THE HESPERIAN
11
lushed his horses across tho plain toward thorcof, and of tho strango builder, and of
tho city. tho sin of tho king, I may not sponk, for my
Of Iho groat pyramid and of tho mystery lips aro scaled. . W. Gather.
The Siogle Tax Theory.
Shortly before tho closo of tho eighteenth
century thero arose in France a school of
political economists known as the Physio
crats. Their distinguishing doctrine was in
regard to land. They believed that in the
cultivation of tho soil was tho only source for
the creation of new wealth. All occupations
except agricultural were unproductive. All
expenses of government must ultimately bo
born by tho land owners. Hence they ad
vocated tho impot unique, or a tax upon
land only. They did not dispute the indi
viduals title to land. Neither did they
question the expediency or justness of pri
vate ownership; nor did they intend to dis
turb the individual in his possession. They
simply proposed to appropriate the produce
net, which land returns for tho enjoyment
of labor and capital. The theory that
the system of individual ownership of land
was at the root of the miseries of society,
of the pauperism and poverty that exists,
had not yet been evolved. The support
of such a theory -was left for an Ameri
can of to-day. And perhaps it could not
have been 'left to a more brilliant, ablo or
forcible writer than Henry George. His
"Progress and Poverty" is an eloquent
book. It was written by an author who un
doubtedly was animated by a pure desire
for the good of mankind. An enthusiast in
his work, but who could see but one side.
He has pictured but the shame of civilization,
and not its glory; but the grinding wants
of men, and not their comforts. The peo
ple cannot always afford to follow enthusi
asts. Thev have suffered from their blind
leadership. It has taken men too long to
emerge from the morasses; too long to fight
their way outward to the light, as in ages
now long buried in the past.
Before that class of citizens who have al
ways been a nation's most patriotic defend
ers, who in defending the nation protected
their own homes; and before the permanent
interest in those homes is destroyed, the
market value of land confiscated, the state
made landlord and the people tenants, it
should be most carefully considered whether
such is a step into the dark, or a step to
wards the millennium. The far reaching
effects and the highly probable injurious re
sults of destroying the security of the home,
leaving only chattels which a man may leave
for the comforts of his family, caunot be
considered too carefully.
The religious argument of the single tax
theorist has little weight. It is true that
land is the gift of God to mankind, and that
all men are entitled equally to its use and
enjoyment. It is not, however, a gift in the
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