Social Injustice
Henry Ware Allen
[Reprinted from Land and Freedom,
March-April, 1933]
Several years ago in a Colorado town request was made of the local
charity organization for a supply of coal. Investigation found a
housewife evidently in comfortable circumstances, who complained
indignantly that the railroad company had placed a watchman on its
tracks across the street from her home and had thereby deprived her of
a privilege which she had enjoyed for a long time of helping herself
to coal from cars on the track.
This incident illustrates how the transfer of property without
knowledge or consent of its owner, without opposition or interference
and without any recompense being made therefor, may in the mind of the
favored party, and by the hallowing influence of time, come to be
considered a personal privilege, a vested right.
This housewife was honest as the term is generally understood,
honesty based upon expediency rather than principle. She would hotly
resent being classed as a common thief and would not think of helping
herself at a neighbor's coal bin. That would have involved the
personal equation in a disagreeable way. But the railroad coal car, on
the other hand, was quite impersonal. What she took would hardly
change the recorded weight of the car and in any event the loss would
be infinitestimal upon the stockholders of mine, smelter or the
railroad company.
In every large city, and increasingly so, it is the custom when
erecting large and expensive buildings for corporations to make use of
land owned by others and secured by 99 year leases. This process
involves the payment of a tribute which is pure economic rent, all
taxes having been paid by the owner of the building. The transfer of
this value is made without the knowledge or consent of its rightful
owners, without their objection or interference and without any
compensation whatever being paid in return for same. In this respect
the transaction is exactly the same as that which was made by the
Colorado woman. Of course, there is this difference between the two
illustrations, the first being a violation of common law and involving
arrest for theft, conviction and punishment for same, whereas in the
second case the transfer is made in accordance with legal
requirements, being entirely regular in every way and without
involving any moral obliquity. Here again the sanctifying influence of
time is to be observed. The responsibility for the robbery, for such
it really is, lies with society and not with the individual. At all
times we must keep in mind the fact pointed out by Henry George that
property may be secured only by one of three methods, either by
earning it, by receiving it as a gift, or by robbery.
The above is only one of the many forms of special privilege which in
our present system of taxation rob the many for the benefit of the
few. The more common avenue by which economic rent, a community value,
is conveyed into possession of individuals who have no rightful title
to it, is the collection of this unearned increment by landlords from
tenants everywhere, when such rent is in excess of reasonable return
on the invested capital. The economic rent in the United States is
calculated to be in excess of thirteen billion dollars annually. Of
course this amount varies immensely with changing financial
conditions. But if this were taken for the normal expenses of
government then the multitude of taxes which now fall upon capital and
labor, business and industries of all kinds, might be abolished and
such change would set in motion beneficent influences in every
direction.
One important effect of this reform in taxation would be reduced
prices of urban, residential and agricultural lands to a minimum. The
inflated values of land are of advantage to one class only, that of
the land speculator, the land monopolist, those who seek to benefit at
the cost of others, to gather where they did not sow. The practical
advantage to the farmer would be his ability to purchase desired
acreage at a mere fraction of what is now the market price. The
advantage to the young man who desired to establish a home would be
that the land on which to build a house would cost him a mere fraction
of what is now the price demanded by those who have building lots to
sell. That this change would cause losses to some is, of course,
apparent, but such losses would be in line with the demands of justice
and would be nothing like the losses now sustained by those who are
unjustly deprived of their farms and homes as the direct result of our
present system of taxation.
Objection may be here made that just as unsettled obligations between
debtor and creditor are outlawed after a reasonable lapse of time,
therefore, and by the same reasoning, long established custom has made
good the title to economic rent through the medium of 99 year leases
and other contracts between landlord and tenant. It is frequently
stated that if the Single Tax plan had been started in Colonial days
it would have been all right, but it is now impossible to effect so
radical a change in our fiscal system. This, of course, involves the
question of fundamental rights and perhaps no better answer can be
made to this very point than by quoting Herbert Spencer, who in his
chapter on "The Right To The Use of The Earth " in Social
Statics, states the case as follows:
"It can never be pretended that the existing titles
to such property are legitimate. Should any one think so, let him
look in the chronicles. Violence, fraud, the prerogative of force,
the claims of superior cunning these are the sources to which those
titles may be traced. The original deeds were written with the
sword, rather than with the pen: not lawyers, but soldiers, were the
conveyancers: blows were current coin given in payment; and for
seals, blood was used in preference to wax. Could valid claims be
thus constituted? Hardly. Does sale or bequest generate a right
where it did not previously exist? But time, say some, is a great
legalizer. Immemorial possession must be taken to constitute a
legitimate claim. That which has been held from age to age as
private property, and has been bought and sold as such, must now be
considered as irrevocably belonging to individuals. To which
proposition a willing assent shall be given when its propounders can
assign it a definite meaning. To do this, however, they must find
satisfactory answers to such questions as, How long does it take for
what was originally a wrong to grow into a right? At what rate per
annum do invalid claims become valid?"
