February 11, 1891 Vol. IX, No. 6Whole No. 215

THE STANDARD

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY, BY WM. T. CROASDALE, AT NO. 42 UNIVERSITY PLACE.

VOL. IX. | NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1891. | NO. 6.

p. 1, col. 1 PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCES. — Mr. Jas. Charlton, of Houston, Tex., sends us the result of a canvass made by the Austen^sic correspondent of the Houston Post, from which it appears that out of 127 members of the Texas Legislature canvassed by him, seventy-eight members delared^sic for Cleveland, eleven for Hill, five for Morrison and four for Palmer, while twenty-three were undecided and six expressed various individual preferences. The only doubt as to Cleveland amongst many of those canvassed was due to his attitude on the silver question. The correspondent says, that if Mr. Cleveland should declare in favor of free coinage Texas would be unanimous for him. However that may be, it seems pretty clear that the Hill boom has not yet made much headway in the big State.

THIRD PARTY PLANS.—For some reason the conference of labor organizations and independent reformers that was to be held at Cincinnati on February 23 has been postponed until Tuesday, May 19. Captain C. A. Power, of Terre Haute, Ind., says that the postponement is due to “the unwarranted interference of certain parties,” but he declares that the conference will certainly take place on May 17^sic. and that all organizations already committed to the platform drawn up at Ocala are invited to send delegates. The purpose is announced to be the formation of a third party and not the consideration of the question as to whether or not a third party is needed.

THE NEW YORK WOOL GROWERS.—We published in the last issue of THE STANDARD a letter from Mr. Norton, of East Bloomfield, disclaiming the credit for the excellent resolutions adopted at Honeoye, and declaring that such credit belongs to Mr. Sanford W. Abbey, Secretary of the Wool Growers’ Association. Mr. Abbey declares that no one man is entitled to the credit. He says: “The fact is, the Ontario and Livingston sheep breeders are getting their eyes opened. They are having the cobwebs swept away, so to speak, and they recognize that their success depends on the success of the manufacturer, and that even then they are compelled to take just what the manufacturer sees fit to give them.” He adds, the resolutions created a great rattling among the dry bones, and “I am pitched into from all quarters, though I do not mind it.”

NOTHING LIKE SO BAD.—We fully agree with the New York Times that to change the issue now dividing political parties from one of taxation to one of currency would be most injurious to the Democratic party and calamitous to the people, whose interest in this vital question has just been aroused. The Times goes too far, however, and weakens its own cause when it declares that a free coinage measure would be more mischievous than the Force bill. This is an eminently commercial view of politics. The worst that can possibly come from any mistake in currency legislation is pecuniary loss, whereas the Force bill aimed a direct blow at popular government, and if the policy that it would have inaugurated were once carried to its logical conclusion, the people would finally lose the power either to make mistakes in legislation or to correct them. If the Force bill could have been passed, and the powers that it granted could have been used

p. 1, col. 2 effectively, at a single election, to give the Republican party complete possession of the Federal Government, the era of constitutional free government in America would have ended, never to be restored, save by forcible revolution. If mistakes are made in currency questions many will suffer in pocket, but recovery from such disasters is reasonably rapid and absolutely certain after the mistake is once rectified. Such evils cannot be compared with the dastardly blow aimed at free institutions by the Massachusetts malignant, Senator Hoar, and his allies.

A DRASTIC ANTI-TRUST LAW.—The Indiana Senate has passed the most sweeping measure ever enacted against trusts in that State. The bill declares that all trusts, pools, contracts, combinations, arrangements or corporations that attempt to decrease the output, control prices or limit production shall be considered conspiracies to defraud the people, and every person who is a member of such organization shall be subject to a fine of from one thousand to five thousand dollars and imprisonment from two to five years. This provision is made to apply to any stockholder in a corporation that has entered into a trust, while corporations thus offending, if organized under Indiana laws, will have their charters forfeited. Persons injured by the operations of the trust or pool are authorized to sue for damages. It seems to us that this is about as far as any legislature can go without imposing the death penalty, and we shall be curious to see to what extent the new bill, if it becomes a law, will operate to prevent these combinations investment of trade^sic from carrying on operations in Indiana.

WILL COME HOME TO ROOST.—The Indiana House of Representatives has passed a bill requiring foreign insurance companies to keep on deposit in that State not less than fifty thousand dollars either in cash, municipal bonds or mortgages on Indiana property, such deposit to be subject to taxation. Any foreign company failing to comply with the provisions of the bill will be fined $100 a day during the continuance of such failure. What do the people of Indiana expect to make by this? Do they suppose that foreign insurance companies will do business in their State at smaller profits than they earn in other States? If they do not expect this, why is it they cannot understand that, unless profits are exorbitant and some monopoly exists, the rates are now what competition will make them, and any addition to expenses of the companies will simply add to the cost of insurance in Indiana.

ATTACKING HILL.—The Plattsburg Republican, a Democratic paper owned by Smith M. Weed, has hitherto been an ardent admirer and supporter of Governor Hill. It recently, however, came out with a remarkable editorial article entitled, “A Broken Idol,” in which it frankly admitted that, though it had defended Governor Hill against the assaults made upon him immediately after the recent Presidential election, in which he was charged with treachery to the Democratic Presidential candidate, the appearances were unquestionably against him in the matter. It defended him, it says, because, despite these appearances, it could not believe him guilty of such monumental treachery. History, it continues, has been making fast since that continued on p. 2 →

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THE CANADIAN LIBERALS’ DILEMMA.

