The Visit of Mary Fels to California
Edward P.E. Troy
[Reprinted from the Single Tax Review,
September-October 1915]
Since the adjournment of the Joseph Fels Fund and Single Tax
Conference at San Francisco, a few weeks ago, Mrs. Joseph Fels and her
party, Mr. Daniel Kiefer, Chairman of the Fels Fund Commission, Dr.
John W. Slaughter, of the University of London, Professor Earl Barnes,
of Philadelphia and Miss Gertrude Heubsdi, sister of the well-known
publisher of New York, have been visiting and speaking at public
meetings in San Francisco and the neighborhood, on Single Tax,
suffrage and like questions.
Desiring to see the results of the partial application of the Single
Tax in the irrigation districts of California, Mrs. Fels invited me to
become her guest and guide in a tour of the great San Joaquin Valley
in Central California. We left San Francisco on last Wednesday,
September 1st, for the city of Stockton, ninety miles from the former
place. There the Single Taxers, G. M. Ross, Captain William Simpson
and others, had gotten the Chamber of Commerce interested in the
visitors, and the entire party were taken in automobiles about the
city and through a part of the delta district, seeing some of the
fifteen hundred miles of sloughs and canals that provide
transportation for the farmers in that reclaimed section of
California.
A meeting was held at night in the public square, Mr. Ross
introducing the party to the audience. About two hundred and fifty
persons were present. The deep interest the people of that city have
in the Single Tax was shown by this large audience remaining standing,
listening to the speakers and asking questions for more than two
hours. Mrs. Fels was the first speaker, after the introductions. Her
soft, gentle voice immediately won the sympathy and interest of her
hearers; while her profound knowledge of economics brought home the
truth of the Single Tax most convincingly. She said in part:
"This war will bring Single Tax and other great
reforms. Suffrage for women, in England, France and Germany is sure,
for the women of those nations are living suffrage today. It will
not have to be given them. They will demand and receive it. The
Single will come, and it must come, for the reason that with no
other system will the nations be able to pay their enormous war
debt. Best of all, the big estates of Europe will be broken up, and
the men who are fighting now for home and country will as a result
find that they really have a home to fight for when the land is
free. These men are soldiers now; they won't return to take up again
the yoke of slavery. They are emancipated once and for all time."
Professor Earl Barnes dealt with the Single Tax as not only a fiscal
measure, but as a movement based on fundamental conceptions of
justice, which must inevitably lead to wider thinking, and a more
generous brotherhood of man. He illustrated his talk with incidents
from the life of Joseph Fels, showing how he was driven from
individual aid of those who needed help, through cultivation of vacant
lots and small holdings, to a realization that the work was too vast
for the individual, and must be worked out by the community through
the Single Tax.
Dr. Slaughter reviewed the present movement in England for land value
taxation, the adoption of the 1909 budget by the Parliament, and the
curtailment of the veto power of the House of Lords which resulted
from it. He told of the effect of the monopoly of the natural
resources in England when the war broke out, raising the cost of
living of the working people, without any increase in wages, and
causing the great strikes among the munition and coal workers. He said
that the common people of England had no desire for this war. The
privileged classes were in a position of facing wars outside or
difficulties within.
I closed by calling the attention of the audience to a proposed
constitutional amendment in California which would give the
legislature power to "create subjects of taxation," thus
permitting the restoration of antiquated forms of taxation like taxes
on windows, doors and chimneys. It gives the legislature power to make
anything the "subject" of taxation, even the right to stand
on the sidewalk, or to wear a straw hat. It is backed by the
representative of the greatest land monopolists in California - the
[unreadable] County Land Company, owning 428,000 acres, and the
Southern Pacific Company, which owns about 10,000,000 acres, including
1,000,000 acres of timber land.
Questions were then asked, and answered by Mrs. Fels and others.
