f HE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
MARCH
1904.
The Philosophy of Freedom
An Open Forum for Single Taxcrs
FARMER AND SINGLE TAX.
The editor of The Independent as
serts that the reason why farmers do
not take kindly to the single tax is
because it will destroy the value cf
their land, and this value is about all
they have left after years of hard
toil.
This is true not only of the farmers,
but of most land owners, especially
owners of small estates. It is diffi
cult to show these good people that
destroying the individual value does
not destroy it. We use the word "de
stroy" wrongly. True, the single tax
will take from each Individual his
social product, i. e., the land value,
thus lowering tbe selling. price of his
land hut the fict that all such land
will yield annually to each commun
ity a large revenue, proves that the
value has not been destroyed, but so
cialized. Indeed you can no more de
stroy the value of land in a growing
community than you could destroy
gravitation. Both are in the nature of
things.
Let the farmers and email home
owners consider who would be tne
gainers, were all land values social
ized; that is, were ground rents col
lected from each according to the val
ue of his land, and then redistributed
back to each pro rata. Those who
would pay the largest taxes would be
those who are today receiving tbe
largest amounts oi.uie nuciai ijiuuuvi
annually such as the Standard Oil
company, with its vast land values in
pipe lines, men owning valuable coa'
fields, or other mining properties;
railroads with their valuable fran
chises; choice city lots, more valuable
than whole counties of farming land.
The owners of such properties are to
day paying smaller taxes in propor
tion to their wealth than are the farm
ers; but under the single tax they
would pay by far the largest taxes of
any; and it is right that they should,
since they are receiving annually vast
amounts of the social pioduct. They
have grown rich by absorbing social
product. It is because they feed con
tinually upon social product that
makes each a monopoly.
The farmers and small home-owners
are clinging desperately to a ays
tern of taxation that robs them ol
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IMcaae mention The Independent u
roup reply.
much that they are producing by their
individual labor, and of nearly all
that they are producing socially, De
cause they do not as yet realize that
society produces a vaiue, as weu do
tne inamauai.
Because the farmer is not robbed cf
his entire social product, as Is tne
landless man, he clings to his small
land value in his little farm. But
thi3 system is so enslaving to botn
labor and capital that under it wages
and the profits of capital can never
rise to all mat tney reany earn.
Students of Henrv Georee know that
so long as the social fund is so un
equally distributed just so long will
wages be low, and business depjes
sion increase.
The truth is that under the single
tax, the farmers and small home-owu-ers
would receive far more land val
ues than at present. Then people are
generally so constituted mat tney can
not comprehend that they possess
ownership of land values, unless it
taues some tangible shape, as in thtr
particular farms.
This is the result of hundreds of
years of Individual land value owner
ship. When we have had fifty years
or social land value ownership each
one will readily comorenend that his
share is an equal pro rata part of the
whole, however great it may be. In
such a social state, there will be a
community of interests a common
brotherhood in which men- will no
Ipnger worry for fear they cannot find
work to do at good wages, or that
old age may leave them homeless.
There is still another reason why
the masses fear this chanee In taxa
tion, and that is because politics are
so corrupt at present that they fear
the social fund will not be equally
distributed even were it fairly col
lected; but it is the grabbing through
special legislation of the social fund
that is the cause of political corrup
tion. Tax away from monopoly what
she is receiving of the social product,
and she will have no incentive to
bribe the political boss, and-he will
disappear.
Were each farmer to receive his
share of the annual ground rent the
social product of his community, be
will receive far more than he gives.
His taxes would be about' one-third
less than now. That would represent
what he gives the community; but his
social benefits would be two-thirds
more than now.' This would repre
sent what he would receive, such as
better schools, better - roadsr three
cent fares, lower freights, low tele
graph or telephone rates, cheaper
coal, light, and if nationally intro
duced cheaper prices for almost ev
ery manufactured article. .
These advantages would increase
the power of his earnings from 10 to
J7 per cent '
Thomas G. Shearman, after years of
study upon the subject, stated it as his
conviction that to remove all taxes
from everything but land values, and
tax them so lightly as to collect only
one-half of the social product, would
result in raising wages 50 per cent!
Think of it! Labor unions conduct
costly strikes at great suffering foi a
rise of 10 per cent. If thev would but
study this question, they would soon
vote a new system of taxation into be
ing, that would raise their, wages i0
per cent and end commercial denres-
sions; for as Mr. Shearman so well
said, wage-earners rarely save their
wages. A rise of 50 per cent means
a home market that would set all
wheels of industry la motion, and keep
them so.
Mr. Shearman also showed that to
day the farmer was beine taxed nn
his land values nearly as much as he
would be under his plan, but that mo
nopoly was escaping this tax almost
entirely. Tax its Bodal privileges at
their full valuo It would soon tease
to be a monopoly.
True, under thelngle tax the farm
er would not bo at.! to all hla land
for a large lump sum. Neither would
any one cIhc, bo ho would not have to
pay a large sum tor homes for his
children. The conditions would be no
changed that only thoe who realize
how .differently men ad and appear
under hardship and privation from
what they uo hn they have leisure
and plenty only those who dwell hi
lovlns thought upon thla great s.heme
of Justbe can fully appreciate alt th.tt
the slnjjle lax ha In store for hu
manity. But we should not view thin sub
ject wholly from that of jxronal
Kaln, but look rather at the justue
of tt.
What the Individual producet
lori to him. What aodety ruducai
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i ol
That Tells j
All About !
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collectively belongs to each member
of that society equally: and this means
equal rights for all, and special priv
ileges, ror none.
ELIZA STOWE TWITCHELL.
Wollaston, Mass. , .
Entirely Wrong
Editor Independent: . The good
things that are to be found weekly iri
the columns of your paper emphasize
the wonder at your giving over the
front page in your last issue to the
letter by Mr. John S. De Hart. I take
it that the looseness of his reasoning
has your approval else you would not
give it so prominent a place in your
paper. The absurdity of his reasoning
is evidenced in the contradictarincs3
of his statements relative to Mr.
George's system of taxation. At the
bottom of the first column he says
that "Mr. George and his followers
propose a single tax upon land values
as a substitute for custom, house taxes
and all other kinds of taxation." Then
in the third column he says, "Had Mr.
George's system of taxation Internal
taxation upon wealth been practical
and," etc. One who assumes to inter
pret for your readers as Mr. De Hart
does should know at least,1 the mean-
ng of his terms and that Henry
George's proposition of a single tax
upon land values did not propose a
system of taxation upon wealth.
Plainly it is my opinion that Mr. De
Hart does not know the meaning of
the word wealth and if you would
have your readers credit you with
having a clear understanding of Henry
George's philosophy such articles as
this would not find a jJace in your
paper, without at least an editorial ex
pression from you as to it.
DANIEL KIEFEH
Cincinnati, O.
(The Independent has said a thou
sand times, more or less, that it does
not hold Itself responsible for the
views of correspondents. It is an open
forum. It allows access to its col
umns to every man who honestly bc-
ieves he has something jor the ben
efit of mankind. It never will adopt
the policy of the plutocratic dallies
and shut out from discussion every
thing that It docs not itself fully ap
prove. The Independent is not In
fallible. Neither Is Mr. Klefer. If
Mr. Klefer had read in The Indepen
dent anything except the single tax
matter he would have no trouble r
finding out whether Its editors were
In favor of a protective tariff or not.
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