—The Liberal party of Canada has for some time been practically united in demanding more liberal commercial relations with the United States. As their party has visibly grown in strength, largely through the blunders, or worse, of the party in power, the Liberal leaders had begun to look hopefully for a victory at the general election, which would have taken place a year hence, in due course, through the expiration of the term of the present Parliament. Seeing the drift of things, the Premier, Sir John Macdonald, has suddenly determined to dissolve Parliament and go to the country on the issue of Canada’s trade relations with the United States, the very issue demanded by his opponents. Sir John, however, loses nothing of his craftiness in his old age, and he does not intend that the issue shall take the shape desired by the Liberals. He says:

The Dominion Government has, through her Majesty’s Government, made certain proposals to the United States for negotiations looking to the extension of our commerce with that country. These proposals have been submitted to President Harrison for his consideration, and the Canadian Government is of the opinion that if the negotiations are to result in a treaty which must be ratified by the Parhament^sic of Canada, it is expedient that the Government should deal with a parliament fresh from the people rather than a moribund House.

This sounds fair, but it hardly seems possible that the Canadian conservatives, in view of their recent utterances, can make a proposal that the administration is likely to accept, and the ostentatious choice of the date of the expiration of the present Congress as the time for beginning negotiations has in it a slight suggestion of a slap in the face to the discredited party still in power. Furthermore, Secretary Blaine has publicly declared his opposition to any half way reciprocity, demanding complete reciprocity or none. Whatever Mr. Blaine’s attitude may be, Sir John’s manifesto makes it clear that the existing Canadian Government does not seek complete reciprocity. He quotes Mr. Wyman’s^sic declaration that the Liberal policy is “Free Trade with the United States and a common tariff with the United States against the rest of the world.” He denounces such policy as a treasonable attempt to discriminate against the mother country and declares that loyal Canadians will never consent to it.

We do not see how the Liberals are to meet this charge, unless it is by acknowledging its truth and taking the consequences, whatever they may be. It is an essential part of any scheme of commercial union that permits Free Trade between Canada and the United States, that the tariffs maintained by the two contracting governments against the rest of the world

p. 4, col. 2

shall be equal and uniform. As there is no present prospect of repealing the McKinley bill until Mr. Harrison’s term as President expires, complete reciprocity is impossible, unless Canada imitates our folly and accepts this new “tariff of abominations.” Surely the Liberals dare not go before the people with such a programme! A year hence they could have advocated complete reciprocity with the United States, involving, as it does, uniform customs, with a reasonable prospect that the American tariff would soon be scaled down, but they cannot entertain any such hope for the present, and the Conservative Government probably had this fact in mind when it determined to force a contest, now, instead of allowing it to come, in due course, a year hence.

If the Canadian Liberals had never permitted their minds to be perverted by the Protection superstition, their escape from the dilemma in which their foxy old Premier has apparently placed them would be easy, and their triumph certain. They would in that event demand Free Trade, regardless of American legislation, and it would be their opponents who would then be called on to defend themselves against the charges of subjecting Canadian legislation to foreign interference, and of enacting laws intentionally hostile to the commerce of the empire of which Canada forms a part. What the Liberal party of Canada wants is liberal ideas, a progressive programme, and the courage of its convictions. Perhaps, first of all, it needs a leader.

THE SUPREME COURT AND DIPLOMACY.

—The hysterical protests against interference with the diplomatic powers of the President and his Secretary of State by the Supreme Court have apparently subsided since Chief Justice Fuller announced that that tribunal would give leave to counsel, representing the British Government, to file a petition for a writ of prohibition to prevent the United States District Court of Alaska from proceeding to carry out its decree of forfeiture in the case of the schooner Sayward, libelled for unlawfully taking seal within the waters of Bering Sea.

We hope that the court will be able to go further, and review the whole proceeding below. The present Secretary of State of the United States claims for our Government, as the successor of Russia’s rights in the premises, exclusive jurisdiction over the whole of Bering Sea. The British Government, at the request of Canada, resists this claim. In the good old days of song and story, blood and folly, the first preliminary to any final settlement of such a dispute would have been the cutting of one another’s throats by a large number of men absolutely indifferent to the question, and devoid of a single idea on the merits of the dispute. Instead of shouting “Brittania^sic Rules the Waves” and ordering out its ironclads, the British Government comes into court and declares that the seizure, which is made the test case of the controversy, is not even warranted by American law, and it asks the Supreme Court of the very government with which it is contending, to review the judgment already rendered in the case. Sir John Thompson, Attorney-General of Canada, appears as counsel for the British Government, accompanied by American counsel, who represent the owner of the vessel, the propriety of whose seizure and condemnation is in dispute. This seems to us about as much an improvement on the barbarism of the past, as is the reference to a jury of a question of disputed ownership over the savage custom of allowing the stronger man of the two to kill the other and seize the property in dispute.

Suppose the Supreme Court shall decide that the court below erred, and that the United States have not the jurisdiction claimed for them by the Secretary of State, that does not preclude further negotiations by continued on p. 5 →

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SINGLE TAX PAPERS.—

We are occasionally asked for an opinion as to the effect on THE STANDARD of attempts to maintain local Single Tax papers. We doubt if these attempts have much direct effect, one way or the other. Indirectly their effect is bad. THE STANDARD needs for its support and development the undivided and persistent support of all Single Tax advocates. We have already been able, without impairing its character as an advocate of our principles and a compendium of Single Tax news, to broaden its scope sufficiently to attract readers from beyond the ranks of our movement. This not only makes it more interesting to Single Tax men, but increases its efficiency in propaganda work. This is the natural line of its development, and in order to accomplish all that is possible in this direction it ought to be able to pay fair prices for contributions and to make investigations, more or less expensive, of matters of special interest and importance to its readers. We cannot always depend on voluntary unpaid work for compiling the statistics so much needed even now. Hard work by Single Tax men to increase its circulation will tend to increase THE STANDARD’S prosperity, and any diversion of such effort toward struggles to maintain local papers is, to that extent, injurious to this paper and to the cause it represents.

