Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 23, 1902 Page: 4 of 16
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8QUTHEKJN MERCURY
Thursday, January 23, 1902.
H
OPEN FORUM.
WHY "THE 8INQLE TAX" WOULD
BENEFIT THE FARMER.
Brother Tanner in his communica-
tion to the Mercury of Jan. 16th as-
sumes that single taxers are angry
because they manifest impatience,
when writers eschew every known
principle of dialectics and utter decla-
rations at variance with axiomatic
truths, the recognized corollaries of
established conclusions. In discus-
sing economics^ intelligent minds
must agree upon the meaning and
force of terms employed. Disputants
who are worthy to represent a cause
must enter the field fully posted and
ready to admit the axioms—the plain
results of deduction from indisputable
premises—else the controversy falls
below the plane of legitimate discus-
sion and becomes a war of words. For
instance as to terms in discussing the
single tax, writers pro and con should
know that the proposed single tax is
not a tax on all land, but is a tax on
iand values. The one would be a tax
on acreage, the other on values. As
some land, when taken out of specula-
tion, could have no demand value sit
all., it would pay no tax. Hence the
distinction must be kept in view to
avoid confusion in discussing the ef-
fects of the single tax. It is an axiom
of political economy, and so ac-
knowledged by the most eminent
writers, that the wages paid to labor
engaged in agricultural pursuits is the
basis of the wages of the laborer in
the cities. If the country labor is well
paid it remains in the country. If it be
poorly paid it will gravitate to the
towns and compete with town labor
and cause the wage of the latter to
fall to a lower notch. We claim that
by taking land out of speculation the
country laborer can have an oppor-
tunity to employ himself on free land
if his wages tend to only a bare sub-
sistence, and he will not go to the
town or city for employment. Free
natural opportunities will act as a
safety valve to the supply aand de-
mand of labor.
Mr. George has pftjven beyond dis-
pute that the farmer's taxes would be
reduced under the single tax, inas-
much as he would pay on his farm no
higher tax than would the owner of
the same number of acres of unim-
proved land outside of his fence now
held for speculation. The burden of
taxes would be removed from the
country to the centers of wealth now
accumulated at the expense of the
farmer and producer. Farmers may
not be "ignorant," but they are not in-
formed on many questions affecting
their interests. If they were well
posted they would inaugurate the
single tax, which would not only low-
er their taxes, but bury the protective
tariff and all other exactions. They
could buy in a free market and sell
their products direct without the in-
terposition of a score of middlemen.
The holding of town lots out of use
does affect the price of labor. It also
keeps rents high and militates against
trade. Under the single tax the va-
cant lot would pay the same tax as the
improved lot—the Improvements be-
ing exempt. This would force the
owner of the vacant lot to sell or
build. This would stimulate building
of houses^ increase the opportunities
for labor to get employed. A demand
for all sorts of building material
would follow, besides creating ac-
tivity in all branches of trade.
Supply and demand for labor cer-
tainly affects wages; but only by rea-
son of abnormal conditions, chief of
which is land monopoly. Now labor
cannot emplovy itself except by per-
cannot employ itself except by per-
mission of the capitalist and land
owners. It is cut off from one of the
factors essential to the production of
wealth, unless it pays such tribute as
will deprive it of its dues. Labor is
one of the factors of wealth. Land is
the other. Capital is only incidental
and resultant from the two essential
factors. With free access to land
(and by land is meant the whole area
of the earth and its elements) labor
would never fail to be employed in the
production of material things. Under
the present system of taxation the
gold and silver, the bonds and the dia-
monds of the rich virtually escape
taxation through cunning and leger-
demain or are not returned at all, as
Brother Dives, of Dallas county, says.
Mr. Tanner classes land as property
and puts it in the same category with
wealth, outside of its being one of the
factors for the production of wealth.
Land in the hands of the non-user is a
means to exact tribute from the home-
less. Its possession for use consti-
tutes a perfect title. The user cannot
be dispossessed under the single tax
save for non-payment of the tax. He
could not mortgage it. The sale of his
improvements would transfer the site.
It is therefore not property. It is a
portion of the heritage to man and his
descendants, which he uses during
life. It is something he cannot move
away or destroy. He could not make
a single gain of its component parts.
Blackstone in his commentaries says
there can be no defensible title to
land. No one has the power to write
a first perfect title. It originated in
force and the system is the most
potent deterrent to advancing civiliza-
tion. Animals are property, because
to own them is necessary to prevent
their final extermination, and taking
care of them and breeding them is
labor, and in effect is the creation of
property rights.
