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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1904)
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT FEBRUARY 4, 1904. The Philosophy of Freedom An Open Forum for Single Taxers TENETS OF THE SINGLE TAX. We hold that tta earth is mjc com mon heritage of all men. That apart from-the earth men cannot live; and that whatever hinders their access to the earth, increases to them the dif ficulty of living. We assert that the very fact of birth gives to all m?n an equal and inalienable llnnL t'i lif and because men can exist only upoj end from the earth, their corum'.'n heritage, it follows that all men-havo an equal and inalienable right to ti e use of the earth. And we hold I' at whatever human laws or institutions deny and hinder their equal exercis of this right, deny, in effect, that ft'' men are entitled to an equal oppor tunity to live, and . thus deny th ir equal right to life. We hold that pr!-' vate property in land, including all natural opportunities, by decreeing tj a minority of men the ownership tf the earth, and compelling the majority to give to these a part of the product" of their labor for the mere privilege of using it, artificially increases to the multitudes the difficulty of living; infringes their equal right to the use of the earth; deprives them of their right to an equal opportunity to live; and thus denies that all men have an equal right to life. And we hoid, therefore, that private property in land, under which the minority may wholly exclude the majority from the earth, i3 violative of natural rights, and is wrong; and that the human en actments which decree it, should be abolished. - We assert that, in production, what ever unnaturally increases the share of the product given as rent unduly lessens the part remaining for wages and interest. Expressly asserting the need for private possession of land, we declare that its private ownership is wholly injurious. That, by enabl ing some to monopolize and keep out of use the most, valuable lands, it gives monopoly values to land, unnat urally increases rent and the part of the produce exacted as rent, and by compelling labor to resort to lands of low productiveness, it lessens the re turns of labor, decreases wages and hampers production. We assert that land values are cre ated solely by the presence of pop . ulation and the thrift and progress of the community. , That they arise with the coming of population, grow vith its growth and shrink and even disap pear with it3 decline. That as a com munity becomes more populous and needs greater revenues, its land values increase. And that, by the very law of its being, every community creates, concurrently, a need for revenues and a fund, land values, from which this want may be satisfied. We hold that to the producer be longs the thing produced. That land values being produced not by any in dividual, but by the presence and thrift of the community, the same principle of justice which gives to the individual the product of his la bor, ordains that this fund, land val ues, belongs to the community, and should be taken for the support of the government. To do this, and to take away the substance of ownership in land, while securing the individual in the private possessjon thereof, we propose to levy an annual tax on the rental or using value of land, irrespective of improve ments, equal to the entire amount thereof, and that the resulting revenue be apportioned among the federal, gtato and local governments; and that all other revenue taxes be abolished. We hold that we would thus simpli fy and equalize taxation, cheapen its collection and do away with perjury in relation thereto. We assort that a tax on land value s, unlike other taxes, cannot be shifted to the consumer. That the tax we piopose wouIJ compel every holder of land to contribute an nually to the common welfare, tho full value of tho special privilege thus en Joyed by him; would destroy specula tion in land by nulling it unprofitable to hold laud out of u.,o, would give capital and labor access to va:;t quan tities of land, including oil, coal, hen and other mineral deposit, ami ma!o Impossible the monopolising of this original source or supply; would de rive tho revenue of government from the very fund which society Itxrlf r leates; and sine mora than'&o pr tent of nil land values are In urban lands, franchise, and mineral dep.. 1U, It would take oft of the farming and tho watte-rarnlnii population the rreat burden of taxation, which, as the rrlnilpal consumers, now fait ulti mately tiiu them. W assert thai by abojl.-hln all revenue taxes upon im provements, capital, labor and tho products of labor, and giving access to lands now monopolized and idle, it would stimulate investment, promote Industry and enterprise, raise wages and bring about general and more equal prosperity. We are opposed to all forms of spe cial privileges: we recognize the im portance of the financial and other questions; and we expressly declare that government ownership of trans portation llnesk and public utilities is needed as a complement to this tax; but we hold that every improvement in government, or other advance in material progress, simply increases the value of land, and, under private ownership of land, adds to the pro portion received by the land owner and decreased the proportion of the latrorer. And, declaring, that man's relation to the earth is primary, we hold that the adoption -of the single tax a3 a means to secure to all the people their equal right to its use is a prerequisite in order that they, and not a minority 4 tnein, may enjoy the material benefits to accrue from" fur