The Road Leading Toward the Single Tax

A Philosophy of Right Living

William Walter Wheatly

[ Reprinted from the Single Tax Review, March-April 1916]

Everywhere Single Taxers appear to be deeply interested in the work of intelligent propaganda -- the work of educating the public. Among all classes of social reformers Single Taxers appear to lead in willingness to contribute either of their time or money (or of both) to the spread of right ideals of human relationship. They realize that every human problem, in the last analysis, is a question of right human relationship. The task of bringing the truth, in practical form, into our collective life must be performed by those who already know the truth. The followers of Henry George know that the philosophy of human relationship which he taught touches directly the material and spiritual welfare of all classes of men. The principles which lie at the base of this philosophy belong to the standard of the highest ethical and spiritual truth. Practically applied to our community life these principles would solve, in large measure, the vastly important problems of taxation, sanitation, housing, child-labor, the working conditions and wages of labor, the public ownership, control or regulation of public utilities, as well as show the way to a more liberal education of the people in all civic and industrial affairs, tending toward greater human efficiency and a wider diffusion of human welfare. The philosophy of Henry George is not merely a matter of economic truth; it is also a philosophy of right thinking and right living. It looks upon all life as meaningless and unprofitable which is out of harmony with the practical application of the great principle of human brotherhood to the' enlightened solution of our common human problems.

METHODS AT HAND

How best to develop in the public mind a sense of brotherly relationship and social responsibility, how best to spread the knowledge of a right solution of the social problem, is the vital question for every social reformer. As his contribution to this great work the militant Single Taxer seeks, by every means in his power, to make the people acquainted with, and give them a clear working understanding of, the great truths taught by Henry George. How each one may be able to contribute directly toward the work of educating the people may well be worth our careful consideration. The means already at our hands for reaching the public with our propaganda are obviously the means to be primarily utilized. First among these are the publications, such as the REVIEW, so ably devoted to the spreading of the Single Tax ideals. Let every lover of our cause make it his business to increase the circulation and influence of these periodicals. There can be no better medium of propaganda than these publications coming into the homes of the people at regular intervals, to be read during some quiet hour of calm reflection. The reading of these periodicals will naturally stimulate a desire to study the books of Henry George. In fact, all propaganda work must eventually lead the seeker after economic and spiritual truth to study the writings of its greatest modern exponent.

Another splendid means of reaching the people is the public forum, whether it be a soap-box on a street corner, a civic, political or labor organization, the pulpit or men's club of the church, a Y. M. C. A. meeting, a farmer's grange, a Board of Trade, or a hearing before some municipal or State body of law-makers. This is a most fruitful field which should engage the active interest and co-operation of Single Taxers everywhere. Those who cannot do public speaking can obtain opportunities for those who can. The hope of the nation being it's common people, it is to them that the message must be carried. The object of all propaganda work is to get the Single Tax talked about. To do this it is sometimes necessary to make a loud noise by a forceful attack upon the evils of the existing system. Denunciation is better than silence. It is wise for the propagandist to get in the fore-front of public opinion, to get strong, fearless and unselfish in advocating right and justice, to strike the same note and keep striking it until he leads the tune. The main thing being to stimulate public thought by open and frank public discussion, the problem is to provide audiences for those speakers who are willing to devote their time to the work of meeting men face to face, looking into their eyes, and imparting to them some of the Henry George type of enthusiasm for the improvement of our social conditions. Finally, there are the local newspapers and magazines to which Single Taxers may occasionally have access for getting their propaganda advertised. The people are getting tired of the appeal to old and worn out ideas. Let us remember that new forces are at work, and that we may expect positive results only in so far as our aims and purposes are positive.

GETTING ATTENTION

We have next to consider how the fundamental principles of the philosophy of Henry George may best be presented to the understanding of the average man in the street, office or factory to lead him to further investigation and research. Obviously, this should be done without seeming to attack needlessly or offensively his personal interests or prejudices. It is possible to present the principles of the Single Tax to any enquiring or open-minded man without seeming to attack him personally. It is to be remembered that the average man is not familiar with the fundamentals of political economy. The great problem before the social reformer is, therefore, educational. It is to show that the fundamentals of political economy have much to do with our social house-keeping, and have a marked bearing upon the fortunes of the individual social units. The problem at the outset is to impress the hearer that no lasting solution of our social house-keeping affairs can be had except through the practical application of the basic principles of true economics. And no great progress can be made until the people themselves begin to understand those principles. As all poverty comes from man-made laws, its abolition must come through the changing of those laws. Relief from existing evils must come through orderly political action; and no man should be entrusted with the responsibility of law-making unless he understands the true principles of economics and taxation. Votes never become dynamic until they have back of >them opinions based upon a clear understanding of those principles. Political action can never be effective to remedy existing evils until it is properly educated.

FUNDAMENTALS SIMPLE

Fortunately, the fundamentals of political economy are not complicated, but are so simple that the child-mind can understand them when clearly presented. The primary consideration is to get the public thinking and talking about them. The average man has little time for voluminous details and complicated economic speculations. He needs to know in the beginning only a few simple things. Primarily, he wants to understand the simple fundamentals which are of the greatest practical importance to his welfare. It should be the constant aim of the social reformer to give the mass of the people a clear insight into those economic facts which lie at the base of the entire structure of political economy. They need to be shown that all legitimate business consists in nothing more than the various forms of human activity devoted to feeding, clothing, sheltering, transporting, and providing with instruction and entertainment the whole of the population. The people need to be taught that every man's subsistence, in all its forms, comes from nature's great storehouse of raw materials. It must be made clear to their perception that all forms of food, clothing and shelter have to be taken by labor from the great reservoir of nature, and that all legitimate business depends for its successful result upon freedom of access to nature's store-house. Nature's resources constitute the primary and indispensable element in the production of all forms of subsistence, and the other element no less indispensable is labor. The people must see clearly that the indispensable condition of all freedom of opportunity in business is that labor shall have freedom of access to land. Industry cannot be open and free to all men without such access. These facts apply whether nature's resources be required for agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transporting or exchanging.

All forms of human activity (business) require Mother earth as a base for their operations. Land is not only the great savings bank from which labor draws all wealth, it is also labor's work-shop or place of operation. Whatever increases the obstacles or hindrances to the free access by labor to its work-shop and storehouse, increases unemployment of labor and capital, and adds to the amount of wearisome toil which must be expended in producing every man's subsistence. He who owns the earth owns the only source from which men can earn a living, and owns the only shop in which they can labor. Not to have free access to the earth is to be shut out from the opportunity to earn a living. Unemployment is the inevitable result of restricted access to natural opportunities, and to be unemployed amounts to being disinherited. It is easy to show how the Single Tax promotes free access actually and potentially and opens the doors to industry.

POWER OF THE EARTH OWNERS

It should be emphasized that a small percentage of the population owns all the natural resources, and that they are largely withheld from use. There are resources in the greatest abundance, but men are debarred from using them for productive purposes. He who holds the legal title to the earth wields enormous economic power. He may dominate the business man and the worker. The title to the earth which oar social adjustments have given to the few is a title in perpetuity to appropriate for their own exclusive enjoyment the fruits of the earth. This is an immensely valuable consideration. The possessor of the title holds the legal right to occupy and use the earth without' molestation for his own purposes, and to exclude and prohibit all others from setting foot on it without his permission. He may fence it in and use it productively for his exclusive benefit, or he may hold it in unproductive idleness, as he chooses; or he may devise it by will, conveying to his legatee all the rights and powers possessed by himself. All of these so-called vested rights (privileges) were legislated into his possession by class controlled government dominated by selfish or ignorant men. He who holds the title in perpetuity is the lord of the land, commonly called the land-lord. He is also the master of the landless, for it is unfortunately true that the landless cannot subsist themselves-cannot engage in any kind of business-without the permission of the landlords; and this permission must now be bought with a monopoly price, since the limited area of the earth is now largely monopolized. The market value of exclusive title in perpetuity is now so high, especially in the large centers of population and industry, that only the fortunate few can hope to acquire it. Hence it happens that labor and capital are shut out of their store-house and debarred from their work-shop, and that poverty and distress is the common lot.

