12
THE HESPERIAN
flenses that nil can deal with it as they ploaso,
but that no part of it has boon assigned to
any particular individaul, and that tho limits
of private possession have been left to bo
iixed by 'man's own industry, and by tho
laws of individual people.
The object of this new tax is to euro tho
evils of the present system of land-holding.
But in attempting to euro the supposed evils
of that system, greater ones are sure to bo
created. Abolish the present system by
direct methods, if it is necessary to abolish
it, but not by taxation. Equity will not
permit the one-fifteenth of the people of tho
country to bear all the burdens of govern
ment. Taxes are levied to satisfy collective
wants, wants that spring from the organiza
tion of society; and those who share in the
benefits of society, in tho protection of tho
state, must share as well in the burdens. It
is a principle of wise taxation that taxes
should be so levied that no one class of peo
ple, or no one kind of property, should bear
all the burden or bear more than an .equal
and just share. Put all taxes on one class
of persons and you at once unite them to
protect their common interest. Put all taxes
upon one kind of property and you at once
create a class out of those who possess that
property. It has been a maxim of tho
American people, and it should continue to
be, that there should be no taxation without
representation, which means also that only
those who are taxed should be represented.
The single tax is recommended because it
is an easy and simple method of providing
for the revenue to support this government.
While ease and simplicity are good things,
neither that which is easy nor that which is
fiimplo is always the best thing. Perhaps
tho easiest and simplest way of getting rid of
a man who annoys you is to shoot him. But
it frequently happens, however, that this is
not tho best way. If state ownership of
land would, as Ilenry George claims, ex
tirpate pauperism, abolish poverty, lessen
crime, elevate morals and tastes and intelli
gence, purify government, and carry civil
ization to yet nobler heights, then indeed it
is to bo devoutly desired. Is it not how
ever true that tho causes of poverty are deep
seated in tho naturo of men ; that human
nature would need be revolutionized and
formed anew before poverty would become
unknown? Is it not true that the most ef
fectual remedies for poverty must come
through tho individual himself rather than
through legislation from within rather than
from without?
Tho question . of the origin of private
ownership or land has boon one of much
dispute and confusion. It may be said,
howevor, that its origin is not different from
the origin of man's right to property in gen
eral. Whether that origin is natural or
conventional it is tho same with personal
property. The single tax theorists cannot
consistently destroy the property in tho one
without destroying tho property in the other.
If man has no natural right to exclusive
ownership of land, how is it possible for a
state to acquire that right ? Since the state
is simply the people in their organized ca
pacity, the rights of tho state are the rights
of the individuals that compose the state.
How would it be possible for a single state
to stand out among the nations of the earth
as a single individual and claim ownership
of land? If an individual has a natural
right to land then that right rests only in
the whole people of tho globe, and in the
state that includes all nations. Then may not
the single tax theorists more consistently say
with Marcus Aurelis while standing at the
threshhold of tho Christian era, and looking
forward seventeen centuries, "That men are
under one common law, and if so, they must
be fellow citizens and belong to tho same
body politic. From whence it will follow
that the whole world is but one common
wealth." E. C. Stkode.
Tfoe Big Cut.
"I can think of nothing else, nothing
else," and Olaf straightened up where he
stood half way up the side of tho Big Cut,
and drawing his sleevo across his forehead,
looked down with a haggard face on tho
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