he has turned a merg
ing hypnotizer. Which is it? He says
that to say a thing is valuable is '.o
say that a thing is tradeable. There
is here an . admission that there ar-.?
things not tradable or there is no
sense in the qualification. What, then,
is it that makes a thing tradable?
Will. Mr. Post enlighten us? .
It is a waste of words to tell peo
ple that the human race does not
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live imon values they all understand
that they live upon food commodi
ties and he asserts that all Dusme-is
rests upon what will be here summed
up as commodities.
He might as truthfully assert that
it is not the tub that contains the wa
ter, but the water that contains the
tub. As an abstraction only to rest
upon, business could better rest up;.i
the abstractions of arithmetic, than
linon those commodities with all con
ception of value obliterated among
humanity. But value is no abstrac
tion, though invisible, any more than
is the power that runs machinery
which is also L. yisible. The force that
humanity expends in the form of de
sire is quite invisible; its effects are
not. That, and that alone, is the pri
mary force that girdles continent
with railroads and navigates the ocean"
with loads of commodities to be ex
changed. It is a mighty-pull force that
can do all this, but it 13 no more visi
ble than that other always admitted
human force expended in labor.
Strange, Mr. Post snould not have
denied that entity for if he ever
sawed a cord of wood he never saw
the force he expended. To be con
sistent, he must deny its existence.
Fortunately for the single tax, it-j
strcng points do not rest upon Mr
Post's Cooper Union definition ci
value. H. ELLINGSTON.
Minnehaha, Minn.
HORSE COLLARS
fOURDEALERTOSHOW'
BEFORE. YOU BUY.
MANUFACTURED
NA5?PHA& BR0S.C&
Lincoi.m.Mpr.
Some Objections
(Written for 8he Independent in an
swer td the Henry George Edition.)
Editor Independent: With thanks
I accept your proposal to publish
short articles in answer to arguments
used in the Henry George Edition of
your progressiva ; '.per. No socialist
of intelligence will object to the pub
lic ownership land. The writer,
for 40 years a socialist, has opposed
and fought the idea of private owner
ship in land. From 1866 to 1876 I,
In common with Henry George,
fought the land grabbers of the Pue
blo of San Francisco, Cal., but it was
all labor lost. The people were hyp
notized by the land grabbing spirit of
the day.
The chief objection to the single
tax is, it will not produce but a
modicum of the results claimed for it
All the means of transportation
would remain in the hands of the
united 'corporations; they could
charge whatever, price they pleased
for transportation and leave to the
farmer only a living, the same as
now. The steel trust with its mo
nopoly of iron mines, plants and fleet
of steamships, and control of rail
roads could do the same. Rockefeller,
with ownership and leases and con
tracts for the total output of oil wells,
would do the same and derisively
smile at the sink's tax. The flour
trust, the beef trust, the liquor trust,
the tobacco trust, the meat trust, the
bankers' trust, and all others, would
do the same. The single tax in fact
does them more good than harm; they
would hold billions of dollars worth
of personal property free of tax: an 1
charge the peop what they pleased
for their products same as now.
The owner o $100,000 worth of
realty could sell enough in exchange
for untaxable property so that his
taxes would be the same as before tho
change in the mode cf taxation. The
workingman, w:;a a single homestead
lot, could not do this. The big farmwr
with 5,000 acres can raise wheat or
corn 40 per cent cheaper than the
man with 50 acres; so we see plainiy
the system favors the rich the same
as now. The man who had capital to
put a fifteen-story building on a val
uable city lot would have an immense
advantage over the man who could
only build two stories. If land is
considered, and rightly it is so, the
inheritance of the pec!e, it would b:
a plain injustice and a strange
anomaly that plutocrats who have
made hundreds of millions from this
property of the people, and investe l
it in industrial pro'uctve enterprises,
should be let ou frea of tax with their
legal stealings; espacially when they
would use it to enslave the producer
of the wealth, the same as now.
No doubt the single .tax would in
some localities make land cheaper,
while in places where population was
congested it would be much dearer,
for no matter what price or value wr.s
put upon land in favored parts of a
seaport or commercial metropolis, tha
rents would be made large enough to
correspond with the tax. The single
tax in no way decreases the oppor
tunity for bribery and unjust valua
tions. The tingle taxers greatly un
derestimate the power of combined
wealth and the force of gold as a
temptation to men whose bread and
butter depends upon the ever-changing
conditions of political life under
our crushing competitive pvpfm.
There are other objections to the sin
gle tax which I may note on some
future occasion. B. F. FRENCH.
Bisbee, Ariz. .
