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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1903)
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT JULY 9, 1903. The Philosophy of Freedom An Open Forum for Single Taxeri - "From a casual reading of my . work the free thinkers realize that I am not an orthodox, and call metheir- own; while on the other hand the religious orthodox take me in the spirit rather than the letter, and they write en couragingly, especially sweet old la dies. : Then of course there are the -single Lax people, who own me, tor "im fur toiugie tfti. ueuH uuu Ella Wheeler Wilcox. : OVERTAXED FARMERS. A Editor Independent: There is prob acy no greater objection to the single tax than the belief that it would fall heavily on the already "overtaxed far- "mers." At the same time some of t most sincere and intelligent single taxers are farmers; still that does not prove that the single tax is either .right or wrong. Even although there . may be ten honest, sincere and intel ligcnt people opposed to the. siagle tax for every one in favor of if that toes not prove the question. ' : The farmer produces the raw ma- :t?rUl, and in some instances the fin ished article for our food, clothing and shelter, and the Old Testament tells us that "Even the king is supported from the land" and while the question of taxation was being discussed in the New Testament time a decision was given to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." ,Tne king and r Caesar in our time is recognized as ; government, and society acknowledges that governmental servants are as worthy of, their hire as others, are. . .Where there i3 no government or bad "government the avaricious owners as '! much as the most industriaus. v; Where ; there, is no government land has no selling or rental value. And where there is bad government the tendency : is for the producer to produce and ' have nothing, and the non-producer to have without producing. Through bad government the producer is frequent I ly relieved of the product of hi? labor J either: directly or indirectly through !1 unjust taxation. Where there is good ' government, but very little goverri f mental exercises required, land has J very little seling or rental value, which districts, in such districts government has given little value and should re i ceive very little tribute In taxes either local, state or nation. - Take on the s other hand a large city where govern ; mental operations are in evidence at 1 every move you make, here govern- ment has given great value to land by i public improvements; one square inch . of land in the center of the city will v bring as high a price in the market as a whole acre of good agricultural ' land ,In many counties in the United States so that if the single tax pro i posed to tax land hy the acre, it would t ccme severe on the farmer, but as it v proposes to tax land values instead of lsnd it is evident that the revenue un- der the single tax would be drawn v largely from cities and justly so," be- cause it is land that government gives v value to and not buildings or stocks. ; It is not Infrequently that a farmer has three or four times as much mon ey invested in buildings, stock and ; improvements on land as he has in lsnd, whereas city property tends in the opposite direction, and having to 5 a much larger extent received its val tie from government, it should; pay a . proportionately larger share of the ? taxes, including state and national. : V ANDREW HATTAN. . Schenectady, N. Y. j . ... ; --, ,: j i Literature explaining the single tax idea mailed free on 'request. Address ' F. II. Monroe, president Henrr George association, 356 Dearborn st,- Chicago. lewing, "the people will continue the vicious in power." What I said was, "The vicious will hold most of the offices in the future just as they have in the past." The people, i. e., democrats and pop ulists, do not Intend to elect the vic ious to office, but that does not say that (be vicious will not seek- the cfSccand bs elected." ' '--'' '"'S-' t Isn't it funny that while Mr. Bailey bit me so bard all along, that he for got to tell us what unimproved value is? ; E. W. FERGUSON, Jr. ; . Ilartington, Neb. ' r FERGUSON'S REJOINDER. - Editor Independent: The marked ccpy containing Mr. Bailey's articla reached me today. I wish he would read Progress and Poverty and find out what Henry , George says the "law of rent" is. Henry George indorses Mill and Ri cardo, but does not say anything about seven-tenths of the land being unoc- y cupied. Does not Mr. Bailey under stand that I said, If you confiscate rent, i. e., rent as defined by George, our condition would be worse than cot tiers or metayers? They were sup posed to have enough left tbem for a living. Yet I know men th.it farmed hind to poor that they could not get a living from it To my mind money and transporta tion are of as much Importance as is . land. I am sorry he misrepresented me; I am bad enough - without that He placed in quotation marks the fol- WAKE FIELD SURPRISED. .. Editor; Independent: I have read with much' surprise and some indig nation your two editorials in The In dependent of 11th inst on "The Sin gle Tax," in which you assume that single taxers are either opposed or in different to public ownership of all public utilities, . including railroads, and differ from populists and demo crats (Kansas City platform) on the money question. Such misrepresen tation is expected from plutocratic journals, but not from those profess ing reform tendencies. Nothing is nor can be better known than that the philosophy of