ther advances in government and even in civilization itself. E. T. WEEKS. New Iberia, La, ' The St, Louis Meeting Editor Independent: Replying to your request to "enroll," etc., the tspirit moves me to say that I have been an observer, if not an active participant, in all the moves for re form since 1870.. As a member of the farmers' con vention at Decatur, 111., Dec, 1873, I assisted at the birth of the greenback party in that state. As secretary of the first greenback state convention in Illinois, June, 1874, I helped to nomi nate the first ticket of greenbackers ever nominated for state offices in any state. As editor of The Appeal at Bloomington, 111., in 1875 and 1876, I assisted in the campaign of 1876. As a member of the greenback na tional committee, with John G. Drew of New Jersey as a special committee, I wrote, in Burk's hotel in Chicago, Dec. 14 and IS. 1875, the call for the national greenback convention, that met in Indianapolis, May, 1876, which nominated Peter Cooper; and finished my Illinois work as the secretary of the Illinois state committee until the close of the campaign of 1880. Since then I have been more of an observer than a worker. With this as an introduction, per mit me to suggest that the political situation for 1904 is nearly a parallel to that which existed in 18C0. Then, the whig party went to pieces and the democrats held two convention and put up two tickets, thus giving the re publicans a "clear)' field. Today the republican party is in an "explosive" condition, while the democratic lead ers are hopelessly divided. Now, wha't is the thing for the populists to do? That is the ques tion. In my opinion, it is to issue an early call, embodying broad prin ciples of American statesmanship from the stanipoint of the producers of wealth, and invite them and all others who may be dissatisfied with what may be offered them by the re publican and democratic conventions, to meet in Kansas City about July 26, -1904, to assist in nominating a ticket that shall represent the plain people of the country, upon a live and truly American platform. THOMAS WOLFE. Kansas City, Mo. Keep the Old Name Editor Independent: I am' some what surprised to read In tho Vincland Independent. of January 8, 1904, the Idea of even mentioning in the col umns of his paper tho thought of changing, the people's party name. He speaks of the reform forces getting together at St. l.oula for the avowed purpo.se of Retting under tho legal name of the people's party or eho adopting another name. To change the name, of people's party to another name would put a silence" on every voter In the party ranks. It would talio years to ever poll as many votes aa the party will poll next November under the peoplo'g party name. The principle advocated by the, peopled party havo be.ouie adulated with Its name and can never and should mwr be severed. Making such a chanR would dls guat the vutffs and would lone tho new namn. party thousands of votes, bildea opposition papers would claim their share of the people party vol tho s.vnie an tho new nania party, Should such actum bo Ukeu at tho St, Louis convention it would be equivalent to passing the party over to tne undertaker. Such ideas enter tamed for one moment would be a thousand times worse than the turn Ing down of Tom Watson for vice president and enstalling Graver Cleve land s neu-mate. it tends to anni hilate a party. If the parties at St. Louis cannot unite on the people's party name they lust mignt as well quit business. We have had too much tinkering with the party already and we can see the ef- xeci witnout mittlne on our classes. The party name is to well established in every nook and corner- to abolish It takes some time to establish Drin- ciples with a party name. Tne delegates of the Deonle's nartv nave set April 12. 1904. for- our state convention, it Is a straight teon e's party ticket from top to bottom and no rusion. The same Is also true of the county here. We have carried our county here in Smith for 12 vears with the exception of last year when we naa rusion.- Yours for success In maintaining the people's nartv name at St. Louis, February 22, 1904. E. T. THOMPSON. Smith Center, Kas. Call for Meet! ng of National Committee. Lincoln. Neb.. Jan. 12. 1904. To the Members of the National Committee of the People's Party of the United States. Greeting: The call hereinaf ter is made in compliance with a res olution passed by said committee at Denver, Colo., July 29, 1903, that the committee shall be called to meet at St. Louis, Mo., on February 22, 1904, for the purpose of fixing time and place of holding the national conven tion of the people's party, which con vention, when convened, shall nlace In nomination members of Its own party as candidates for president and vice president or tne United States, and transact such other business as may come before it. As vice chairman of the national committee of the people's party, I was empowered by a resolution passed by the national committee of the people's party at Kansas City, in regular ses sion of the same, to call meetings and to transact any other business of the committee that the chairman by yir- me oi nis omce wouia oe empowered to perform. Therefore I do hereby call on all committeemen of the people's party to convene at St. Louis, Feb. 22, 1904, for the purpose aforestated. And in ad dition to the committee, would re spectfully invite all members of the party who can conveniently attend such meeting to do so. It is to be hoped that at this meet ng a full recognition of the efforts made at Denver last Julv will be in dorsed by a united people's party of me nation. And that the influences or reform as found in the rjeonle's party may be no longer throttled by misunderstandings, for it is the only party that can and will uncover wrong doing and corruption wherever found. we nope tnat tms meeting will be well attended and be fruitful of creat good. Reform papers please copy. J. H. EDMISTUN. Vice Chairman National Committee People s Party. J. A. EDGERTON, Secretary. CALL FOR MEETING OF NATIONAL COMMITTEE. Memphis. Tenn ..'Dec. 10. 