| Show TH SINGLE TAX I To the Editor of THE HERD What is known as the Bellamy idea or nationalism in this country and as socialism social-ism in Germany proposes the abolition of private property In land and the entire reorganization re-organization of society on the basis of industrial in-dustrial cooperation which is that the entire en-tire production and distribution of wealth shall be under the supervision of the general gen-eral government There are two points to consider in this proposed reform viz Are there evils in our present economical system and will I the adoption of the theory of nationalism I remedy them 1 Tho last half century has witnessed a marvelous increase in wealthproducing power The invention and introduction of machinery within the last few years have displaced ninetyfive in each hundred engaged en-gaged in the manufacture of woolen goods 75 per cent of those engaged in the manufacture manu-facture of cotton goods SO per cent of those engaged in agriculture and the manufacture of boots and shoes and 75 percent Il per-cent of those engaged in the manufacture of flour In short twentyfive men can now do the work that required one hundred less than half a century ago But with ail this progress there are throughout the United States poverty and discontent That this condition is caused by overproduction overpro-duction is denied How can there be overproduction over-production of food when hundreds are dying daily from starvation How can there be overproduction of clothes when thousands of men women and children are suffering from lack of necessary apparell How can there be overproduction of any article when the needs of the community are not supplied with that article I The theory that suffering is due to overpopulation over-population is not substantiated by facts or reason The United States have only twenty inhabitants in-habitants to the square mile and millions of acres of fertile land unoccupied and waiting wait-ing for the tiller Even in the most thickly populated countries of Europe there is produced pro-duced much more wealth than is sufficient t provide all with the necessaries of lfe Thus while the natural resources of the earth are more than ample to supply the wants of its inhabitants suffering from want prevails As wealth can only be produced by labor acting upon natural opportunities and as there is an abundance of labor and inexhaustible inex-haustible natural resources the cause of poverty must bo the inability of labor to get t access to natural opportunities I labor gets access to natural opportunities wealth will be produced and the wants of the toiler satisfied from his own production But labor cannot get access to these opportunities oppor-tunities because they are monopolized by private individuals therefore private property prop-erty in land is the fundamental wrong in our social institutions The citizens of this republic can no longer discuss in a patronizing patron-izing manner tho evils of landlordism to Irishmen and other Europeans Look at the followIng The Schen ley estate owns 2000 acres within wihin the limits of Pittsburg and Allegheny Alle-gheny cities from which the heirs draw a million dollars annually annualy Vanderbilt owns 2000000 acres Murphy of California 4000000 equal in atea to the atate of Massachusetts the Standard Oil company 1000000 and railroad companies 211000000 Twentyone million acres in the United States arc owned by foreign noblemen Lord Scully Ireland owns 90000 acres In Illinois which he parcels out to small farmers who work like slaves for a bare living and turn over to their foreign landlord 200000 per annum These examples tend to show the grow ing condition of land monopoly in this country I The daily foreclosure ot mortgages in I many of the western states is greatly add ing t the aggregate acreage held by foreign foreig and domestic landlordsone is as good as the other either merely considering the tenant a prodmcer from whom must be ext ex-t tracted all that he produces save barely cufncicntto enable him to exist That evils exist in our economical sys tem is evidenced by the undeniable preva lence of want amidst the power to produce plenty The main cause has been directly traced t private property in directy remedy proposed by Nationalism is simple yet radical viz abolish private property m land The justice of this remedy cannot be questioned Land which includes all al natural elements is necessary to life To deny the right to land is to deny the right Lo le Herbert Spencer in chapter I of Social So-cial Statistics pointedly discusses private property in land as follows Equity 1 therefore does not permit property inland e For if one portion of the earths surface may properly become the possession of an individual and may be held by him for his sole use and benefit as a thing to which he has an exclusive right then other portions portons of the earths surface maybe so held and our planetTmay thus lapse altogether into private hands Observe now the dilemma to which this leads Supposing the entire habitable globe to be so enclosed it fol lows that if the landowners have a valid right to it surface all who are not land ovners have no right at all to its surface Hence such can exist on the earth by suf france only They are all tresnassers al Save by the permission of the lords of the soil they have no room for the soles of their feet Nay should the others trunk fit to deny them a resting place these landless men might equitably be expelled from the earth altogether I then the assumption that land can be held as prop erty involves that the whole globe may become be-come the private domain of a part of its in habitants and if by consequence tie rest of its inhabitants can exercise their facul ties can then exist even only by consent of the landowners it is manifest that an exclusive ex-clusive possession of the soil necessitates an infringement of the law of equal free dom For men who cannot live and move and nave their being without the leave of others cannot be equally free with those others Society bands itself together and insti tutes laws for the purpose of protecting each member in the enjoyment of his natural nat-ural rights As society advances towards civilization or barbarism conditions so alter that rules that harmoniously guide its life in one century create discord in the next And so it is that although private property in land has been tolerated for centuries cen-turies always with greater or less destructive destruc-tive consequence to society the organism of society has at last become so compli cated that the system practically denies to millions the right to life and liberty Society Soci-ety therefore whose laws are theoreti cally made and sustained by the majority has the unquestioned right to abolish private pri-vate property in land because it denies t the majority the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness Assuming the abolition of private property prop-erty in land as the primary feature of the Bellamy idea the secqndary feature and the cue necessary in ordec to make a full and complete remedy for existing social ills is for the government to take control of first one enterprise and then another until it has gradually been reorganized on the basis of a coooorative commonwealth The question as to whether or not society has the right to enlarge it functions beyond be-yond those of protecting its members is simple to decide The following illustration illustra-tion invoves the principle The street car corporation numbering perhaps fifty members mem-bers the business of which is managed by aboard a-board of five directors are engaged in an enterprise that yields a profit This profit is a return to the members of the corporation corpora-tion over and above the entire cost of running run-ning the enterprise The municipality which is also a corporation consisting of perhaps a hundred thousand members the affairs of which are managed by a city council of perhaps twentyfive members concludes to construct a streetcar railway and return the profits to its members in cheapened streetcar transportation What is tho essential difference between the two cases cited None whatevera hundred thousand members instead of fifty managed man-aged by twentyfive directors instead of five the profits returned t a hundred thousand members instead of fifty I may be practical to suggest to those who doubt the right of the government to engage in such business as it sees fit and thus possibly cause a few to suffer that when a man enters into any business today to-day he takes into consideration the facts that tomorrow a new invention may destroy I de-stroy his business or the formation of a trust or combination may cause his failure The right of the government to act for the benefit of the majority cannot be questioned ques-tioned so long as it does not infringe a natural right The discussion then simmers down to one of expediency Can the government manage man-age enterprises successfully 1 Judging from the experience of this country and others the answer would seem to be yes The public schools and state universities of this country managed by boards of directors di-rectors and regents the postoffice department depart-ment managed by the central governmentr the water and lighting plants of various cities owned and controlled by the municipality muni-cipality are practical examples of nationalism nation-alism European countries are fertile with examples ex-amples of successful state management And while the opponents of state control endeavor to create a prejudice against these examples on the ground that they are from monarchial governments while we are republican it loses force unless it can also be demonstrated that this management does not react for the benefit of the people To say that state management of various enterprises benefits the masses in monarchial monar-chial countries but cannot be a success here is to say that monarchialgovernments are better for the people than republican This is of course ridiculous Belgium commenced to develop a system of state railroads in 1S32 and now owns and controls about SO per cent of the roads of the country The railro ids are paying dividends that go into the public treasury to decrease taxation Rates on tonnage have decreased M per cent and passenger rates about 55 per cent France has almost absolute supervision of her railroads and can purchase the lines at any time on the payment of an annuity calculated on the profit of the seven preceding pre-ceding years Germany has from the first refused to grant charters t unnecessary competing lines The government always becomes a heavy stockholder in each new line and regulates everything from the rates on merchandise to safeguards against accidents acci-dents In Prussia the system is practically cooperative co-operative Austria has complete supervision super-vision of freight and passenger traffic Italy owns her lines of railroads and the Netherlands Neth-erlands controls about 60 per cent of her railroad mileage Immediately upon the expiration of railroad charters in Russia the government assumes control and operates oper-ates at lower rates than the private companies com-panies did A few years since a railroad was constructed con-structed in India the government borrowing borrow-ing the money at 3 per cent the road paid 5 per cent enabling the government govern-ment to reduce the tariff England purchasing her telegraph lines reduced the tarif 40 per cent and still derives a revenue reve-nue of of 6 per cent from operation of the lines But it is useless to lnes multiply examples ex-amples Probably the next enterprise this government gov-ernment concludes to control will be the telegraph In such a case the present employees em-ployees would continue in their present positions the general manager reporting ton to-n cabinet secretary at Washington instead of t the president of the telegraph system at New York There would be a revision of the tariff and instead of seventyfive cents for a messago to Chicago twentyfive cents would probably be the rate The government would not try to pay 40 percent per-cent dividends on stock watered 500 percent per-cent It has certainly been demonstrated that evils exist in our economical system and that Nationalism as above presented is a remedy for them F H MONROE 203 East Fourth Street Salt Lake Utah |