We fully recognize the fact that THE STANDARD owes it to that cause to do all that is in its power to secure the wide dissemination of our ideas, but we think it meets that obligation. It keeps up the Single Tax Library of cheap Single Tax literature, at no profit to itself, and it freely tenders to the National Committee, to be used without credit, all its contributed articles and news, for reproduction in the ready print matter furnished by that committee to hundreds of weekly newspapers in all parts of the country. In this way thousands of readers are reached who could not be induced to subscribe for a Single Tax paper. Furthermore, with a view to spreading our doctrines, it maintains a far larger exchange list than it needs for its own purposes.

It is true that THE STANDARD is not a cheap paper. The demand of its constituency is for a high class publication that cannot, in the nature of things, be cheaply produced. Yet its terms have been purposely so arranged that very few people, indeed, can honestly say that they cannot afford to subscribe for it. One dollar is not a large sum to save up by any man who greatly desires something, and one dollar will enable any one to obtain THE STANDARD for four

p. 5, col. 2 months. This price is but a fraction of a cent per copy over its price in its old form. If Single Tax men would get this idea into their heads and vigorously canvass for subscriptions, instead of trying to get up cheap rehashes of the news gathered by THE STANDARD, they would serve the cause more effectively and resist a tendency toward the diffusion of their energies that has already, in many ways, retarded the progress of our movement.

THE STANDARD is not begging the support of Single Tax men. They surely appreciate the services it has rendered to our cause in the past, and understand the enormous advantage that it is to our movement to have an able and prosperous paper to gather and present all news affecting it, to review current events from our standpoint, and to defend our principles whenever they are assailed by persons or papers of sufficient prominence to demand a reply. A paper that can be depended on to do this permanently must be a successful business enterprise, and there is no conceivable work in which the friends of the Single Tax can engage more valuable to the cause than earnest work to extend the circulation and promote the prosperity of THE STANDARD. This is not the only thing to be done, but no other work ought to be permitted to stand in the way of this.

PARNELL’S OBSTRUCTION.—

It seems that the leaders of the English Liberal party have been willing to so far humor Mr. Parnell’s demand for definite pledges, as a condition to his own retirement, as to give assurances concerning the control of any Irish Parliament over the police and land question, under a Home Rule scheme, that are pronounced satisfactory by O’Brien and Dillon. Harold Frederic telegraphs the Times that Parnell positively promised O’Brien that, if such assurances were given, he would retire, and thus cease to confuse the existing situation. It was, of course, understood that the Liberal leaders could only give assurances, as to what they were willing to undertake, and not as to what a parliament yet to be elected would actually do. Any promise given beyond that would be manifestly so reckless that the assumption that it was made to be broken would be a reasonable one.

Now that the conditions named by him have been met, and O’Brien and Dillon have declared that they are satisfied with the assurances given, Parnell makes a new demand as the price of his retirement, which, we understand, is for a written guarantee from Gladstone that, if called to power, he will do certain specific things.

He knows perfectly well that no leader would sign such a paper, and that no decent men will join him in demanding a written pledge following a spoken promise. Such a demand is simply an insult to Mr. Gladstone. Parnell, however, makes compliance with this new demand, the condition on which alone he will permit Irish unity. This is equivalent to saying that he will not retire at all, and the outcome goes to prove that Mr. O’Brien’s vanity has not merely made him ridiculous, but has worked actual harm to the Irish cause.

An increasing number of English Liberals are growing weary of bothering about a people so fatuously led, and there is a disposition among them to force several questions which concern Englishmen and Irishmen alike to the front. According to Mr. Rylett, in his letter published elsewhere, this policy actually was carried out in the recent campaign in Hartlepool. Mr. Gladstone, however, hangs on to the Irish issue, and he is able to prevent any formal change of front. This may be due to an old man’s disinclination to changes of policy, but much more likely it is due to Mr. Gladstone’s personal disagreement with his inevitable successors in the leadership and direction of the Liberal party. If Parnell’s selfishness and treachery shall con- continued on p. 6 →

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TURN THE TRAITORS OUT.—

No eleventh-hour repentence^sic can excuse Senator Ingalls’ persistent appeals to passion and prejudice during his long career, nor cause thinking men to cease to rejoice that his public career is, for the present, about to close. Nevertheless, Mr. Ingalls has demonstrated that he has more conscience than some of the Pharisees who professed to be shocked at his declaration that purity in politics is an “irredescent^sic dream.” In his personal statement in the Senate, last week, the Kansas Senator declared that many months ago, while he was occupying the chair of the Senate in the absence of the Vice-President, he resisted “many urgent importunities and many strenuous solicitations” to co-operate with those who were seeking to obtain the establishment of a closure rule by methods that he then believed, and still believes, to be “revolutionary and subversive of the fundamental principles of constitutional government.”

