Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/514

 498 terms than present owners offer. But this the state could not do without sacrificing the fundamental principle of the single tax, which is that the occupier shall pay the full economic rent.

It is the testimony of all observers that, of two men of equal endowment cultivating land, the one being the owner and the other only a tenant, the owner makes the best use of the land, gets the largest crops, has the best cattle and the best orchard, and in all ways takes the best care of the property. The reason is very simple. It is because all the labor, skill, and economy bestowed upon the land enure to his own advantage. The net results belong to him, and this is sufficient reason for the employment of his best powers and for the practice of the utmost frugality. Capital arises from the exercise of industry and frugality. It is for the interest of the state that capital should be created. The system of land tenure which offers the greatest inducement to the creation of capital is the one most conducive to the public interest.

Again, the private ownership of land tends to stability in institutions. The ideas which gather about the word home are the most precious, both to the individual and to the community, that we are able to conceive of. A man will ordinarily undergo greater hardships, practice more self-denial, exercise more of the virtues which go to the upbuilding of the commonwealth, in order to secure a home, than to accomplish any other object. This is what his mind is first set on, and when he has gained it his efforts are equally enlisted to keep it. The single tax threatens to profoundly alter the meaning of this word as we understand it. It is not consistent with the idea of home that somebody should take it away from us by bidding at an auction. If it be said that no such auction would take place, but that the state would fix the tax at a rate previously ascertained as sufficient to take the economic rent, differing from the present tax only in amount, then we say that there is no means of ascertaining what the economic rent is. It would be possible to form an approximate estimate at the beginning by taking as a standard the rents paid by individuals for the use of land as a matter of bargain. But the standard would only serve for the first renting. What about the second? Land values change. It is the aim of the single tax to gather in the values that grow with the progress of society. A large part of Mr. George's argument is addressed to the coming time when all available land shall be appropriated. Renting by auction is the only process that will enable society to collect economic rent surely, equitably, progressively, and scientifically.

I have no apprehension that the single-tax theory will ever get beyond the argumentative stage in this country, or in any country where small ownership is the characteristic feature of