LAND AND FRANCHISE MONOPOLY ARE ONE

The workers and business men of the world -- the ninety and nine of its population -- must be made to understand that land and franchise monopoly are one and the same in essence. The perpetual title to land for exclusive personal use (or abuse) is a species of socially-granted public franchise. The private ownership of public utilities for exclusive personal profit is another form of public franchise. The placing of these immensely valuable public franchises in private control in perpetuity rests upon the root idea of special privilege. In essence it is the giving of the public power of taxation into private hands. It enables the privileged few to exploit the necessities and comforts of the many. It places in their hands the domination over all forms of legitimate business activities. Not many workers and business men realize that their activities are dominated by these few private individuals who are legally empowered to restrain and tax all industry. Yet such is the melancholy truth. The wage-earners and business men of the world-its producers of wealth -- must be shown that it is this giving of the power of taxation into private hands through legislation that must be undone before they can be free to manage their own affairs. The fundamental idea of the Single Tax is that the people shall recover for themselves this power of taxation, and utilize it to stimulate and encourage industry instead of the exact opposite.

THE RELATION OF THE POWER OF TAXATION TO LABOR

It should be explained to the wage-earners and business men that there is a very intimate relation between the power of taxation, and the rewards of labor and industry. They must be taught the law of wages in its true relation to the law of rent. They must be shown that (in a broad sense) there are only two great channels (rent and wages) for the distribution of wealth. It must be made clear to them that if the producer (business man or wage earner) does not get the full product of his labor the balance of it goes to the land and franchise monopolist who is taxing it out of his pocket. Before any real progress can be made toward the solution of the great social problem, the ninety and nine of the people must understand that under the existing system of legalized privilege the higher the rent the lower the wages of labor and industry. The more of socially or individually produced values that flow into parasitic pockets the less remains for distribution to wage-earners and business men. And the lower the wages of the people, the less their purchasing power.

TO DESTROY THE LEGAL ADVANTAGES OF THE FEW

The ultimate purpose of the Single Taxer is to destroy all those superior legal advantages which confer upon the privileged few enormous economic power over labor and industry. As the power to tax is the power to destroy, the Single Taxer proposes to take this power out of private hands and place it where it rightfully belongs, under popular control. Wherever our social adjustments render it necessary to confer upon individuals or corporations superior advantages, the Single Taxer proposes to neutralize these superior advantages by taxing their value into the social exchequer, instead of permitting it to go into private pockets in the form of rent. He proposes to shift the burden of taxation from labor and industry to privilege and monopoly, which would effectively destroy the power of land and franchise monopoly over the people. He proposes simply to take from the land and franchise monopolists what they have heretofore been taking from the people through their licensed power of taxation. They will still gather taxes from the people but will turn them in to the people's pockets instead of holding them in their own. The Single Taxer proposes no new form of taxation, but only to change the incidence of existing forms. He proposes to restore to labor and industry the full reward of their activities, to secure to every worker the power to employ himself productively, enable each one to own his own home and provide a competence for his old age. And all this is to be done through the simple expedient of resting all taxes upon the value of land (taking the whole of economic rent) irrespective of the improvements in or on the land. The Single Taxer proposes to establish an economic system under which each individual member of society shall receive from other members, as nearly as possible, the exact equivalent of the services which he renders to them. The underlying principle of the Single Tax is service for service, measure for measure, special privilege for none, and equal advantages and opportunities for all.

NOT DIVINE BUT MAN-MADE LAW

The social reformer should direct his efforts to making men realize that land and franchise monopoly are not Divine institutions. They are manmade conditions which Greed and Ignorance have created through crooked legislation. It is no Divine law, but simply human folly, which gives the power of taxation into private hands. Divine justice never erected any barrier between man and his supply of subsistence. It remained for self-seeking or ignorant men to bar their brothers from their source of supply. What man has done, man may undo. Whatever mistakes ignorance has made, may be corrected by right thinking. Economic justice is nothing more than right thinking practically applied to the family affairs of men. An understanding of fundamental economics must precede the practical solution of the worldwide social problem. The people must be brought to know that they can never have a peaceful, prosperous and happy life until they are placed in practical possession of the one element (land) needful for their self-preservation. Open access to natural opportunities makes high wages, and a good return for all legitimate business. When the wage earners prosper all business prospers. Freedom of access to Mother Earth's great store-house of materials is absolutely necessary to the highest development of the human race. Man has an indefeasible right to all those things which are necessary to the maintenance of his life and the promotion of his highest development. The simple expedient of placing all taxes upon land values frees the land from monopoly and places it upon terms of equality for the use of all men.