Note the words. Mr. Ingalls does not say he was argued with, but that he was urgently importuned and strenuously solicited to usurp power to do an act, the advocates of which knew that he regarded as “revolutionary and subversive of the fundamental principles of Constitutional government.” That is to say a conscienceless crowd of conspirators urgently importuned a high public officer to violate his official oath and his conscientious convictions in order to carry out a revolutionary scheme to which they were committed.

No accusation more serious has ever been made against his fellow members by a Senator. Had Mr. Ingalls yielded to the importunities of his tempters he would have committed deliberate treason and perjury. Who are these suborners to perjury and inciters to treason? The matter ought not to stop with Mr. Ingalls’ speech. The facts should be investigated and the guilty parties should be ignominiously expelled from the Senate.

PATERNAL RAILWAY LEGISLATION.—

Senator Cullom’s bill to amend the Inter-State Commerce law, recently reported to the Senate, authorized common carriers to enter into contracts or agreements with respect to traffic, with the consent of the Inter-State Commission, whenever the latter shall decide that the public interest or the general welfare will thereby be subserved. Such contracts must be filed with the commission and approved, and they shall be binding on the party thereto, though the commission may annul them at any time when, in its opinion, the public interests require such action. If the business of transportation ought to be carried on by private parties, this law is the outcome of the rankest paternalism. If such business ought not to be carried on by private parties we should like to know why. The right and duty of the State to make and maintain public highways is perfectly clear, but how does the State acquire the right to control and regulate the business of common carriers over such railways to the extent here indicated. Regulation has always been insisted on, but practically the Inter-State Commerce Commission is by this bill given control equal to that of an owner over the transportation business of the United States.

The men who advocate this measure would doubtless be shocked if they were called Socialists, and they p. 6, col. 2 would probably resent, as a suggestion to undue Radicalism, the proposition that the States shall own railways; that private parties shall be permitted to use them under such regulation as is necessary to prevent collisions and accidents, and that the Inter-State Commerce Commission shall confine itself to such an examination of tolls levied by the separate States, should such tolls be required, as will prevent the perversion of this taxing privilege into a scheme for favoring one State or locality at the expense of another. Nevertheless, the latter proposal is a sensibly conservative one, in thorough accord with the customs and usages of English-speaking people, while the existing law is a step towards Socialism blindly made by men who have refused to carefully examine this important question.

WILL TAXING COAL LANDS INCREASE THE PRICE OF COAL?—

The Age of Steel, published at St. Louis, says that the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court declaring that coal beneath the surface in that State is liable to taxation, will relieve the burden of taxation on Illinois farmers, but that “a large proportion of the tax will, of course, come out of the manufacturing interests of St. Louis, Chicago, Joliet and other industrial centres using Illinois coal.” How does the Age of Steel figure that out? Are the coal miners of Illinois not now charging these manufacturing centres all that they can get? Would they not charge more now if they would not thereby drive their present customers to other sources of supply? How are they, then, going to obtain more from the manufacturers because they must henceforth pay taxes on their coal lands?

We will venture a prediction for the benefit of our St. Louis contemporary. If the tax imposed on coal lands in Illinois has any traceable effect on the price of coal, it will cause the price to fall rather than to rise. At present there is a great extent of coal land unworked in Illinois. The ability to hold it out of use enables mine owners to limit the supply of coal, to some extent. The tendency of a tax on such land is to make it less profitable to hold it out of use. The higher the tax goes, the greater this tendency. The owners will therefore have an inducement to work mines at least enough to enable them to obtain sufficient coal to pay the taxes. This will put more coal on the market and tend toward lowering the price. Let the Age of Steel watch the market and see if it is not mistaken in supposing that taxing coal lands will increase the price of coal.

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE.—

In Bridgeport, Conn^sic.. there is a man named Sanford who, until recently, owned a corner lot near the Court House. It was one of these object lesson lots that Single Tax men like to refer to in their speeches—a vacant, unimproved piece of land in the heart of the city. Mr. Sanford was offered for this property $75,000 about a year or so ago, but would not sell it. It is customary there for property owners to place a valuation on their property to aid the tax assessors in their work. At the last assessment Mr. Sanford thought he would be aiding the assessors by valuing the lot referred to at $3,000. But this time his valuation was not accepted. The assessors had heard of the $75,000 offer. They mentioned the fact to Mr. Sanford, and told him that, as he had refused $75,000, the lot must be worth $60,000, and they would therefor^sic assess it at the customary one-third of its undoubted value, which would be $20,000. And so they did. Whereupon, what did Mr. Sanford do? Within a month from the time when the assessment was levied he started the foundations of a big building.

Mr. W. J. Gorsuch, of Bridgeport, who tells this story, says that he has lost, by the disappearance of continued on p. 7 →

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HOW TO GIVE LABOR ITS FULL EARNINGS.

Mr. J. H. Walrath, of Milwaukee, Wis., does not understand how society can take by taxation part of the wealth created by labor, and yet leave to each man his full earnings. He writes as follows:

The Single Tax platform declares “that each man is entitled to all that his labor produces;” also, that the Single Tax would “solve the labor problem and raise wages in all occupations to the full earnings of labor.”

Now, under the present system of private ownership of land, does not labor produce not only the wages paid to labor, but also ’interest^sic realized for use of capital, profits to employers of labor, rents paid to landlords on land and the buildings thereon, and also all the taxes collected for the support of all Governments, whether economically or extravagantly administered?

On page 49 of “Progress and Poverty” Mr. George quotes Adam Smith as follows:

“The produce of labor constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labor. In that original state of things which precedes both appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, the whole produce of labor belongs to labor.” And on page 156 Mr. George says: “Where land is free and labor is unassisted by capital, the whole produce will go to labor;” and on page 125 he formulates the produce problem thus: “Produce=Rent+wages+interest.”

