The Exeter Advocate, 1890-12-18, Page 2THE TAP -11001 OF PAIR,
Delving After the Foundations of
Our Economic System.
NATURE'S LAWS ALL RIGHT,
But Those Who Violate Them Need Not Hope
to heap the Penalty.
The Existing roverty—revo Kinds of Idle—
The Laborer's Struggle—George and
Vellum he Moot 2,vii—W hat is
"IProperty " ?—Owno:ship of iden—
Jastice Demendod—The Remedy—Ob-
jections Met.
The following is from a recent address
delivered in Elaneilton, by Ildr. John
Carrick, and presents p. stateineet of the
claims of thoee who advooate Land Nation-
alizetion or the Single Tax:
In these day e few observing men escape
a straggle with the problem offered by the
queetion of Poverty. It waylays the
thinker at the street corners, peen at him
from broken windows and equaliel tent).
Imente, and the pinohed Noes of ite child.
victims visit him in his dreams and
wistf ally pleeni for its solution. It follows
him like an animated interrogation p Ant,
seed in proportion so the breednees of his
naiad and the goodnese ot his heart he
heoomea anxious to discover why it is thet
ishne plenty, with bursting graneries
and storehouses so full of goods than. the
factories are periodioelly shut down to
reduce the supply, thou3aude able to work
and eager to give their labor in exohenge
for those very products should be debarred
the opportunity and doomed to want; why
is that while thouseeds upon thousands
teil day af ter day, yr al ter year, with
'Saucily a break in the monotony of
Strained exertion, ye G are (even if fortu-
nate enough to obtain oonstant employ-
ment) barely able tee enpport the loved ones
&pendent upon themahere should be others
who though never adding dollar to the
world's wealth nor doing an hour's useful
labor, eat, drink, wear and use the choicest
products of the labor of others; and who,
enaange to say, although rioting in luxury,
continue to eiconmulate wealth and die
power to utilize the produotive capacities
0 their fellows. He asks himself why it
is thit diseased public opinion awards
the
.havANTAGES, THE HoNORS AND THE RESPECT
tei the successful idle, while the idler who
does not so well Enceeed in living upon his
fellows, but who may even be anxious to
live by his own exertions, is termed a
tramp and hounded down by the doge of
law. If he is given to close reegonina he
may even wonder at the inconsistency
which sends to jail the pauper who begs a
few pennies from the compassionate, while
it looks up with respeot to him who so
influences legislation as to divert to his
Own pocket a proportion of the earnings of
others without their coneent. He will not
find it en easy matter to square the results
of hie observations with first principles,
but he will readily conclude that the con-
dition which presents itself is not the result
0 obedience to natural laws, but rather of
their violation; that, therefore, the evils
we deplore are not irremediable, and that
the first duty of the economist is to die -
=Yee wherein we have transgressed those
laws in order that we mann with as mach
anpedition as possible, get our car hack
into the grooves of the.helestial wheels.
THE QUESTION oF THE PAY.
The question of poverty—absolute and
relative—is pre-eminently the problem of
the day. Altruist and egoist, from differ.
mt but distantly allied motives, study it.
It is felt to be a question of prime import-
ance, not only to material but as well to
mental, morel and religious progress. Wien
dislike poverty as they dislike anything
that causes pain to themselves or those
they love. Rev. Washington Gladden
effects to view poverty as a blessing, but I
leave noticed that few sane people strive
after it; and 1 otin but marvel at the char.
acterization of any condition as a " bless-
ing" vehicle, according to the same writer,
is brought about by "laziness, inefficiency,
waste, miemenagement and injurious in-
dulgence." Now, were poverty recognized
as a blessing, the philosopher or economist
who would seek to abolieh it and its at.
tendant sorrow and suffering wonld prop-
arly be viewed as au nndesireble citizen.
Bev. Dr. Howard Crosby, in en article in
the "Forum," referring to those who deny
that the Creator is to blame for the wide-
gpread poverty of the day and who seek to
bring about a better condition, says: "It
in not the fact of poverty that troubles
these people, but ehere envy"; and to his
own satisfaction he traces all poverty to
LIQUoR, LAZINESS AND IMPRoVIDENOE.
The rev. gentleman's opinion is frank
almost to brutality, but the economist is
undisturbed; he is content to deal with
facie and reasons, knowing that in the
reedit of his work lies his justification. He
on afford to have charity.
Bat allowing all that should fairly be
Conceded to incompetence, sloth, prodigal-
ity and interaperance—and I am prepared
to make large Concessions—there still re-
nnin the hard facts that thousands upon
thousands who would willingly avert
poverty by laboring fail to get employment,
end that millions who labor steadily and
industriously have.
k LIFE-LONG STRUGGLE
Urgently required, end in epite of the
Mears of the thoughtless and the inntrintatrea
of the interested the number of its eeekere
raultiply.
eaelithil AND euueeler.
Among those interested in eaoisomios
perhaps no sabjeets te-day receive more
attention than Sloe of the Nationalization
of Lend, of whith Mr. Henry George is the
chief exponent, and the State Socielism of
the Edward Bellamy ethool. 11 is not
my purpose here to enter upon a dieoussion
of Mr, Bellainy's theory. I only wish to
say in passing that the two propositions are
essentially different—irreconcilably antago-
nistic in principle—leaving nothing in corn -
mon save the wish of the promoters to
benefit their fellows. Mr. lielleney'e
contemplates the extinction of the jai.
vidual in the State, and the aesumption by
the State of all the funotione ot ownership,
Manngement and employment. It views
competition as au eve, to be got rid of, and
exalts the representativea of the people
(the Government) to atoll a degree of in-
fallibility as to make them incapable of the
errors whioh prevent success even under
the stimuli of self.intereet and competition.
The advocates of Land Natioealization, or
the Single Tax, on the contrary, see
in competition
GREAT NATVEAL LAW
operative n every department of the
creation, and, when not interfered with by
human eiaeotments, operating to the benefit
of the ra00. They see in natura/ competi-
tion a law as invariable as that of gravita-
tion, as necessary to the mundane econ-
omy, and, which, like it, oan only be
resisted at great cost. They do not pro-
pose to resist it. What they do propoee
instead of more paternal legislation is less
interference with the liberty of the in-
dividual. Our laws, not those of the
Greater, are at fault. They ask thet
competition be restored to a natural basis;
that the advantagee given to some by man-
made laws be restored to mankind as a
whole; that within the individual sphere
we shall say to corporate power: "fiends
off I" In short that the right of the people
to the natural opportunities than be re-
atored to them. They ask, why should the
people be deprived of their birthright and
then be taxed to give effect to the depriva-
tion Why should they who produce in
alnandenoe not reap abundantly? Why
should men willing to work need aims?
Whose is the earth—the Lord's or the
landlerde' 2
THE ROOT EVIL.
Let us for a moment forget the com-
plexity of the laws with which we have
surrounded ourselves, and turn our con-
sideration to first principles. When the
wies man has to decide upon a course or an
action he tries it by the canons of Right. I
ask you now to bury ideas of temporary
expediency, or rather while we view these
matters to bear in mind that what is right
is always expedient.
Underlying this whole question, we who
advooste the Single Tax contend, is the evil
of deprivation of natural opportnnities—pr i •
vete property in land. We contend that
it is not only inexpedient but contrary to
every principle of justice thet Nature's
bounty to all men—the elements—should
become the exclusive property of
any man or set of men; that to
give to one ohm the land of the
earth, whioh is necessary to the lite of the
race, is to handicap the ()there in the
competition which Nature insists upon;
that in the nature of things land is not
property, and that even if we who live
to -day were to alienate our birth. right in
the natural opportunities we would have
no right to disinherit posterity. We con-
tend that to take feom the individual his
right to the soil ie to compel him to part
abase the right to live and labor with it
portion or his earnings, and is to that
extent an assertion of ownership of man by
man, less obtrudent bat no more admis-
sible than the principle of chattel slavery.
Let us glance at
THE NATURE OF LAND.
It is limited in extent ; unoreated by man;
incapable of being by his Pfforts materially
increased or diminished; necessary to
human existence. Man can no more live
without access to land than he cen live
without air, because land is the ultimate
upon which labor is exerted and from
whioh sustenance is derived. Ownership
of land involves ownership of men. Had
Robinson Crasoe been able to enforce land
lava such as we retpect to -day he would
have been as trulynnaster ot Friday as
ever Louisiana Planter was of Negro elsve.
Give a few men the land of the Nation and
the ability to enforce the land laws and
they, for all practical purposes, Toccatas as
much theowners of the rest as if they had
bid them off the auction block; with the
added advantage that whereas the
chattel slave -owner stood to lose
by nnder-feeding, overwork and abuse,
the landlords face no such contingency.
Inorease of population means more demand
for their lands, lower wages if they hire ;
poor crops mean higher prices for them and
a lighter meal for the laborer; even war
means to them higher rents. Land is
necessary to life ; to deprive a child of his
interest in the land is to rob him of his
birthright. To contend otherwise is to
assert that all are not equal before God's
law and that some come into the world
with a better right to His bounties than
others.
LAND NO PROPERTY.
,to keep the wolf from the door; a struggle
rendered more sad by the knowledge thet
in event of their death or incePsoity their
loved one3 will be thrown upon the charity
of the wotld. No wonder then that think-
ing men of humane impulses should strive
to discover and extirpate the root of the
evil. The Oittlfie is not to be found in the
niggardliness of nature. The earth pro.
duces enough and to spare, and modern
naethods of transportation, storage and
distribution provide means of eupplying
teectional or temporary shortage. Moreover,
were the idle employed the abundance
would be increased. Why, then, it it that
all have not plenty? Why is it that with
the vastly increased capacities for produce
eon arising from the advence itt intelli.
gentle and invention we have yet want
among the peodneers, the opportunity to
tither regarded as a boon, and the wedgh of
distinotion cleavieg asunder society into
plutocrat and proletariat (lessee ? The
One class nUrneriOltily weak but !strong in
• wealth—from Whence and earned by
Whom 2—; the other numerically as strong
as it ie inanoially weak, feeling emit it
etagere a grievone wrong, but unable to
diseover and apply the remedy, groping
after light, eeeking protection in organize,
tieing Whiele—sometithee good, often bads in
their rciealte—at least indieate olearly
ettengla the keen aortae of injustice and tlae
aesire to improve. The situation is a
grave one ; it would be a dangeroueone were
it not for the growth of education, a liberel
fret:robin which gives the worker the
knOesledge that he hag a void° be making
I have aaid that in the nature of things
land is not property. All ideas of property
spring from the right of a man to himself—
from liberty. As a man is owner of him-
self he is naturally owner of all that he
produces by the use of his own faculties.
All titles to ownership are derived from
this first principle, the title of a man to
himself, and the recognition of any other
title would destroy this one. The right of
ownership by reason of prodnotion exoludes
all other titles; and'if production gives the
producer exclaaive title.then it follows that
no one oan own that which be has not pro-
dned or procured from the holder of the
title. Man did nab create the earth ; no
man cam show s producer's title to a foot of
ib; no man can convey a higher title than
that whioh he himself possesses; therefore
all olaims to absolute ownership of lend are
inconsistent with first principles. In this
connection it would be interesting to trace
the gradual progress of the alienation of
the rights of the whole people in the soil,
but time forbids. The Brehon code, hav-
ing reference to the necesaity of acmes to
the land, deoleired : "Land is perpetual
man." Fisher says:
" may not be out of place here to allude to
the use of the word properbf with reformer) to
land; property—from propriwni, my own—is
something pertaining to man. 1 home ti prop-
erty in myself. I have the right to be free. All
that proceeds from myself, my thoughte, ray
writings, my works, are property; but no man
made land, and therefore land is not property."
There is no nation that den be urged,
beyond' the purely physical one, why the
water and the air of the planet should not
have been,parcelled oat and made the pri.
vete property of the few with an much of
right end tastice ss oan 13e addmied to
excuse the prevalent idea of private owner-
ship of the soil.
TITLES TO VIE SOIL1struotares, but upon making & prospective)
to life and ewe equal before His law, to
tamp *11 titleto exolusive ownership of
the soil ite flptitique. As a foot, however,
they are all founded in disoovery, force or
fraud, Title by discovery is the only one
or which defence, on prinoiple, is
attenapted. But disoovery by whom? end
of how much? Did the title to An -Arica
vest in the Mound Iduildere Or in the
North American Indiana 2 Or in the
Norsemen? Or in whom did it vest? Did
Columbus' discovery invalidate that title?
How rauola territory does discovery entitle
to 2—an sore? a hundred acres? a
county? a province 2 a continent ?" If
Ornsoe's Island had been half a million
equare miles in extent would he have been
entitled to tribute as landrowner, from etir
comers, and to transmit the title to his
heirs? Isn't it absurd 1 Ownership of
the land, I have said,
MEANS OWNERSHIP OF THE MEN,
who of necessity live on the land.
In the ultimate it is but another
form of slavery, already measurably
realized in some of the older and more
populous countriea. In all motes it gives
the power to absorb tlae earnings of the
manes wholabor. In Britsdn, at this day,
a smell proportiou of the population—
about 30,000—have the legal right to turn
five-sixthof the people ot the kingdom
upon the streets (which do belong to all),
and the owners of the coal lands min say
to the workers, "That coal is ours. Come
to our terms as to wages and hours of labor
or not is pound shall be mined. While you
starve in idleness a coal famine will benefit
us in the higher prices it ensures." The
few own the earth; the many have -only
air and water. The experienees of the
older countries ought to be a tenon to us
while reform is yet easy. Here the spare -
nese of population has hitherto masked the
evil, bat it is growing daily.
JUSTICE MUST BE DONE.
"Bub," you say, "bow are yen ?going to
remedy the evil? Yon cannot with justice
take the land from its present holders and
parcel it out in equal shares to all."' No,
nor would each is course be desirable were
it preetioable. But it is impraoticable to
do tuatice by any kind of arbitrary diva
sion. Any scheme of amelioration mut
be one capable of constant adjustment,
without disturbance to holders of land, to
the ever changing circumstances ofttp,opu-
Wien. Every child born into the world
has as math right to the soil as has the
Duke of Westminster or Jay Gonld, or
Vanderbilt; but every one does not work
hod, and an equitable distribution, were
such possible, would be destroyed every
time a child was born into the world.
Fixity of posseesion is a desideretnm, as
conducing to productiveness and improve-
ment, and the saorednesa of the rights of
the holder to all thet he owne must be
reepected. This we propose to secure
while restoring to the people their birth-
right in the soil, without dispossessing
anybody, without any ehook to society,
and without any worse result thein the
opening up of many opportunities to
labor, and enforcing on the drones the too
long suspended sentence "H that
worketh not neither shall he eet."
THE REMEDY PROPOSED.
And how is it to be done
We propose to do it by taxation. We
propose that instead of taxes on land,
houses, goods and chattels, poll tax, income
tax, onatome and excise times, a, simple
tax on land values be levied, taking for
the benefit of the community that wane
which is added to the land, irrespective of
improvements, by the presence of the
population. We propose thet the unearned
increment, whittle now goes to enrich the
land owner and spectiletorO in& "Itted_tot
relieve labor, weeder:tit:on;
improvement of the londens now im-
posed upon them. " But," the °Neater
may say, "that is only a roundabont way
of taking a man's property by taxation.'
Discriminate. We would give him all he
has produced, all he has in improvements
in and upon the land, all he owns, free
from impost, but in lien of all other
taxes, direot and indireet, we would take
for the common 1 and, in taxes (economic
rent), that value which he neither did
nor could produce but which is added to
the land by the community irrespective of
any expenditure or effort on his pert. Is
it wrong to ask that those who produce
shall possess? Or is it unnatural that
those in the enjoyment of unearned in-
comes should strenuously oppose the
realization of such a measure of justice?
HOW THE SPECULATOR IS FAVORED.
Speouletion in land is an evil beside
which the gambling of the stock exchanges
hits no economic significance. I bave no
natural right to hold land for the purpose
of obliging another to pay me toll before I
permit him to turn it to productive nee.
Economioelly it is an evil beettnee it creates
fictitious values and diverts the money of
the prodnoers to the pookets of those who
add nothing to the sum of the world's
wealth but play dog.in-tIseonanger to those
who improve and produce. Oar system of
taxation is distinctively favorable :to the
speoulator as against the producer. I need
not go outside of the city for examples;
yon have all met with them. Go to one of
our land speonlatore who holds valnable
property—or rather property of varying
value, low when aesessed, high when you
buy—and secure a small lot. It may heve
been in very bad shape. Yon drain it, level
it, enclose it, erect a house on it and in
other ways edd to the appearance of that
part of the city. How is your labor and
expenditure appreciated? Compare your
tax bill with the last one paid by the epecu-
tor and yon will scsi Next year you sod
your front, plant some trees, add a
fountain, and presto again
tP GO YOUR TAXES,
Until yon almoet feel that your improve.
ments are in the nature of an offence
against the community and with yon had
let your money lie in the bank and rented.
All this time the neighboring lots
held by .Mr. Speculator remain
unimproved, " but when a buyer
comes along he is seked a higher price for
them because of the labor and money you
have expended upon your lot and for which
you are so heavily taxed I Yon do the
work and expend the money; you are
heavily taxed. The speculator takes the
profits on the sale of your lot, and pays low
taxes, yet pockets the benefit resulting
from your investment and labor, in the
inereseed prices whioh he demand e for the
neighboring lots upon which he has neither
toiled an hour nor spent a shilling. Why
do speouletors often bind purchaethe of Iota
to build honsee of a specified character
To secure a good class of houses for the
oity? Oh, no I Not at all! Every good
house ereoted enhances the' value of the
neighboring bit; and this value, which he
does not create, our land and tax laws
enable him to divert to his own use.
A LAW AGAINST nelMOVEGinNTer
There are lots in this city t� -clay of great
value, carrying mere roolseriee, but assegeed
comparatively lo w+ end paying their ownere
a good income. • Some of the ownere would
gladly erect better and more creditable
I oennot diverge to -night to deal with estimate they diedover that the interest on
the lews, and the more impOrtent faett that the Varlet:Is kinds of teles ender which the the nedeesary ontley, pine the annual tax
OA heart the reatnee are nOt se dePraved as world'e lende ern held. le enough if yeti. which the city would compel them to pay
d "t that II f Ged'e thildren are entitled (v boilrlieg would leave them no
better off than at present. The system Of
taxing a. man according to what he owns,
or rather &wording to his induetry sled
produotivenese, tends to remise produottoll
Mato discourage improvement. I am gled
to see that following the statutory exenep.
tion of farm, stook the city has decided to
exempt manufaoturing plent. Thiel is a
step in the right direotion, but the
goal must be the exemption of all improve-
ments, whether the plant of the manufac-
turer or the cottege of the artizan. There
will be no ehortege if the community oal•
twits WI own by the tax an the land value&
oex areouretteve vetoes.