1903. The national executive committee of the people's party of the United States, in se&sion at Memphis, Tenn., this 10th day of December, 1903, begs leave to congratulate the earnest reform vot ers of the United States on the rapid spread of those great principles of human government enunciated in the Omaha platform of 1892, and for which our organization has steadfastly con tended, since the beginning. The political history of the past fw years has only served to strengthen our position, and to draw tho atten tion of patriotic voters to tho prin ciples Involved ia our political creed, until It Is today a generally accepted theory that government ownership of monopolies Is better than monopoly ownership of government, although through the manipulation of -joIiticul machines by the monopolies now con trolling the public utilities of tho country, there has been but little leg Ulation looking to public ownership. The political hutory of tho past few years ha taught several invalua ble lessons to those who would re form existing abuses, tho most Im portant of which Is that fusion or -operation with either of lb old par ties U a failure, destined to spn-ad confusion amonn reformer am) to de stroy our organisation. U has alxo taught that a divided reform move ment can accomplish but little. While In the past honest difference of opin ion have divided our ranks, and lent consolation to our enemies and the despoilers of the people, we recom mend as the future policy of our party that reformers of all factions bury their minor differences and unite on the essential principles that will re sore to the people the power to con duct the government free from the dictation of an oligarchy of the "idle holders of idle capital." To this end we hereby call the na tional central tommittee of the allied people's party, to meet at the New St, James hotel, in St. Louis, Mo., Feb ruary 22 at 1ft oVlnHc . m tn a time and place for a national con vention to nominate candidates for president and vice nresident of the United States, and we invite the pom. mittees of other- reform parties to meet at the same time and place, look ing to a practical union of the reform forces of the country in the approach ing national campaign. We especially invite the representatives of organ ized labor, as it is the nolicv of the people's party to support the wortLy enorts of organized labor in its strug gles against organized canltal. and be lieving that the final relief of labor rests solely in ah Intelligent and well directed ballot, we urge the co-operation of the abor forces m our conven tions and at. the polls.' We indorse the action of the Denver rnnferenre In lnHm - .wiuug IU 4 v union of the people's party on the old lines, and extend our hands in frater nal greeting to our co-laborers of the great northwest who have n the past been misled by false promises, only to now be offered as a sacrifice to Mammon. ' There is widesnread dlasatlsfjiUnn In the republican party; the demo cratic party has abandoned the west. and is now eneaeed in rnnr-indfno- an alliance with the capitalistic forces of ' me east. Tne way is now clear for the patriotic men and women of all par ties to unite on those essential nrfn. ciples of human liberty, and to this end we pledge our earnest endeavors. JO A. PARKER, Chairman. Louisville, Ky. (Reform papers please copy.) f; Who Shall Lead? Editor Independent: I wnnid nv to be able financially to take every reform paper like The Independent Mr. Editor. I am surprised of our pops talking of such men as Bryan, Allen and Towne for our lead ers. Now. we have nlentv of fvwi - - - i j v.. r,vswv and true men who have not been found wanting when put on the bal ance and there is no nlare nmnni' tho Old Guard for men who have betrayed our trust. This is no time to he Irvine tn resurrect dead meui for leaders, but let us put our snouiders to the wheel and work together to spread the glad news that the neonle's nnrttr ctni lves. and leaders will come forth in good time to steer the old ship safely into the harbor: and nn irimmero m tricksters any more. forever for, as we live in Missouri and must be shown. I would like to take everv one rt the Old Guard by the hand for one good hearty shake. When I read the names of the ftirt Guard and see the old boys that are still there, following the banner of justice to all, I am ready to put on a new harness for fear the old ones will not be sufficient to hold when the bat tle is on. I want to say to the Old Guard? "God bless you all," and when I have fulfilled my mission in this world I want on my monument that I was al ways a reformer. I. J. TEAGARDEN. Hamilton, Mo. The chief trouble about uood ndvlm s that those who trive the most of it usually follow It the least. Linseed Oil Paint O Direct Prom the I acterv O Q O O o o o o o o o o o We guarantee our Linseed Oil I'alnt and White Lead in oil superior to any hlh grade paints In tho market. We would like to have every reader of "The Independent write for fre price, list with toor eards and learn how much can l saved by buying paint direct from the factory. Special price for linseed oil during February. Write today. o o o o o o $ UH PAINT AND LEAD CO. X 0 Joj to jo9 O Street, Urn sin, S Nebraska. Jlf 000000000000 1