Now, under the Single Tax system the revenues for the support of Government will be realized from land rents, but will it not be true then, as now, that such rents will be included in the total production of labor? And if so, then how can the adcption^sic of the Single Tax result in giving “to each man all that his labor produces” and “raise wages to the full earnings of labor,” as indicated in the platform?

All produce is divided into three parts—rent, wages and interest. It is a confusion of terms to speak of a further division into profits, or two kinds of rent. Profits is a term meaning partly wages of superintendence, partly interest. Rent is the payment for the use of land only; payment for the use of a house, as distinguished from the land it stands on, is interest, not rent, for a rented house is capital, it is wealth in course of exchange. As for taxes, they are drawn from either rent, wages or interest. The primary division of the entire product, therefore, is always into these three parts, rent going to the landowner, wages to the laborer, interest to the capitalist.

Interest, the reward of capital, is earned by capital, capital being labor stored up in the form of wealth, and used in producing more wealth. Interest, therefore, is not drawn from the earnings of labor and does not reduce wages.

Economic rent is that part of the total product which represents the increased power with which the community, as a whole, aids the individual. Land bears no rent until the presence of population, the growth and improvement of the whole community, have made some locations more valuable and productive than the best locations which can be had free. By guaranteeing to

p. 7, col. 2 is compelled to levy taxes on production and products of industry, which eventually are drawn almost entirely from the earnings of labor.

Wages and interest are fixed and would be fixed under the Single Tax as well as now, by the rent line or margin of cultivation; that is to say, they are fixed by the reward which labor and capital can secure on the best land which bears no rent. Or, to put it more clearly, the average rate of wages of skilled labor is determined by the wages of unskilled labor; and the wages of unskilled labor are determined by what such labor could produce by employing itself on the best land that can be had free of rent; the general rate of interest being determined in the same way. The reason why wages, at the primary distribution of products, are not the full earnings of the individual to-day, is because the margin of cultivation is artificially lowered. The desire on the part of all men to hold all the land they can get, using to its full extent only a mere fraction of it, creates a speculative monopolization of land and lowers the margin of cultivation far below what it would naturally be if speculation in land were destroyed by the Single Tax. Hence, rents are artificially increased and wages and interest lowered, wages and interest being now fixed by what can be produced on the best unappropriated land, instead of being fixed by what could be produced on the best unused land, which is where the margin of cultivation naturally should be.

As long as land speculation exists the value of land increases in a greater ratio than productive power, rent takes more than the increase, and wages and interest fall. Under the Single Tax, where land speculation was destroyed, the value of land would follow after the increase of productive power, not run on ahead of it, and while rent would increase so also would wages and interest.

To raise wages to the full earnings of labor, then, we must destroy speculation in land and raise the margin of cultivation to the level of the best unused land; and, in order to leave to the individual his full earnings, we must abolish all the taxes on the products of labor, which are paid out of wages in increased prices. All this we can do by taking rent for public purposes by means of a Single Tax, levied on all land, improved or unimproved, according to its value.

The effect would be, moreover, not merely to raise wages to the full earnings of labor, but to make these earnings enormously greater than at present. With production freed from every trammel; natural opportunities open to all; all the members of the community engaged in productive work—none living on rents as at present, the product both of society as a whole and of each individual would be the result of the most improved methods employed under the freest conditions. Rent, wages and interest would all be increased; and rent being distributed in public benefits equally among all the members of society, every man would receive far more than his individual earnings.

New York.

W. B. SCOTT.

HENRY GEORGE IN BERMUDA.

BERMUDA, February 3.—These islands are so dark because nobody lives on them?

“Why don’t they live on them?”

“The British Government won’t sell them for fear Americans will buy up all the islands in time.”

“What a great chance to rent out the islands on their annual value,” spoke up the only Single Taxer present.

“That’s the Henry George idea,” was the contemptuously thrown-back answer.

This dialogue took place on board the tender that was conveying the passengers from the steamer Trinidad to Hamilton, capital of the Bermudas. It was Sunday evening, February 1. The sun had gone down while the baggage was being examined on the steamer, and it was dark except for the long lingering pink of sunset. As the little boat glided swiftly over the water great gaunt islands lifted their heads to right and left. The passengers were all in darkness and no face could be distinguished from its fellow.

As the words of the last speaker broke the stillness a voice came out of the gloom. The pilot swung his lantern just then and its rays fell upon a gray-haired distinguished looking man, a Bermudian, who was saying: “Henry George? Do you know him?”

“Oh, yes,” said one of the dialogists: “he left the States a physical wreck a few days ago, at least the New York Sun said so.”

“That can’t be true,” said the serious gentleman. “The Sun might have made the statement from malice. Do you think so?”

“There are a few in New York who think the Sun might do such a thing,” said the third party to the conversation.

“Must have been, must have been,” went on the elderly gentleman, “for just this afternoon I met a man in a big broad-brimmed straw hat on our principal street. He asked me for some information about the place. I didn’t know till later it was Henry George. A wreck, you say? Ha, ha! Why, I was only wishing as he walked away that I was looking half as healthy.”

Then all fell to watching the lights of Hamilton come twinkling into sight. It had been a splendid run from New York. Leaving there Friday morning in a cold fog, in twenty-four hours the steamer was in the Gulf stream, and with every mile the skies grew softer and the winds milder. Tne^sic splendid staterooms of the steamer were largely utilized by the passengers, for though the sea was comparatively calm all the way down, the choppy waves provoked seasickness.

