Progress of the Single Tax Movement

Louis F. Post

[Reprinted from The Standard, 31 August, 1892. Last issue of the paper.
No byline on this article. Louis Post was editor]

Though it did not acquire its distinctive name until long afterward, the single tax movement began with the publication of Progress and Poverty, in the spring of 1879. The remedy for industrial depression and involuntary poverty, proposed in that masterful work, is what is now known the world over as the single tax. Having traced poverty to its source in the private ownership of land, Mr. George proposed no revolutionary or bungling remedy, such as the abolition of private titles and the nationalization of land. What he proposed was the taking through taxation of economic rent, which is unquestionably a common fund, and applying it to common uses, thus leaving the entire value of labor to individual laborers in proportion to their earnings; and, by making the mere owning of land unprofitable, opening up unused land to labor. As the immediate step in practical statesmanship, he proposed then, as he and all intelligent single tax advocates have proposed ever since, simply the abolition of all existing taxes, save the single one which now falls upon the value of land. "It is an axiom of statesmanship," he argued," that great changes can best be brought about under old forms;" and that, " when the common right to land is so far appreciated that all taxes are abolished save those which fall upon rent, there is no danger of much more than is necessary to induce them to collect the public revenues being left to Individual land owners."

The first organization in the movement was in harmony with the fiscal character of this mode of social and industrial reform. It was a tax reform society. At about the time of the original publication of "Progress and Poverty," this society was organized in San Francisco, Cal. Among its members were Henry George himself and James G. McGuire, late Justice of the Superior Court of San Francisco, and now the Democratic candidate for Congress from the Fourth District of California. When Mr. George's book began to attract attention eastward of the Rocky Mountains, a similar tax reform society was organized in New York, of which Charles Fred. Adams was one of the leading members.

These societies made but little headway and did not last long, and until 1883 no other attempt at organization was made. In that year the Scottish and English Land Restoration League abroad, and the Free Soil Society in the United States were formed. The former was fairly successful, but the latter made no progress. Notwithstanding these failures at organization, the book was forging ahead, making converts as it went, and who were promptly heard from when the occasion for open and united effort came.

That was in 1886. Mr. George was then nominated for Mayor of New York, the fundamental principle of the single tax being the leading feature of his platform, and the only issue of the campaign. The boldness of his canvass, and his magnificent vote, 68,000, served not only to bring the converts already made into communication, but also to draw general attention to the question. The election was followed by the first publication of THE STANDARD and the formation in different parts of the country of clubs which engaged in propagating the principles of "Progress and Poverty," and in the city of New York the voters who had supported Mr. George organized the United Labor Party. This party held a convention at Syracuse, in August, 1887, at which a state organization was formed, though with the exception of New York and Brooklyn and perhaps a few of the smaller cities, it was never more than a paper organization. It was at this convention that the socialists broke away from the United Labor Party. The ostensible cause of the breach was trifling; the real cause was a recognition by both sides of the truth that socialism and the principles of the single tax, instead of being harmonious, are diametrically opposed. At the succeeding election, although the vote polled was over 37,000 in New York City and some 70,000 in the whole State, it was so much less than had been expected, and in New York it fell so far away from the vote of the previous year, that the end of this third party movement was plainly to be seen by any one accustomed to observing political changes.

At that time Cleveland's anti-protection message appeared, and Henry George welcomed it as the beginning of the political fight for the single tax along the lines of the free trade controversy, which he had foreseen as far back as 1883, and in anticipation of which he had written Protection or Free Trade? But the United Labor party contained a large contingent of protectionists, and a National Labor party was subsequently formed, which, together with the remnant of the United Labor party of New York, disgraced every man who retained any prominent connection with either, by the deceit and corruption which characterised their campaign in New York City in 1888. After that election the United Labor party was abandoned.

Meantime, the free traders of the old United Labor party had begun to organise, and had assumed the distinctive title of single tax. A single tax campaign committee was formed and circulated a pledge, in which the signers declared their intention of voting for Cleveland, on the ground that the Democratic party was moving in the direction of free trade, and that free trade was in the direction of the single tax. This committee acted only for the state of New York, and its work was confined almost exclusively to the city of New York, but it secured 11,000 signatures in a very brief time.

After the election, the famous single tax petition to Congress was prepared, and a committee organized to circulate it. William T Croasdale was the chairman of that committee and George St. John Leavens was its secretary. Through their efforts over 115,000 signatures were obtained. In obtaining these signatures the committee became acquainted with active men throughout the country, who proved their interest in the single tax by the work they did and in this way a nucleus of single tax workers was formed out of which came the first national single tax conference, which was held at Cooper Union on the first, second, and third days of September, 1890. It formulated a declaration of principles and organized the Single Tax League of the United States, with a national committee of which William T. Croasdale, deceased, was, and Louis F. Post now is the chairman, and George St. John Leavens the secretary. Arrangements are now in progress for holding a second conference at Chicago next summer, and also for holding an international congress under the auspices of the World's Fair Committee in the same city, at the same time.

The adoption of the name "single tax" has been copied in Australia and Canada, and is coming into common use in England and Scotland. In England, several ardent single tax men, chief among them being William Saunders, have been returned to Parliament; in Canada, where local option in taxation has been accorded to municipalities, agitations of great force have broken out in several towns and cities in favor of the single tax; in Australia the parliaments of the different colonies include influential members who are pushing the single tax agitation freely and effectively; and in New Zealand a clean cut Single tax law has been adopted, saddled, however, with an income tax "rider."

In the Congress of the United States there are a score or more of single tax members, and a much larger number who are strongly attracted toward it. At the head of them all, of course, is Tom L. Johnson, who was but barely defeated for Congress four years ago In a protection stronghold, was elected by a large majority two years ago in a Democratic district only moderately strong, and is to fight for his seat this year in a gerrymandered district, where the Republican majority a year ago was over 2,000. In every fight he has gone to the front as a single tax free trader. He will do the same in the coming campaign. Should he be elected over the tremendous majority that has been gerrymandered against him, his victory will be a triumph that will mean much for the single tax movement.