But it is said it would be hard on the far-
mer. It would not. Being a tax on the value
prodnoed by the presence of the population
it would fell most heavily on the most
populous centres, The rural neighborhoods
would not be materially Effeoted4 gave that
it would prevent the locking up of farm
Linde for purposes of speoulation. Farms
equally eligible would pay the Same taX
whether one etarved his farm, staoked hie
grain, lived in it hut andhoarcled his money,
ur improved his land, built good barns and
fences and dwelt in a country mansion.
"But you would destroy !speculative
Values," you say. Yee, we would crush out
epeoulation es is form of gambling in
natural opportunities; we would tax the
speculative values into the coffers of the
oonamunity. But that would not Oe a
calamity. The land world be as good and
there would be as muoh of it as before. It
would be worth just as ranch for any use-
ful purpose es it you had paid twioe the
price to rx epeoulator. That eminent
authority, Fisher, eaye :
"Natural laws forbid naidcllemen, who do noth-
ing to make the land productive, and vet sub-
sist upon the labor of the farcaer, and receive
as rent part of the produce of his toil."
And again;
Land does not represent capital, but the im-
provements unon it do. A. man does not pur-
chase land. He buys the right of postession. In
any transfer of land teere is no looking up of
capital, because one man receives exactly the
amount the other expends. * * The land
does not become either neon or less productive
by reason of the transfer from one person to
another; it is the withdrawal of labor thea
affects its productiveness.
OBJECTIONS HET.
I have heard it said that if the land-
holder failed to pay the tax he
would be in danger of being dispoesessed.
That is true, but it is not a valid objeotion.
It fora certain length of time the tax was
not paid, procedure world be taken by tax
eale to make collection, and there is no
reason why the rights of the holder to all
the proceeds of such sale, over the arrears
and <mate, should not be as fully seoured
under the Single Tax system as they are in
the case of tax sales now. The Single Fax
would be a cheap tax, because it would free
commerce and production from many bur -
demi and turn out an army of office -holding
tax.eaters to earn a living by productive
labor. It world be an easy tax to oolleot,
and would in that way alone save millions.
It world take away the premium we
now pay to dishonesty, idleness
and epeaulation, and abolish our
fines on production, improvement and
exchange. It would be e scientifically cor.
root and honest tax, because it would take
the share of all in the natural heritage for
the benefit of ell, instead of excluding the
great majority from that heritage and
heavily taxing them afterwards. Again, it
has been objected that in substituting the
single tax on land values for our present in.
equitable, complex and expensive system,
which puts a penalty on the man who
makes two blades ot grass grow where only
oue grew before, we would aot unjustly in
that all save holders of land world escape
taxation. This objection indioetes a toted
failure to grasp the underlying principle of
flee theory of Land Nationalization. If
each has an intereet in the land, it mattere
not by whom it is held, the taking by the
State, as representing all, of even the whole
simnel value of the right of each would be
equitable and just. That all do not work
land has no relevancy to the argument.
That many should 13e deprived of their
share ot nature's endowment is surely no
moon why they should be forced to give a
considerable percentage of what they earn
under each disadvantageous conditions in
municipal, customs, inland revenue and
other burdeusome taxes.
THE GREAT LAW OF COMPENSATION.
There is a great law of compensation
running through nature. Let no man
think he can divorce came and consequence
that he can do wrong and map° the
penalty. The laws of Nature are the laws
God. He is not mocked. It takes more
than a Dominion or is Provincial Aot to re-
peal this law:
It will not be contemned of any one,
Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains;
The hidden good it pays with peace and blies,
The hidden ill with paine.
It seeth everything and marketh alt;
Do right, it recompenseth; do one wrong,
The equal retribution must be paid
Tho' Dharma tarry long.
It knows not wrath nor pardon, utter true
Its faultless balance weighs;
Times are as naught; to -morrow it will judge,
Or after many deys.
By this the slayer's knife did stab himself,
The unjust judge bath lost his own defender;
The false tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief
And spoiler rob to render.
Such is the law that moves to righteousness,
Which none at last can turn aside or stay ;
The heart of it is love; the and of it
Is peace and consummation sweet, Obev
EFFICACY OF THE RENIEDY.
Perhaps if you are prepared to acknow-
ledge the justice and wisdom of the princi-
ple for 'which I contend you may yet
question its efficacy as a remedy for the
prevailing poverty. I ask you to parse
and consider that the question of poverty
to -day is not one of production.
