Letters on Taxation

Letter 8

Edwin Burgess

[1859]

The word tariff appears to have its origin in the name of an ancient town at the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar, in Spain, called Tariffe, where a nest of pirates, legal or illegal, levied tribute on all vessels entering or departing between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Whether the tax or tribute was levied on the plea of protection, right, duty, or robbery, this deponent sayeth not, but the plunder will be just as manifest, injurious, and degrading to the robber and the robbed under one name as another.

"The rose by any name will smell as sweet,"
And wrong by any name be just as great.

The expense of the United States General Government, from June 30th, 1857, to June 30, 1858, were over eighty one and a half million dollars, making about three dollars for every man, woman, and child in the nation, or fifteen dollars for the head of each family, counting a man and wife and three children as a family. Now, were the public land free to the landless, and all the taxes on the land alone, irrespective of all improvement, would not one dollar per head, or about thirty million dollars be sufficient for all the purposes of the general government to protect their citizens in the possession of their natural rights, ( for it costs much less to protect us in the possession of the right of land and free commerce than to rob us of those rights)? If that estimate is correct, then we should save one million dollars weekly by ceasing to tax the industry of the country for the benefit of the land monopolist, which would keep the land at the lowest price and within the reach of the greatest number, and consequently labour would reach the greatest reward; and only when the land is at the lowest price will competition to supply cheap food be equal to the competition to supply cheap manufactures for all, which cannot be while the many are landless as now.

But, with free or cheap land, the country would be much more densely populated, while the cities and villages would be much smaller, and we should much more nearly attain that proportion of population to land, which would be compatible with the greatest possible production at the least possible cost.

By robbing the majority of their right of land in the country, and by taxing their industry to make the land robbery profitable, we drive that landless majority into cities which depopulates the country and over populates the cities; till the cities become crowded full of cesspools of pauperism, prostitution, misery, disease, and crime, while the country is comparatively a wilderness, where isolation and ignorance must prevail, from the want of that mental communion in which each receives and gives the greatest benefit to all; or why do farmers send their children to be educated in cities, where, unfortunately, they learn as much sensualism as science, and more intemperance than industry? And necessarily so, from the sickly hot house life of cities, which dwarfs the bodies and limbs of children, just as the bodies and limbs of hot house plants are dwarfed instead of developed. And as hot house plants prematurely bloom and perish and become unfit for healthy reproduction, so it is with our girl and boy fathers and mothers, whose children seldom see many summers.

Is not this Nature's just penalty for the sin of land robbery in the country, thus causing the hot house life of cities, and giving us a doctor tax, frequently greater than the cost of government, besides populating our cemeteries and bereaving our homes; giving sad evidence of errors seldom thought of or reflected on, and still more seldom practically heeded?

Look at the landlord tax growing out of the same cause of land monopoly; people generally think of it about rent days, but rarely of the cause or remedy. Who can estimate the rental of the nation, or even Racine city, every dollar of which is caused by land monopoly, except the rent for wear, risk, and insurance, which is the only natural rent, so that, were it not for land monopoly, every one might soon become his own landlord?

Farmers, do you ever think that when lots are rising in cities, rents are rising also, which you, as consumers, must pay when you buy your goods? Merchants, do you reflect that when land rises in the country from 10s. to 10 or 100 dollars per acre, you also pay the rent or interest of that land, in proportion to its price on all the produce that you consume? Manufacturers, mechanics and labourers, do you know that you must pay the high rents of stores as well as dwellings, and the high prices, interest, or rents of farm lands also, on all the farm produce and manufactures which you consume? And do we all understand that labour as one inevitably pays the whole? Yes, the mechanical contrivers for productive industry ( not war ), the manufacturers, merchants, and mechanics, the farmers and labourers, pay the whole expense of extortionate governments, landlords, doctors, lawyers and legislators, kings, lords, popes, bishops, cardinals, priests and princes, pirates, paupers, prostitutes, gamblers, thieves, loafers, and the standing army and navy to boot.