When the steamer came to anchor outside the coral reefs runners for the hotels swarmed over the edge of the vessel from the tender. They were all colored: in fact, nearly all the seamanship hereabouts seems to be in the hands of the colored people, from the big, important-looking pilot who takes the barge steamer through the dangerous reefs to the captains of the little sailing craft that dart from island to island bearing passengers or freight. The runners keep up a steady fire of exaggerated praise of their respective hotels until the passengers climb into the tender, followed by the loud-voiced runners. The town lights coming into view and faint odors of a waiting supper inspire the runners to repeated outbursts of hyperbole. They stand away off at the bow of the boat. Their utterance is possibly more musical than that of the Southern negro, for, following the English accent of the island, they give each letter “a” the rich Italian sound. Floating back to the rear, mingled with the swish of the cutwater aad^sic the lapping of the ripples on the sides of the boat, their calls have a singularly melodious effect, as they advise the passengers to “go to the Princess Hotel, the palace by the sea,” or to the “Hamilton, the palace on the hill, where you pick stahs with one hand and flowahs with the othah.”

There is a grating of the boat against stone steps, somebody calls “Princess Hotel,” and there is a scramble up the flags. Half way up a familiar voice calls out: “Hello! You came down after all, eh?” and Henry George is seen standing in the waiting crowd.

The man who had quoted the Sun was dragged forward till he saw Mr. George. Then he sneaked off for supper. After the meal he said: “If Mr. George’s face when he left New York was ‘shrunken, his countenance pallid and his step dubious,’ he ought to get a position on the stage as a lightning change artist, for he certainly looks the picture of physical strength to-night. If I had the color and the springiness of movement he has, I’d go back to the States by the return steamer.”

This will give an idea of how Mr. George is looking. The next day he took me out in a sail-boat for a long sail down among the islands of the Bay of Hamilton. A big freight boat came dashing across our bows. “Luff! luff!” called Mr. George, as he held the tiller in one hand and the sail rope in the other. The other skipper shook his head and showed his white teeth, as much as to say: “Come on, hain’t I got the biggest boat?” A quick turn of the rudder, a sharp haul in of the sheet, and we pulled up, just in time to let the stranger scrape our bows as he flew by at a ten-mile clip.

As we scudded on again before the stiff wind Mr. George took off his skull-cap, laughed, and said: “That was a close one, wasn’t it? I tell you, this air and sea are splendid. Why, this is only my eighth day here, and I feel as if I had been here a month.”

p. 8, col. 2

The Princess Hotel, where Mr. and Mrs. George and Mr. and Mrs. Simon Mendelson are staying, is the best situated in the town. It is on the water’s edge and is built of wood which insures dryness. You can dive off the porch into twelve feet of water. As Mr. George eats he can see the sails of his boat almost brushing the windows of the dining room. His sleeping room is almost directly over the water, which, splashing against the rocks, sooths^sic one to slumber. Their voyage down was so pleasant that even Mrs. George does not rebel at the proximity of her enemy, the sea.

The Bermuda Islands—variously called the Bermudas or simply Bermuda—lie seven hundred miles southeast of New York. They have a population of 14,650, of whom fully sixty per cent. are colored, sprung from the old colonial day slave stock. Some of the dusky natives have American Indian blood, being descendants of Indian prisoners taken in the Pequot and King Philip’s wars. The negroes claim to be in a better condition here than anywhere else in the world. Certainly we have seen no beggars, and the cottages of even the poorest are adapted to the slight needs of the climate. There are no tumbledown shanties here. The houses of the rich and the poor alike are built of the same material—a whitish stone of coral formation which underlies every foot of soil on the islands. When first quarried it is so soft, it is cut up into blocks with a hand-saw, for it cuts easier than wood. It hardens when exposed to the air, and is so durable that a house built of it will last for centuries. The stone when exposed to the air takes on a dark color in a few years. This accounts for the whitewashing all the houses, from highest to lowest, receive. Some visitors get away, however, without detecting the presence of whitewash, some of the most observant, too.

“That’s a good one on Mark Twain,” broke in Mr. George, yesterday, as we were rowing about among the coves. “He tells in his book on the Bermudas about the pure white stone houses and never says a word about whitewash. Guess he must have worn white clothes all the time he was here. I didn’t expect that of Mark, for if you remember, Tom Sawyer was an expert in whitewash.”

As we paddled along we had our coats off, and it was getting late in the afternoon too. The winds from the Gulf Stream have a temperature that averages about seventy degrees. Of course, light Summer clothes are worn and windows are everywhere left wide open, all night long. You are awakened in the morning by the singing of birds and the rustle of the big broad-leaved trees of palm, banana, orange, lemon, paw-paw. The spotlessly white houses gleaming through the thick foliage give a picturesqueness to the landscape that is not equalled anywhere else in the world, especially in view of the contrast with the waters of the bay, which take on a blue as deep as that of the Swiss lakes.

Yet in spite of the luxuriant growth and the great success everywhere possible with fruit raising, the principal agricultural products are onions and Irish potatoes, the chief market being New York. The thousand and one little valleys would raise tons of bananas, oranges, plantains, lemons, figs, shaddocks, pineapples and other tropical fruits and vegetables that could be easily consumed by the visitors, for whom now there is nothing like enough of a local supply of fruit. Agriculture used to be a leading pursuit at Bermuda, but it has given way to ship building and salt manufacture. The colored population live by ——

“If you’re coming down to St. George’s you had better climb aboard,” comes up a voice from the boat landing. It is Mr. George.