Prodnotion, both actual and in proportion
to the labor expended never was mere
abundant; the Earth was never more
fruitful. There is enough wealth to make
all comfortable and yet lessen toil. The
evil is one of distribution. Competition is
rendered unnatural by the foot that an
element necessary to labor and to life is
made the property of the few, while the
many Ere compelled to pay tribute to that
few for permission to labor, and are again
taxed to maintain governmental institn.
tions of is frequently prodigal and extrave.
gent character.
wrio EARNED THE SPECULATOR'S PROFITS 7
Every dollar made by the land speculator
represents so much of the product of labor.
Who produced ib? Not the speculator.
He is to aociety what the wolf is to the
sheepfold. His business is to levy toll on
progress; to prey upon the producers. If
he Ed& E cent's worth to the sum of the
world's wealth it is in the oapsotty of a
producer. Speculation never made a dol.
ler that was not taken from some man's
earnings. Bear that in mind. The pro-
ducer is always impoverished by exaotly
the sum taken by the speoulator. He is a
hole in the pooket of labor; a constant
poor relation who might well he diepeneed
with, The single tax would be death to
hts craft, because 'it would destroy the
speculative valuta and labor world profit
by relief frora the direct and in-
direct inmoste which, even in this
young ofinntry, form ti heavy and
inoreasieg burden. Taxation removed
from prodoetion and inched:1p, whioh it
always effects restrictively, and placed
upon land values, world stimulate prOdao.
tion, beoanee it wonidnot dna he prefitable
to hold valuable land idle, There would
be no epeoeleinseincreehe n valtie to look
fOrWeird to, and the tax would be the setae
on lots equelly eligible whether covered
with thistles, produrnog Abundant oropioor
fittotitheltendBsit-e °IC* j4WorralcdtorvyarlYPI°thYittlietipiltys
opportunities for the utilization of labor
and it would therefore tend to better
wages. It would, in short, reform die-
tribution.
11. DEFINITE VMS,
Weigh the proposition: A tax on produce
tends to restrict production; a taX OU 0001 -
mem tends to discourage exchange; both
lead to lees work and lower wages. A tax
on land value tends to bring land into use,
to increase production and, logically, to
more employment at better wages, whioh
meane more general comfort. The evil in
regard to the distrilnation of wealth—the
system by which those who produce not
are ensbled to possess theinseives of a
goodly there of the pro Mots of the °amen
—once corrected, and the right of each to
all of his earnings not only admitted but
gtiiovneen walheic°ht leinevPerm"attet.he rnidg htth et el°anhdoir.
a boon, reversed, the reunite cannot
but be most beneficent. Competition
will then be natural; the laborer
worthy of his hire, as we now admit, will
not Ile cheated out of a great portion of it
and it misfortune etill make °elle npon our
charity we shall be the better able to
extend it without fear of pauperization
when We have founded our economy on
Justice. These goes extremes of wealth
and poverty will rapidly disappear, and if
millionaires become fewer general oomfort
and happiness will increase, and ero long
men will look back and marvel that the
veto; association of idleness and riches and
toil and poverty lied not long ago pointed
no to a solution of the problem.
Nom A REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSAL.
We are nearer the remedy than many
imagine. Did time permit I might trace
the easy stages by which in Britain duties
to the community attaching to the exoln-
dye possession of land have been by inter•
ested law-makere shifted to weaker
shoulders, and how the idea of the saored•
nese of property in land has been propa-
gated. Let me point out to you, however,
that no citizen ander the British Crown
owns land. The ownership veste in the
Crown as representing the whole people—
not a few of them. A statute of Edward
III., in force to.dity, assents:
" That the Ring is the universal lord and orig-
inal proprietor of all land in hie kingdom, and
that no mau doth or can possess any part of it
but whet has mPdiately or immediately been
derived as a gift from him to be held on feodal
service.
And Fisher, referring to this, says
No lawyer will assert for any English subject
a higher title than tenancy -in -fee, which beers
the =preps of holding and denies the assertion
of ownership.
THE wows, MOVES.
We do not ask to invalidate any titles to
the land, or to interfere with its sale or
bequest. We simply propose that natural
coaditiotte be restored and the right of the
people as now recognized in law be made
operative in practice; and that the
shackles be stricken off and the fines
removed from labor, production and ex.
change.
It was to be expected that a cense which
antagonizes such vast interests as does
that of Land Nationalization world meet
with the bitterest opposition. What Wen-
dell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison and
their handful of abolitioniat friends did for
the chattel slaves of the South, the Georges,
the MoGlvnue and their daily increasing
boat of followers propose to do for the
world's economic bondsmen, and in the
good clause the pen of tho younger Garrison
is doing work worthy the son of mob s sire.