From Stockton, the party journeyed to Sacramento, where the Church
Federation, Rev. E. Guy Talbot, secretary, and a staunch Single Taxer,
provided a noon luncheon, after which Mrs. Fels and the others made
short talks. The balance of the day was spent in an auto ride about
the city, and visiting a large fruit cannery and Sutter's Fort, where
the American settlers in the 40' s sheltered themselves from the
Indians. In the evening a public meeting was held at the High School
Auditorium, under the auspices of the Church Federation. From
Sacramento the party journeyed down the Valley, through Stockton to
Modesto, where a meeting was held that had been arranged for by the
local Socialists, The story of this part of the trip I shall defer to
a later date. Mrs. Fels and the rest of the party are very much
impressed with the deep interest manifested by the audiences which
they addressed throughout California.
MRS. FELS AND PARTY IN CALIFORNIA: SECOND LETTER
Mrs. Joseph Fels and her party had intended to take the coast route
from San Francisco to Los Angeles; but, on learning that by going on
the San Joaquin Valley route, they would have an opportunity to visit
the Single Tax irrigation districts of the State, a change was made in
the programme. They arrived in Modesto on Sept. 3, having traveled
some eighty miles from Sacramento on two electric railways. Mr. P. L.
Wisecarver, Secretary of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce, met the
party with autos, and the afternoon was spent in driving about the
Single Tax Modesto Irrigation District.
In this district no land was idle. Every acre was producing some
fruit or vegetable. The diversity of the farming made the trip very
interesting. The farmers here raise five and six different products on
twenty acre tracts. A row of raisin grapes will be followed by a patch
of alfalfa, then com, next cantaloupes, peaches, beans, berries of all
kinds, garden vegetables and many others that cause a constant change
in the scene, so that one is never tired of driving about these farms.
We saw one section that seven years ago was a vast wheat field of
1,700 acres, which now is covered with beautiful homes, and has an
attendance of 114 children at its public school. Mrs. Fels and Daniel
Kiefer were picking ripe almonds off the tree in the orchard, and all
of the party ate them. They became the providers of the party, and
Mrs. Fels gathered some ripe cantaloupes from the vines, which we all
enjoyed.
The Modesto Chamber of Commerce had delegated Mr. Sol. Elias, one of
its members, to read a paper at the Single Tax Conference at San
Francisco. In that paper Mr. Elias laid stress on the fact that the
exemption of improvements and personal property from taxation, and the
collection of the revenue of the district by a tax on the value of the
land, had tended to cause a subdivision of the lands of the district,
and brought great prosperity to the town and country. Mr. Elias
visited Mrs. Fels at the Hotel Modesto, and in conversation at the
table said that the Single Tax had its disadvantages as well as its
advantages. Mrs. Fels asked him what this bad effect was. He said that
the exempting of improvements from taxation caused men who had money
to invest to take a chance that they would not take if the improvement
were taxed. As a result, two new hotels had been built in the town,
when there was need for but one, and neither hotel prospered.
Mr. Elias also said that the exempting of buildings from taxation
caused many persons to erect dwellings for rent. As they are of modem
construction, tenants moved out of the old dwellings, leaving them
vacant. These vacancies reduced rents in all dwellings, and as a
consequence, land values in the town have gone down, and a lot can be
purchased now for less than before, although the population has
increased. Mrs. Fels told Mr. Elias that she did not consider the
reduction of rents and of land values an evil condition.
During the evening a meeting was held in the public square of the
town, which had been arranged for by the Socialists. Mrs. Fels, Dr.
John W. Slaughter, Professor Earl Barnes and I spoke. Much interest
was manifested by those present, and many questions were asked,
especially by the women. During the day a visit was made to the office
of the irrigation district. Mr. Charles Abbott, who has been Secretary
of the district for twenty years, told that in the beginning land and
improvements were assessed. In 1911, the owners of the land, who lived
in the district, had, by vote, adopted the Single Tax. They are so
well satisfied with it that they would not go back to the old system,
which they call "the double tax." Modesto has more small
homes about it than any other city of its size in California, due to
the Single Tax.
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