freedom (single tax) aims at the elimination of every , possible fonri of special priv ilege or private monopoly, whether in land, taxation, transportation, mon ey, street railways, water and ..light ing plants,- or otherwise. , Surely, you read the. special edition on our last national platform to little purpose, or any of our standard books, to receive such an Impression. '::: , The fundamental principle of the single tax economy Is "No public bus iness nor functions in private control: no private business in government control." While the single tax includes aboli tion of land monopoly, it does not ex clude abolition of all other forms of monopoly, but distinctly demands it We lay most stress upon land and taxation for the reason that nearly all other monopolies will instantly dis appear when their base In these two fundamental wrongs is knocked from under them, and because until it is, all other methods of -curbing monopoly are utterly vain and worthless. While we demand public ownership and operation of all public utflities, we believe this can best be secured roost quickly and cheaply by treating all rights of way (franchises) as a land value, taking in taxation all earnings above operating expenses, current in terest, repairs, etc., on actual plants, or tangible personal property (prod ucts of labor) which would squeeze out every drop of water, leaving only act ual property to be purchased. I 'will treat the money question In a separate article. W. H. T.. WAKEFIELD. Mound City, Kas. (Certain it is that neither of the editors had any thought of misrepre senting either the single tax or single taxers, and, with the knowledge of honestly trying to see the light (or "the cat," whichever it is), the edi tors have no honeyed phrases to ma!e on account of : any Indignant sub scriber. ,. Doubtless Mr. Wakefield is better acquainted with the single taxers of the world than either of the editors, but they certainly know single taxers who, holding to a strict construction of the philosophy, are opposed to the public operating a railroad through government, or owning any part of a railroad further than, to take tbe full rentai value of the right of way. They would construe the operation of a railroad as coming within the inhi bition "no private business in gov ernment control." Some of them would favor a public roadbed and lease it to private companies formed for the purpose of operating railroads. So long as men must pay this "economic rent" only by converting man-made goods or human energy in to coined money, and then turning the coined money over to the taxing pow er, the editors believe the money question paramount until settled on a scientific basi3. Talcing economic rent will not abolish the monopoly pos sessed by the national bankers and fold bullion gamblers. Mr. Wakefield's plan of squeezing the water out of railroad values is feasable, doubtless, but what equity is there in taking "economic rent" from the farmer and allowing him all he can make as wages. and interest on his capital invested ,in , Improvements, while a different rule is followed for he railroads? Necessarily, under Mr. Wakefield's statement, an arbitrary rate of interest would be fixed upon in calculating "current interest" and the toad would be rent free until that rate was satisfied. How would that seem to the farmer wb was hailed out or the victim of hot winds, when lie discovered that it would take all his surplus over a bare existence to pay his "economic rent," or, perhaps, he might have to borrow of the money-mongers? Associate Editor.) Co-operative Lsnd Buying Land speculators, have long since learned that they can buy land for less dollars per acre when taken in large bodies; farmers and home-seekers are Just beginning to find this out In the last few weeks several parties of land buyers from Iowa have gone together and bought large tracts along the Re publican river; when a contract was made for the purchase of the land, they divided it up to suit themselves and had deeds made accordingly. The following tracts offer an excel lent opportunity for several home seekers to go together and buy either of these tracts, or all of them. It will enable them to get some good land very cheap. - The first is a tract of 2,115 acres, nearly all fenced; 1,050 acres under high state of cultivation, 1,100 acres of very best alfalfa land; some timber; the Republican river runs through this land; 4 wells and wind mills', tanks, cisterns, etc. Three sets of improve ments; two miles from McCook. Much of this is good hay land. Price, $18 per acre. This piece is known as No. 1026. ' ' Another track of -1750 acres deeded land ' and 640 acres of schoo land leased; 1.400 acres of alfalfa land some now growing; 400 acres in cul tivation; nearly all fenced; good im provements; 600 acres of good hay land, now ready to mow. This ranch Is in the Republican valley, 15 miles from McCook and between two rail road stations. Price complete $19,000. This is No. 1027. Alo an 800-acre tract, , nearly all j fenced; 700 acres alfalfa and sugar j beet land; 200 acres cultivated; nice I grove, plenty of hay land. This would . make two or more splendid farms; ' two sets of improvements; two and- a half miles from town. Price, $9,500. This is No. 1028. ; It should be remembered that the sugar-beet factories at Grand Island, Ames and Norfolk last year made thorough tests of that soil for sugar beet raising, which proved successful. There Is a laree acreage of sugar beets in Red Willow county thi3 year and the prospects are bright for a su gar beet factory at McCook in the rear future. This together