Yes, the world improves:
For Humanity sweeps onward, where to -day the
martyr stands
On the morrow crouches Judas with tbe silver in
his hands;
Far ahead the cross stands ready, and the oracle-
- ling fagots burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent
awe return
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's
golden urn.
The advocates of the Single Tax reform
have passed through all the verions steges
of the persecutions of the time. That
benign method of showing our love toward
oar brethren who disagree with tie—burn-
ing at the stake—has gone sadly out of
fashion; the thumbscrew and the boot
have been relegated to the museums, but
we are yet only slowly approaching the
period
WHEN REASON SHALL CONTROL BIEN'S MINDS.
The Single Tax advocates have passed
through the period of contempt, of eneers
and innuendoes, and have emerged into the
more cheerful and most weloome one of
argument. That our ease ie a etrong one
is made deer by the strenuous efforts put
forth to close the months of its elocinent
edvooates ; by the number of eminent
political and social economists who are
Joining oar ranks •' by the tendency of
legislation, and by the perterbetion it oc-
casions in the camp of the common enemy.
But conscious of the righteousneas of the
cause we advocate, come =mess soon or
come it late we know that is mnet surely
come, and standing on the rook of Jnatice,
guarded by the shield of Truth, we are
content to wield the sword of Reason and
defy the allied powers of riches, selfishness
and politioal expediency to do their worst.
Those for whom the goda fight can be
mahifienlit.
kyou Truth a farthing rushlight to , be
pinched out when you will
With your deft official fingers and your politi-
cians' skill?
Is your God a wooden fetish, to be hidden out of
That hsjigshbtlock eyes may not seelyou do the tbing
that is not right ?
But the Destinies think not so. To their judg-
ment chamber lore
Come no sounds of popular clamor; there
Fame's trumpet is not blown.
Your majorities they reek not. This you grant,
but then you say
That you differ with them somewhat. Whioh is
stronger—you or they?
"Patient are they as the insects that build
islands in the deep;
They hurl not tee bolted thunder„but] their
silent way they keep;
Where they have been that we know; where
empires towered that were not just;
Lo 1 the skulking wild fox scratches in a little
heap of dust." _
At the conclusion of the address a free -
and -easy discussion and many interroga-
tories and answers followed. A vote of
thanks, moved by Mr. R. Hopkins and
seconded by Rev. Pdr. Morton, was tendered
Mr. Carrick and briefly acknowledged.
The Privilege of Age.
"Ply object in calling this evening," he
began, with a nervous tremble of his ohin,
"was to ask you, Katie—I may call you
Katie, may I not?"
"Certainly, Mr. Longpipe," said the
sweet young girl. "Alt of paps's elderly
friends call me Katie."
And he meld nothing further abort his
object in ealling.—Spare Moments.
The Austrian General Baron Knebel von
Tratterschweit is deed. He wae the only
general whet won a victory over the Prue.
dans in the campaign of' 1866.
;
oFrereA. T,
Tema Epitaph of Tomb.
iit learne that Sheriff lnaughter expot eoon to add the popu.
Illation of the publio greveysed.
Of New York oity's selocinti 66 are kept
by womeno
NE GREAT litTOBlif
-• • • • • ^11 I,•••••
&man of xtenebire Pamageo rksab
Continue To Come In.
A Halifax deepatoli says; Another heavy
gide set tn lapt midnight with blinding
snow, This continued all night the wind,
blowing at times with laurricano force. Pr
daylight the enow turned to ram o and otune
down in torrents until aboot noon when
the weather moderated. The tefegraph
lines along the hore are proetrated, hut it
isi believed when reporte are received that
to -day's storm will prove equelly disastroue
with that of Monday. Devote/am' continue
to be received announcing wreaks front
that storm. ru addition to those reported
last night the schoener Ellen is ashore ati
Whitehead, the W. E. Young at Cow Bay,
the Little Anoie at IlloNeb'e Wand, the
Evangeline at Smith' s Wand, the E. De
blyra at Port Rood Leland, and the barque
Ette Stewert at Parreboro'. A letter front
Heatherton, Antigonish, says: The
storm did terrible damage around here. A.
vetted of 50 or 60 tons went eshore about
two miles from Heatherton, and all hawk,
6 or 7, were lost in sight of the people on.
shore,who could do nothing for them. She
sailed from Lookport, N. El Bayfield wharf
wee ooropletely swept away, while any
bridge that the tide oonld reach was de-
stroyed. The tide swept up the Pomquekto
River over two miles farther than it ever
did before."
A North Sydney, N. S., despatch nye
One of the heaviest gales of the Beason was
experienced bo -day, damaging shipping and.
property generally. The schooner Delete
Capt. Richarcia, of Arichat, C. B, was
driven from her moorings at Sonth Sydney
end ran ashore on the eattern side of the
G. M. A. coaling pier. The crew got aehore
on is line made feat to the foremast and held
by the crowd on shore. The brigantine
Eliza, Capt. Tracy, St. Mule, Nfld..,
broke from her fastenings and drove iota
the G. DI. A. dook, chafing considerably.