Then comes the question how to reduce the government to the least cost with the greatest security and most certain means of living for all.

Whenever a population is very dense, as in cities, the moral influence is least, while the cost of government is greatest. Take New York City, which costs ten dollars per head, while Racine, with the estimate of thirty six thousand dollars for 1859, will be four and a half dollars per head, counting eight thousand as the population in round numbers.

Public opinion is greatest for the moral restraint of evil and promotion of good, where each knows all, and is known by all for the greatest number and distance; and the towns and villages approach the nearest this condition.

But the cost of roads and schools is large in a thinly settled district, because there are few road makers in proportion to the roads required, and few children and far apart in the school districts. But if the land tax would abolish land monopoly, and make the means of making a living honestly the most easy and certain for all, and make it unprofitable to keep land idle, then people would settle near each other for convenience, comfort, society and profit; and farmers would not need to send their children to cities for education. In fact, few cities comparatively would exist, with free and cheap land in the country. And I do not think that town and village government now costs over a dollar per head, so that, besides saving a million dollars weekly by the general government, we should save millions weekly by city government, by saving health and morals, by rents, interest, and usury, by diminishing pauperism, prostitution, disease, and crime, and the high price of land, which inevitably grows out of our taking our labour improvements for the profit of the land monopolist alone.


SONG OF THE EARTH

Listen, dear friends, to the song of the Earth:
Did I not bear every being at birth?
Am I not present wherever you rove,
Over the mountain, in valley and grove?

CHORUS

Plough me, and dig me, rake, harrow and hoe,
Plant and manure me, and freely I'll grow;
Sing me a song on the land or the main,
Then will your parent, Earth, never complain.

Do I not aid all your innocent glee?
Why is no song ever written to me?
All the rich fruit and the beauty I show,
Are they not pressed wherever you go?

Do I not turn to the sun and the moon,
Making it even, night, and morning, and noon?
Do I not hold all your metals in store,
Iron and silver, and gold in the ore?

Do I not bear all the ships of the main,
All the rich harvests of fruit and of grain?
Fishes that dwell in pond, river, and sea,
Are they not all well supported by me?

Animals grazing the hill or the plain,
Roaming the forest, or skirting the main,
Birds of rich plumage, of beauty and song,
All to your parent, Earth, ever belong.

Shall I expose my rich bosom in vain?
Parched with the sun, and then drenched with the rain;
Clad every winter with crystals of snow,
Swept by the whirlwinds that terribly blow.

Who supplies mortar and stone for your halls,
Clay for the potter, and lime for your walls?
Where would your statues and paintings e'er be,
Were marble and colour not given by me?

Do I not make all the forests to grow,
All the choice woods which the workers well know?
What would their planing and polishing be,
Were not the beauties provided by me?

Do I not hold each mountain and hill;
Beds for each ocean, lake, river, and rill;
Coal fields for fuel, and fining your ore:
What can a parent Earth do for you more?

When you are planting your fruit and your grain,
Blessed with the sunshine, the dew, and the rain,
Giving rich harvest to fill you with glee;
Think you how much is provided by me?

Let all your wars and your quarrelling cease,
Dwell on my bosom in plenty and peace;
Love one another, be honest and true;
Thus would your parent Earth, teach unto you.

Let not a brother, when strong to command,
Rob any one of his right to the land:
Is there not room on my bosom for all;
Why fill your Earth - life with wormwood and gall?

Why am I rented, and bartered and sold,
By part of my children for silver and gold;
Robbers by law, and rulers by might,
Foes unto justice, and freedom, and right?

Let not the strong one the weaker enslave;
Those who are strong, should be tender and brave,
Foes to the tyrant, and friends to the free;
Such would give joy unto you and to me.

When you are steaming by sea and by land,
All you desire being yours to command;
Gratitude ever will heighten your glee -
Oft a kind thought would be welcome to me.

INTRODUCTION
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Letter 7 * Letter 8 * Letter 9
Letter 10 * Letter 11