When man fells timber, fences his
field, builds his house^ drains his land
and otherwise improves his site he
creates that much wealth, and is just-
ly entitled to it, and further he should
not be taxed (fined) for such im
provements. He should only pay to
society a just tax—for occupancy of
the lands—to defray the expenses of
government economically adminis-
tered. The incentive to land owner-
ship is to forestall the inevitable de-
mand for homes, and to exact tribute
from the masses. It is a power to tax
placed in the hands of the capitalist,
a power which is subversive of free
institutions when placed in the mer-
ciless hands of a class.—E. P. Als-
bury, Houston, Texas, Jan. 24.
A cwMry Lass.
Health in her beaming eyes, health
in her glowing cheek, health in her
merry laugh. Yet country air and
country hours can't save her from the
common experience of women — an
experience which dulls the eye, pales
the cheek, and turns the laugh to a
sigh. Womanly ills come to almost
all. The most severe and painful of
the diseases which affect the delicate
organs usually attain their severity
through neglect or through the un-
skillful treatment of local practition-
ers. Young women should be
warned that irregularities and debili-
tating drains are only the precursors of more serious
trouble if proper treatment is not obtained. Disease
never stanas still. The deeper rooted the disease the
more difficult the cure.
Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription has been the means
of curing thousands of women, many of them in the
last extremity of disease. It is a medicine for woman's
ills which does what it was made to do and never dis-
appoints any woman who gives it a fair and faithful trial.
It always helps. It almost always heals.
"Favorite Prescription" regulates the .periods, dries enfeebling drains,
heals inflammation and ulceration and cures female weakness. It makes
child-birth easy and gives strength to nursing mothers.
There is no alcohol in "Favorite Prescription" neither does it contain
opium, cocaine, or any other narcotic.
Women suffering from chronic forms of disease are invited to consult Dr.
Pierce by letter free, and obtain the advice of a specialist in the treatment of
woman's diseases. All correspondence strictly private and sacredly confi-
dential. Address Dr. R. V. Pierce, Buffalo, N. Y.
Miss Ella Sapp, of Jamestown, Guilford Co., N. C., writes: "I had suffered
three years or more at monthly periods. It seemed as though I would die with
pain in my back and stomach. I could not stand without fainting; had given up
all hope of ever being cured, when one of my friends insisted upon my trying Dr.
Pierce's Favorite Prescription. With but little faith I tried it, and before I had
taken half a bottle I felt Detter—had better appetite and slept better. Now I am
happy to say I am. entirely cured, and all done in two months' time, when all other
medicines had failed to do any good at all."
Dr. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets are woman's
favorite laxative. They are small In size, the
dose Is small, and their benefit Is not transient
but permanent.
THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WORK-
INGMAN.
Mr. James McDonald, the editor of
the London Trades and Labor Gazette,
utters some biting truths about Amer-
ican workingmen, which all intelligent
and earnest workers on this side the
water who are true to their class inter-
ests will admit are only too true. Mr.
McDonald says:
"The American workman grumbles
less, and more readily responds to the
invitation of his capitalist taskmaster
because he is a better brokein-in ani-
mal. He recognizes capital as king,
and fully understands that the capital-
ist owns him body and soul, and that
he must lay at the feet of his king,
capital, all his physical and intellectu-
al energies and fight his battles.
"He is entirely the creature of capi-
tal, and has no more real independence
than the machine ho works. He claims
to be the most independent worker rtn
earth, but that independence is never-
theless entirely subject to a money
value, and up to the present he has
sold it to the highest bidder.
"Industrially and politically the
American worker in the political sense
is the most degraded of creatures—
most degraded because his opportuni-
ties are greatest. American workmen
do but obey their animal instincts
when they favor the surivai of any
particular group of employers, for it
is under such a group that they live
and have their being."
The true inwardness of the asset \
*
currency swindle has been unwittingly
revealed by ex-Comptroller of the Cur-
rency Dawes, who is a candidate for
Mason's place in the Senate. He said:
''"As opposed to the plans for asset
currency, and in order that collapsing
credits may be protected in times
of panic by a greater elasticity in our
circulation, I favor an emergency cir-
culation, unsecured by bonds, but sub-
ject to so large a tax that they can and
will only be made safe, but cannot be
used as an instrument of current busi-
ness.
"This currency will appear only
when needed in a panic, and will be re-
tired when the emergency is over on
account of the heavy tax.
"Asset currency subject to only a
small tax will become an instrument
of current business, and add to the
amount of credits in existence to be
cared for in a panic. The more issued
in ordinary times the less could be
issued in times of panic. It is not safe
to base argument for asset currency
upon the experience of the great cen-
tral government banks of the conti-
nent when we are considering a bank-
ing system, consisting of over 4,000
banks, widely scattered and surround-
ed by most varying conditions of cus-
tomers, collaterals and business."
Storage oil tanks are being erected
at many points on the Mississippi riv-
er to supply steamers with Texas oil.
/ U.
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Park, Milton. Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 23, 1902, newspaper, January 23, 1902; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185934/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .