The Single Tax Party

Robert C. Macauley

[Reprinted from the Single Tax Review, September-October, 1920]

INJECTED into the arena pf political action through the formation of a separate party committed solely to but a single plank-the collection by government of the entire rent of land-the Single Tax is rapidly becoming a major issue in the economic and industrial as well as the political life of the Nation.

This fact is attested by the marvelous growth of the Single Tax Party since its inauguration in Philadelphia, five short years ago by five enthusiastic and patriotic men, who had neither prestige nor resources at their command. Since then the Single Tax Party has formed organizations in twenty-two States of the Union, twenty of which will in all probability have full tickets in the field to be voted for at the coming election on November 2.

Not since the campaign of 1886 conducted by the inspired leadership of Henry George and Father Edward McGlynn has there been such united and enthusiastic support of the philosophy of the Prophet of California, as now when men and women of the Nation once more are returning to the true American system of expressing their demands for progress and reform at the polls.

Although some of the States have had recourse to the Initiative and Referendum laws to give expression to their demand for a free earth for free men, rather than through the instrumentality of a separate Single Tax Party, it is due solely to the fact that they employed the vote to make their demand for the adoption of the Single Tax, that they achieved their big successes; as was evidenced in California in the 1916 campaign when the Single Tax Amendment was supported by 260,322 voters, a fraction in excess of 31 per cent. of the entire vote poled at that election.

Something more than the mere adoption of the principle is imperative, if final victory is to be achieved and maintained -- the election of officials who will sympathetically and intelligently administer the Single Tax after it has been adopted.

Officials can be relied upon to enforce the Single Tax only when they are responsible to Single Tax constituencies: hence the urgent necessity for a strong Single Tax Party in the Nation as well as in every State in the Union.

Another prominent advantage the separate party movement has gained for the Single Tax is the wide publicity it has obtained for the principle. During the ten days preceding and following the holding of the National Convention of the Single Tax Party in Chicago, last July, nearly every newspaper in the United States averaged from a half to three-quarters of a column of space telling the people of the country about the Single Tax and the great strides it is making in the Nation.

Think of it. The whole country talking and thinking Single Tax for a continuous period of ten days. Has there ever been so wide a publicity given to our cause as resulted from the holding of the National Convention of the Single Tax Party? The value of this publicity -- measured in dollars and cents -- is virtually incalculable. It could net have been duplicated for two millions of dollars at regular advertising rates. This feature of the separate party movement should commend it to the heart and intelligence of every advocate of the philosophy of Henry George.

There are many other important advantages which a separate political party affords to advance the propaganda of the Single Tax, as has been pointed out many times before in the columns of the Single Tax Review.

Among these are the power of intelligent organization, which makes for concerted and therefore more efficient results.

The Single Tax Party has also been responsible for clarifying the definition of our principle, through the generally accepted medium of an authoritative platform. This method has been employed with beneficial results by virtually every political party which has existed in the United States.

Such declarative announcement by the Single Tax Party has resulted in a more thorough understanding of its principles and what it purposes to do than could have been brought about by any other instrumentality. Even those who are not in accord with the philosophy of the Single Tax now have an understanding of its purpose. They now know that it is not only a better and more scientific plan for raising revenue to maintain government; but, what is of far greater importance, they realize that the Single Tax is a demand that the land rent created by the community belongs to that community and should be collected by it to establish equality to the use of the earth and to maintain the service of government responsible for such land rents. It has also been made clear to everybody by the Single Tax Party that the Single Tax is the collection by the government (all the people) of the entire rent of land and not merely the exemption from taxation of improvements.; although there would be no taxing of improvements of any kind or of labor or its products if the Single Tax were collected, for the reason that there would then be more than sufficient revenue to pay for a far better and greater governmental service than any we have ever experienced.

Remember, Single Taxers, this wonderful organization has come about in five years through the efforts of but five men who were virtually without resource in the way 6f funds. Should the same ratio of increase be maintained for the coming five years, the Single Tax Party will be a tremendous force with which to reckon in the National election of 1924.

What might have been the result in the present presidential campaign, had every Single Taxer co-operated in the separate party movement during the past five years?

Surely the Single Tax Party influence would have been many thousand times as great, had all co-operated, for there were not less than 500,000 avowed Single Taxers in the nation in 1915.

Although it is better never to be late, it is better late than never. Now is therefore the time for all good Single Taxers to come to the aid of the party.