Down below Mrs. George is just putting up her parasol, and the rest of the party are taking seats. St. George’s is at the other end of the island, the headquarters of tbe^sic troops, for these islands are heavily garrisoned. It means a ten mile sail down, so I put away pencil and paper.

WILLIAM E. HICKS.

SENATOR PEFFER’S “WAY OUT.”

TOPEKA, Kansas, February 4.—I closed my last letter by an allusion to Senator-elect Peffer’s pamphlet called “The Way Out,” which is now jocularly alluded to as “Peffer’s Way In.” The pamphlet outlines a scheme for establishing “a perfect financial system,” destroying “the influence of the money power,” preventing panics and supplying “the people with money direct from the Government, without the intervention of banks, at 1 per cent. on long time loans, and at 2 to 3 per cent. on short time loans.” It is also a scheme “to lift the present burden of indebtedness from the people” and “to equalize profits and emancipate labor.” The intellectual qualities which the Senator-elect lends to the development of his scheme may be inferred from the introduction, in which he divides Labor into two great departments, “one employed in producing property, the other in handling it;” the former consisting of farmers, mechanics and the like, the latter of merchants, carriers, etc.; the former being producers, while the latter are non-producers His^sic object in classifying workers as producers and non-producers is to distinguish between those whose profit depends upon the value of commodities, and those whose “profit does not depend on that.” After such an analysis of Labor, thoughtful readers are prepared for the mathematically exact proposition that “to call in one-half the continued on p. 9 →

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ENGLISH QUESTIONS COMING TO THE FORE.

HYDE, MANCHESTER, England, January 24.—The recent election at Hartlepool, though a Liberal victory, did not turn on the question of Home Rule. The real truth, I believe, is, that the workingmen of the constituency voted with very little regard to that issue, and with very much regard to English social questions. The Liberal candidate was a very moderate Home Ruler, and he made little of that question in his canvass. On the other hand, he declared that he was a warm supporter of trades unionism, pledged himself to employ none but union labor, and advocated many drastic reforms closely affecting the well-being of the working classes. In private, the Liberal members and candidates freely admit that this is the only way to win seats: but they tell you that they cannot act very generally on that conviction, because Mr. Gladstone is determined not to do anything but deal with Ireland.

In a great variety of ways, however, these other questions with which Mr. Gladstone declines to deal are coming more and more into prominence, and it is quite certain that whatever Mr. Gladstone’s wishes may be, the next general election will be fought much more upon English than upon Irish questions, though the Irish question will undoubtedly be that upon which the candidates will expend most eloquence.

The proceedings of the London County Council are of the very first importance in this country, not even excepting the House of Commons itself. I am not here making any merely rash or ill-considered statement, as I will explain. Power, in England, is very rapidly, indeed, passing from the privileged classes to the unprivileged people, and Parliament is giving expression to this fact by delegating more and more of its functions to local representative bodies. There can be no doubt that what is called State Socialism is making very great headway: and these local representative bodies, such as the London County Council, will ere long be called upon to do things which would have horrified the political economists of twenty years ago, and which even now fill many of the comfortable classes with alarm. As I have more than once mentioned, the London County Council at present has a Progressive majority, one of the guiding spirits of which is our friend Mr. William Saunders. The Council has done a good deal in the direction of arousing public interest in the question of ground rents and land values generally. It has now to face the question of the public water supply, and here again it will attack land monopoly; it is face to face with the question of the housing of the working classes, and here once more, of course, it has to meet the old enemy—land monopoly. Monopoly in the interest of the private individual, in all its multifarious forms, is being dealt with by the London County Council, and the example of this body is being largely followed by other similar bodies. The various councils, both in towns and rural districts, have had a very large sum of money placed at their disposal by the Government. The money was intended for the purchase of public-houses. It was the endowment of the brewers, but was diverted from that object because the Government had to abandon their Licensing bill last year. Now, in a vast number of instances, the money is going to be devoted to technical education, and almost every local representative body of any importance in the country will, in a very short time, be irretrievably committed to a great scheme of education, the beginning of which may look simple enough, but the end of which most thoughtful persons believe will be aught but simple.

Another question of great importance, which is being dealt with by the London Council, is the incidence of rating. The ways in continued on p. 10 →

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FABLE OF THE TWO SHIP OWNERS.

A selfish man who lived near the sea and had land and workshops and several ships, got a conceit that he should become much richer and happier if he were to supply all his wants from his own land and his own shops, and were to sell to other people as many goods as possible, but utterly refuse to buy from them anything whatever. So he sent his ships away laden and made them sail home empty.

Another man—a live and-let-live^sic sort of a fellow (who also dwelt near the sea and had land and workshops and several ships)—believed that he should get richer and happier by supplying his wants from the lands and shops of the whole world; which could easily be done by selling to other people whatever he had too much of and did not want, and by buying whatever he had not enough of or had not at all. He believed that thus, besides other advantages, he could save himself from doing, at great cost, much work that other people would be glad to do for him at less cost. So this man made his ships busy with loads both ways.

The consequence was that in the end the selfish man had no ships

p. 10, col. 2

at all, and, contrary to his expectations, got very poor and miserable, while the other man had all the ships that sailed the seas and became very rich and very happy.

Moral.—Do not suppose that nothing is wealth but money, and that you can prosper and be happy by doing everything for yourself and doing nothing for others.

Warren, Pa.