THE REAL ESSENCE OF MONOPOLY

The essence of all monopoly is the separation of land and labor so they cannot come together except by the consent of the monopolist and upon his arbitrary terms. The end and aim of all monopoly is to enable its beneficiaries to control production. Whoever controls production may dictate the terms of the distribution of wealth. There is one, and only one, effective means of bringing about a more equitable apportionment of wealth. It is the destruction of monopoly of the elements of production, the breaking down of the barrier of separation between all men and their source of material supply. Since the control of the apportionment of the produce of labor resides in the control of the initiative in production, it must be obvious, even to the child-mind, that the power to initiate production should not be monopolized. If there were no barriers separating labor from its source of supply every man would be free to employ himself productively. If the laborer possessed the power to initiate production he would, at the same time, possess the power to appropriate for himself the fruits of his own labor, for these two powers are really one and the same thing. Because the Single Tax penalizes the holding of natural opportunities out of use, it sets free the initiative in production and opens it to all upon terms of substantial equality.

WHAT SHOULD BE OUR POLITICAL POLICY

The militant propagandist of the Single Tax must convince his hearers that the road to industrial freedom lies through political freedom. The essential thing for politically free men to do is to undo the vicious legislation establishing special privileges and immunities, and creating superior advantages for the few, without requiring these few to pay for the superior advantages they enjoy. Ours being an industrial age, practically every important problem of politics is economics. The struggle for liberty has always been to wrest political and economic power from the few and lodge it with the many. In a large sense politics is the science of equity, and through its wholesome activities economic equity may be established. Social reformers of all classes must acquire the discipline of acting together politically. They must show the people how to vote for their own interests. Propaganda work is necessary, but after it has been well done no positive results can be obtained so long as the existing powerful political organizations are controlled by a few professionals who recognize only one master-the power of privilege. If a considerable part of the people were converted to the Single Tax, and yet failed to act together politically, they might fail to accomplish their purpose.

All political organizations are transferable. They may be sold or captured. Social reformers generally have kept out of practical politics, making it easy for the professional politicians to sell their organizations to the masters of privilege. Social reformers while they continue to expose the evils of the existing political conspiracy of privileged interests, must unite to get a look-in upon the management of one of the political parties, or form a new organization of their own. Because political reform consists in a change of system, the social reformers must unite to capture sufficient political power to effect such a necessary change. They must go before the existing political organizations with their definite demands in one hand and a bunch of ballots in the other before they will get a respectful hearing. They must not only educate public opinion, but must get in the fore-front of practical politics, and organize the public opinion which they have educated. To get the public ear is essential. To make a loud noise with effective propaganda is in the line of progress. But to get the people to act together politically and move forward forcefully toward the accomplishment of the particular purpose in view is the only way to draw the life-blood of licensed monopoly. Privilege acts as one man. Until militant reformers are able to organize the awakening social forces among the people, and imbue them with sufficient public spirit to make a vigorous fight for political control, the existing political organizations will continue to sell legislation to the back-stair agents of corrupt government. If they would accomplish their ends, Single Taxers must be not merely true economists, they must also be good practical politicians. This is the only road leading straight to the attainment of the Single Tax.

A CONCLUDING APPEAL

Comrades in the cause of humanity -- Single Taxers and Social Reformers -- you are not soon going to make any impression upon the enemy's breastworks unless you become active in the cause. Are you ready and willing to do your part? If so, come out of your sheltered isolation, and get onto the firing line within sight of the common enemy. Make your efforts effective in the manner and form to which you are best adapted. The real issue is humanity versus entrenched privilege. Team work among the moral forces of the community will win the fight for righteousness and justice. Come to the work with a clean mind and a loving heart. Bring with you no hatred or envy of any man or class of men. The enemy in the trenches is not your erring, ignorant brother whom you are trying to educate, but a vicious system which enslaves both him and you. Your field of battle leads ultimately to practical politics. Your weapon is the ballot. Like David, the shepherd boy of old, go forth to battle armed only with the mighty power of love for God and man, and you shall prevail swiftly over the blustering giant of Animal Greed. For the battle is the Lord's, and the armies of the living God will give the enemy into your hands."