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SCI LIBRARY

The Single Tax and the Labor Movement

PREFACE

Peter Alexander Speek



[A Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 878, 1917, p.253]



The following pages are a piece of research work attempting an historical sketch of the singletax agitation in connection with the labor movement.

The first part contains four chapters: (I) Analysis of the singletax theory; its formation and relation to the economic conditions and to other current doctrines of the time; (II and III) Description of labor organizations in the light of the industrial and legal relations; and (IV) Analysis of the conditions which directly brought organized labor into independent politics in 1886.

The second part contains six chapters, which describe the character and analyze the events and results of the singletax agitation in the labor movement.

In the treatment of the various phases of the subject it has been the author's desire to preserve a strictly neutral point of view, especially in the consideration of conflicts between opposing schools or factions and their leaders.

The research has been conducted under the direction of Professor John R. Commons, while valuable suggestions have been received from Professor Richard T. Ely, of the University of Wisconsin.