The schooner Jessie, badly damaged in the
last gale, is now here waiting to go on theTO
slip for repairs. The sohooner Alpine, 'Ai
Capt. Soper, damaged, to go on the slip. '7
extent of injury unknown. An American
fisherman reported ashore near Linton
C. B., broken up. Sehooner Maggie Mil-
lard, total loss. Schooners Bella May and.
Corsair high and dry; it Is thought cannot
be got off until next spring. Extent a
damage around the meat is not known as
yet. The telephone and telegraph lines are
not working this afternoon.
Beaton Reporting.
Boston Transcript Interviewer—Mr.
SWelhed, I have come to get your views on
the propoeed change in the curriculum a
the grammar school."
Mr. IS welhed—" Curriculum I What'
that 2 I'm twin it, whatever it ie."
Mr. Swathed (reading the report of the
interview)—Our distinguished towneman,„
Dlr. DI. T. Swelhed, was found at his charm-
ing home, surrounded by abundant indica-
tion of ripe scholarship and sturdy oont-
mon- tense. In reply to our reporter's
question he said "1 do not desire to force
my opinions upon the public); but this I
will say, that I have given to this question
long and studious attention'incidently
examining into the curricula ofinstitntione
of learning both at home and abroad, awl
although I find in the existing course of
study not e few matters for condemnation,
still, upon the whole, I cannot say that
should advise any radioed change until I
have further time to examine into the sub-
ject." By George that feller's got my
exact language word for word And he
didn't take no notes neither 1 By George),
wliat a memory that fellow must heve I
,
The Wonsan In the Vase.
Mrs. 0 Shea, the woman whose charms
fasainsted Parnell and have precipitated &
political crisis upon Great Britain and
Ireland, was, according to the London oor-
respondent of the New York Commercial
Advertiser, the mistress of an ex.governon •
of the Bank of England before she married
O'Shea. She is the meter of Eitr Evelyn
Wood, a distinguiehed English soldier, and
a woman of great beauty and accomplish-
ments. The statement of the correspond-
ent just quoted is news to the American
public, but it is made with a positiveness
that assumes its absolute scouraoy. Par-
nell's intimacy with the woman, it is said,
began eight years ago end was well known
to his assothetes of the Irish party and even.
to other members of the Horse of Com-
mons. Surprise is expressed in some
quarters, therefore that the men who have
all along known that Parnell has frequently
negleeted his public duties to pay court to
the wife of another man ehonld now de-
mand his retirement from the leadership of
his party.—Bochester Herald.
Rev. So -and -So.
Moody on Matthew: " Yee, I see. Ide
simply grabbed all the money he could
because he had a right. Well, there are
lots of people in Chicago who are just like
him. Notice one thing about Matthew,
though, he gave up hie title. Nowhere
through the Bible will you find the ser-
vants of God using any titles, and I would
adeiee you all to avoid it. Don't go around
calling yourselves the Rev. So -and -So.
When a man begins to want a title he
doesn't want to be a servant of God. If
you want to be need by God don't hove
titles. There are too many big men
already in the country. We want more
small ones. A big head is a dangeroue dis-
ease. The moot useful men and women
are those who are loweet.
A. Lovely Wonsan
Overheard one say of her, By heaven
she's painted" I "Yes," retorted she, in-
dignantly, "and by heaven only 1" Ruddy
health mantled her cheek, enthroned on the 't
rose and lily. Yet this beautiful lady,
once thin and pale, with a dry, haoking
cough, night.sweate and slight spittings of
blood, seemed destined to fill a consunept
tive's grave, After spending hundreds of
dollars on physicians without benefit, she
tried Dr. Pieree's Golden Medic's' Die-
oovery; her improvement was soon marked,
and in a few months she was plump and
rosy again, the pioture of health and
strength. It is the only medicine of its
class, sold by druggists, under a positive
guarantee that it will benefit or Imre in all
cane of disease for which it is recom- ,
mended, or money paid will be promptly
refunded. •
The vineyard whence Liebfranen-
milch cornea is to be turned into a railway
station.
The next Moderator of the Church of
Sootland will be Rev. Mr. Macgregor, of S.
Cuthbert'e Church, Edinburgh, who is novr
one of the most active opponents of diet- '
establishment eincl is making msny epeeehee
in behalf of the Church defence movement '
now going on in Scotland.
A Christmas novelty is a huge, etuffed
near, with glaring eyes and wide open t
mouth, holding in his clumsy pitons a ham-
mered -iron candelabra. This is a quaint '
and original ornament for a hall.
Married people, it is field, live longer than
single ones. It seeme longer, anyway tO