The Awakening of China

Joseph Dana Miller

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, March-April 1927]

THE late Dr. Sun Yat Sen was quoted as follows in the Independent (New York) in 1912:

"There is one point to which we ought to give the greatest attention. Formerly, people owning land paid taxes according to area. In the future taxes ought to be levied according to the value, not the area, of the land. The valuable land is mostly in the busy parts and is in the possession of wealthy men; to tax them heavily would be no oppression. The poor land is mostly the possession of poor people in the far back districts; nothing but the lightest taxes should be levied on them. If the tax were levied on the value of the land then this injustice would be done away with. If you compare the value of land in Shanghai today with what it was 100 years ago, it has increased ten thousand fold. Now industry in China is about to be developed. Commerce will advance, and in 50 years time we shall see many Shanghais in China, Let us take time by the forelock and make sure the unearned increment of land shall belong to the people and not to private individuals who happen to be the owners of the soil."

It is said that Chiang Kai Shek, commander in Chief of Canton armies, whose success in defeating entrenched armies far outnumbering his own, stamp him as a military genius of the first order, is an avowed Single Taxer, while the Christian general Feng, commander of another Canton army, assisted Dr. W.E. Macklin in translating Protection or Free Trade. Dr. Macklin writes Will Atkinson that three editions of "Progress and Poverty" have been printed and that the cause is making steady progress in that country.

A reader of LAND AND FREEDOM, Floren L. Ink, of Denver, writes us as follows:

This is from Fernand Farjenel, Through the Chinese Revolution,/i>, Chap. II, p. 13, "The Genesis of the Revolution." Mr. Farjenel is a Frenchman. He was in China at the time of the Revolution in 1912. Of Dr. Sun Yat Sen he says,

"A Cantonese doctor of medicine was for twenty years the apostle of the Revolution to the world at large. He travelled to the ends of the earth, stirring up the enthusiasm of his countrymen in every corner of the globe. This is the famous Sun Yat Sen who has well deserved to be called the "Father of the Revolution," seeing that he has devoted his life to it, seeking to enlist in its cause foreigners and Chinamen alike."

Following this, Farjenel gives what was called the "Summary of the Revolution" issued by the Revolutionary Party in the year 1904. I have extracted the following:

"All citizens shall share equally in the advantages of civilization. Land may possibly rise in value owing to social and economic changes. Experts shall therefore determine its price, which shall belong to the owner. After the inauguration of the Republic, any additional increment shall belong to the State, in order that the people may share in it. This shall be the basis of the socialistic government, which shall ensure to every citizen the wherewithal to live.

"Monopolists, being a grave menace to the life of the people, shall be outlawed."

Also, in another book, China Revolutionized, by John Stuart Thompson. This, also, has a chapter on "The Genesis of the Revolution," and on page 13 (I had not noticed this before but it looks like 13 might be an unlucky number for somebody in China and perhaps elsewhere),

"Doctor Macklin, an American missionary of Nanking, had translated Henry George's Progress and Poverty into Chinese, and this book was in the hands of the reformers, and particularly appreciated by Sun Yat Sen."

And on page 33 he says,

"Sin Chin Nan, by translating parts of Dickens, had shown the Chinese people that the common man endured wrongs that should be righted.

"Thomas Paine's The Crisis, which was read before the American regiments of 1776, was translated to be read to revolutionary societies like Sun Yat Sen's "Ka Ming Tang" and "Sia Hwei."

And on page 555 in a chapter on "Chinese Sociology" Mr. Thompson quotes a statement by Sun Yat Sen of which this is a part:

"I am an ardent admirer of Henry George, whose ideas are practicable on the virgin soil of China, as compared with their impracticability in Europe or the United States, where the money is controlled by the capitalists. I have the full consent of the new republican government to start a propaganda immediately whereby the rail roads, mines and similar industries will be controlled by the government. The Single Tax system, and as far as possible, free trade, will be adopted."

Taking all of the foregoing and later statements of Chinese leaders into consideration, it does not appear to me that they are entirely clear in their ideas about the Single Tax. However, it may be that they have inherited some of the defects of the ancient classical writers, of whom it has been said, that their language became so laconic that it lacked lucidity and became obscure. And since a great deal of ground is covered in these short statements, and they were perhaps made off hand, it may well be that they are capable of clearer thought than would appear.