with the alfalfa industry insures a brieht fu ture for Red Willow and surrounding counties; and values are sure to dou ble fn a few years. - Fcr full - information regarding . the . above land of any ether land alons the Republican river write to Weber & Farris, Lincoln, Neb. The principal reason why the sin gle tax has not long since been much more widely understood and adopted is that it has not been brought to the front sufficiently. Agitation of any , sort is what is wanted. There never need be any fear from misrepresenta tion. Error cannot long stand in the light of truth. No matter what sort of nsme3 s re called. No matter who m? misrepresent " If the single tax Is talked about su iciently it is certain to grow. When things are -aid which are not true there are always those who will look into the subject and the truth will be brought to the light Cleveland (O.) Recorder. Three, million houseless, homeless, hopeless tramps in America under 30 years of the highest protection in our history. Read "Progress and Poverty," the greatest book on political economy ever published. Reads like a romance. God gave the earth to all the people, and not to some of them. The priv ileges should be for all of them, and not bartered off to some of them. That, gentlemen constitutes my po litical economy, my politics, . and (I say it reverently) my religion. And It is, I. believer the religion that Christ taught the people many years age Tom Johnson. ; ; " ' Independent School ofolitical Economy ANOTHER DONATION. Editor Independent: Please enroll my name as a member of the' Indepen dent School of Political Economy. En closed find stamp, for which send me "The Open Door," by Laurie J. Quinby. s The books that I rent of The Direc tor you may consider sold if I like the book for a reference book. I am going to donate to the school Henry George's "Land and Labor Question. If every paper of any account would establish a school of economics the re Dublican party would go like a snow bank In a hot day in August. IRL DEAN. Marion, la. summer work. I shall do nothing else except keep up the war to reform the House of Refuge." t HISTORY OF MONETARY SYS TEMS. ' Editor Independent: Enclosed nlpase find draft for balance of ac count, which we trust you will find correct and for which please send us an ncknrvledsement We have re ceived instructions from Mr. Del Mar, who is now on his yachting trip, to cren the fall campaign with as, large, an ad. in The Independent as the sale oc the book will permit. Hp alro re cmested us to ask you if you had a copy of his "History of Monetary Sys tems" and if you would like to review it in the columns of Tha liidepen'ir.t CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA CO.' f- Box 160 M. S., New York. (We have not had Mr. uei Mar s "History of Monetary Systems," but would gladly review it. Several of the "s6hool" desire to read it. The. Director.) WEALTH - OF; "NATIONS. . Director I. S. P. E.: In glancing over , The Independent "of May 26 the second . time I find . your, offer tc .dis tribute argument for referendum and initiative and imperative mandate by Quinby for postage, please forward me a copy unless' all are gone. - A member of the "schocl, I have forgotten the name and cannot find the paper, made inquiry concerning Smith's "Wealth of Nations." I can give the address of a person who can furnish it or you may publish it if you like: Mr. H. H. Timby, Conneaut, O.; price, $1.75; 1 vol.; or best Eng lish edition, 2d hand, 2 vols., 88 pp., $3.50. E. W. FERGUSON, Jr. Hartington, Neb. THEODORE ROOSEVELT THE CITI ZEN. Jacob A. Riis, who has been called by President Roosevelt "New York's most useful citizen," is very busy just now in getting tocether material for W book, "Theodore Roosevelt the Citizen," which is to be brought out by The Outlook company. To a friend who recently asved for information concerning the work. Mr. Riis wrote: "What can I say , about the Roopp velt material, except that, it will Mth Mr. Roosevelt fts a ciHzen, n.-l a friend from the standpoint of a friend? I am busy gathering the rv?. teriaj now. but it is not eay. br.m?,? of the people I want to reach being cr.t.tered here and there. However. I shall get what I want . It will be my ELY'S OUTLINES. Director I. S. P. E.: Find enclosed P. O. M. O. for $1.25 for which please send me Outlines of Economics, by Prof. R. T. Ely, which you recom mend in The Independent of May 21. I would like to keep the book, as it takes me a good while to read such works. I can't rush them through like a novel, and after a day's work a man goes to sleep over them in the even ing, so that Sunday really affords the only leisure to devote to them. I got Mill's Political Economy from the library not long since, and al though I found it most interesting, I was not a quarter through it when the fortnight allowed was up, and I had to return the volumes, but intend to get them again In trie winter when the evenings are longer, and labor not so rressing, so I would like to have the "Outlines" as my own property. thn I can read them over two or thre times, and thereby, as it were, estab lish pigeon holes In my head. In whlcV to prorerlv arrange subsequent ac ouWtiOTis in the same line. Am 63 yeir? n?d ard have done considerable rfoitrry reading, Herbert. Sneuoer, n"""!n, Huxley, Tyndll. Lubbuck, TivcV.le. Draper. Carlyle. Emerson, etc., 'nsrether with the general run of the i.nttPr clsv of Actios, but I'll stop: I p I'm getting garrulous men of mv oo-p ?re arit to have that failing and I know newspaper men have no time to spare. JOHN D. EDWARDS, Baden Station, St Louis, Mo.