Objection may also be made that to institute the Single Tax will
cause great hardship. No one understood more clearly than Mr. George
that the change would involve a certain amount of hardship and he and
his followers have anticipated this by providing gradual elimination
of the taxes which now fall upon capital and labor, business and
industry.
Henry George at all times has taken truth for authority rather than
authority for truth, letting the chips fall where they may. He says in
"Progress and Poverty," "Unless its foundation be laid
in justice the social structure can not stand."
In Buckle's History of Civilization attention is called to the fact
that every forward movement in legislation consists not in the
enactment of anything new but in the repeal of bad laws previously
enacted. The programme for the adoption of the Single Tax as given to
the world by Henry George is in harmony with this.
When "Progress and Poverty" was published in 1879 a new
Magna Carta was given to the world. From that time forward the
principle that "ignorance of the law excuses no one, " was
to have a new meaning. This was thereafter to apply to economic law as
well as to statutory law. Caveat emptor was given a new emphasis and a
distinction was thenceforth to be made between legitimate return for
labor or capital and the illegitimate transfer of economic rent to
private parties. Thenceforth notice was in reality given to investors
that they should beware of 99 year leases or other contracts which
conveyed community values into the pockets of private individuals.
Constant emphasis must be given to the great truth enunciated by Henry
George that economic rent is the fruit of the community designed by a
wise Creator to provide for the expenses of the community: that this
fund is amply sufficient for such use: that when diverted to
individuals social ills are sure to follow : and when taken by the
community then all other taxes of every kind whatsoever may be
abolished.
To many minds the present condition of social injustice seems to be
incurable excepting by a revolution which shall include the
establishment of state socialism. They would junk the entire
structure, commencing all over again with a more or less artificial
plan based upon expediency rather than upon justice. In contrast to
this the plan of Henry George is to conserve that which is good in our
present system, eliminating only that which is bad. I hold that to
sacrifice all that has been gained by the experience of centuries
would be a tragedy and would be illogical as to scrap a first-class
automobile simply became something was wrong with the carburetor or
other vital parts.
Justice, which Addison declares is the greatest and most God-like of
all virtues, must in accordance with the philosophy of Henry George be
the test applied to all fiscal legislation.
Coming generations will wonder how the tariff system with its
monstrous injustice to all and its interference with prosperity was
tolerated by this generation and the reaction will be the same toward
the income tax, taking property where property can be found, with the
procedure of the highwayman and with no considerations whatsoever to
the principle of justice.
Too long have we held to the view inherited from across the sea that
the King can do no wrong, interpreting it to mean that our Government
can do no wrong. That obsession is soon to pass. The Government, with
evident piety, pays hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for
Chaplains to instruct our soldiers and sailors, Generals and Admirals,
Senators and Representatives how to live Christian lives. These
Chaplains repeat the commands, 'Thou shalt not kill," "Thou
shalt not steal," "Do unto others as you would have them do
to you," "Love thy neighbor as thyself, " and then the
Government proceeds to violate every one of these principles.
In spite of the fact that our country is capable of supporting
comfortably at least ten times its present population, Prof. Sweeney,
of the Iowa State College, even asserting that the population of the
entire world could by intensive cultivation live on the soil of the
great State of Texas, our Government has slammed its doors against
immigration and as a result of bad laws is actually causing more to
leave than to come into our country. The Statue of Liberty in New York
harbor has in consequence become a joke.
At the present time we are telling the world to buy our automobiles,
our wheat, our corn, our cotton, our radios and our other products and
to pay for these with gold! " Do not presume, " we say, "to
sell us the products of your underpaid, degraded, pauper labor, in
that way interfering with our American high standard of living! "
This of course has no reference to our millions of unemployed.
The conclusion of the whole matter is that our present tax system is
a jumble of economic atrocities which violate alike considerations of
justice and expediency. Prosperity is as natural as sunshine and would
prevail, giving to all the advantages accruing from every labor saving
machinery and other fruits of an advancing civilization, were it not
for the evil effects of our present stupid system of taxation. The
followers of Henry George believe that the golden age will be ushered
in when governments conform to the same ethical principles which
universally obtain among men: When governments shall, for their
necessary expenses, make full use of their only legitimate source of
revenue, the rental value of land: When consequently, all other taxes
shall be abolished: When land speculation and land monopoly shall
cease: When all men shall enjoy an equal right to the use of the
Earth: When commerce between nations shall be free as it now is
between the States of the Union: When the philosophy of Henry George
shall have become a beneficient reality.
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