A. G. BEECHER.

HOW YOUNG WOMEN ARE TREATED AND HOW THEY SHOULD BE TREATED.

Miss Alice S. Woodbridge, secretary of the Workingwomen’s Society, of No. 27 Clinton place, has recently been making a personal examination into the condition of the saleswomen in this city. She told a reporter of the Commercial Advertiser that she had been astounded at the discoveries she made. “Men’s wages are low,” said Miss Woodbridge, sadly, “but it seems that they cannot fall below the point where existence is possible. Women’s wages, however, have no low limit, since the paths of shame are always open to her. Women have been forced by their necessities to take the places of men in our dry goods stores at an average salary of four dollars a week, while the children employed as ‘cash’ girls do not average two dollars. For these wages they have to work ten hours a day at least; on Saturdays four or five hours longer; while it is no unusual thing for them to be kept from fifteen minutes to four hours nightly ‘arranging stock.’ The sanitary arrangements in nearly all the stores are wretched. There being insufficient light and air^sic—while the toilet arrangements were simply horrible and called for the attention of the Board of Health, who have so far given the matter no attention. They were also degrading.” Says Miss Woodbridge:

In the manufacturing department of one of our largest stores the closets for males and females stand side by side, and are not sufficiently separated for common decency; only a thin board partition, not reaching to the ceiling, separating them. Many men are employed, and the same wash-basin and towel has to serve for all. On visiting the store I was struck by the fact that a large number of children were suffering from granulated eye-lids. As this disease is contagious it is easy to see how it could spread from that towel. Moreover, women and children have to make personal applications to the floor-walkers for the keys of the toilet rooms. The general condition in the stores of the city may be judged from the fact that one of the saleswomen told me that the toilet room in this particular store was better than she had seen in any store where she had been hitherto employed.

Miss Woodbridge found that it was a common thing for children under the legal age to be employed in these stores, and at labor beyond their strength. Faithful service meets with no reward. After four or five years discharge is certain, because the employers fear that employees may get an idea that they have a claim on the firm and may ask for an advance of salary. “I know,” says Miss Woodbridge, “of instances where women have been discharged for no other reason than this—the firm stating that they did not like to have women too long in their employ. A double injury is done to these discharged women, for it is almost impossible for them to obtain employment in other houses.”

After speaking of other matters, such as fines, the ignoring of the law which requires that seats shall be furnished for saleswomen, etc., Miss Woodbridge says:

In conclusion, let me say that through low wages, long hours, unwholesome sanitary conditions and the discouraging results of excesssive^sic fines, not only the physical condition of the women is injured, but the tendency is to injure the moral being as well. It is simply impossible for any woman to live, without assistance, on the low salary a saleswoman earns, without depriving herself of real necessities. It is certainly a most difficult matter to deal with from the fact that the character of the pure and upright, who form the vast majority of the women, might be injured; and also from the fact of offending the sense of delicacy and good taste of the public. But there is a necessity for facing the question. In Paris it is an understood thing that women who are employed in shops cannot exist without assistance from other questionable sources, and unless something is done at once that must also become the case in our land, where we pride ourselves on our respect for honest toil.

It happens that at the time Miss Woodbridge was making the investigation spoken of above, Peterson’s Magazine, of Philadelphia, appeared with an article on the “Care of Young Girls,” from which I select as follows, to show the careful treatment that is necessary to maintain the health of young women between the ages of twelve to sixteen, in order that they may be properly fitted for the duties devolving upon them later in life. It will be seen that the ages in which the most care must be taken are the ages during which the young women are most apt to be working in the stores under the system against which Miss Woodbridge so loudly complains. Peterson’s Magazine says:

The years from twelve to sixteen are perhaps the most important in a girl’s physical history. She is passing from childhood into a more mature stage, and mind and body are both taxed to the utmost to meet the demands upon them. She needs wise and tender care at this time, help to understand the new problems that are forcing themselves upon her, and to be surrounded with the best hygienic conditions to secure an adequate physical development. If a child has been properly dressed and fed had a sufficiency^sic o exercise, plenty of fresh air and an ample allowance of sleep, she continued on p. 11 →

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EQUALIZING ASSESSMENTS.

I was very much interested in Mr. Shriver’s article in THE STANDARD of January 21, proposing a method of preventing under-assessment of property by local assessors, and of making each district pay its just proportionate share of State taxation. This matter has long been a subject of thought with me, and in fact I had a brief letter on the subject in THE STANDARD some two years ago, describing a plan which I think will solve the whole difficulty. Of course, if we raise National as well as State taxes by direct taxation, the difficulty will be complicated, for not only will some districts escape their fair proportion of State taxes, but some States will escape their fair proportion of Federal taxes, unless under-assessment is prevented.

My plan is as follows: First, in the case of the National revenues, supposing them to be raised by direct taxation. To secure a just proportion from each State, we must require that taxes be assessed among the States in proportion to their representation in Congress, p. 11, col. 2 instead of according to their population, as now; or rather we must base the representation of a State on its taxation. The total representation will then be fixed by a ratio between population and taxation.

We can do this by a very simple method, which will tend to prevent under-valuation, and at the same time avoid any discrimination between States where wealth and population are in varying proportions—Texas and New York, for example. Thus: Divide the aggregate valuation of the United States by the total population to arrive at the per capita valuation. Now divide the valuation of each State by this per capita amount, and the quotient will be the population to be represented. To illustrate, let us assume the population of the United States to be 60,000,000, and the total assessed valuation $30,000,000,000. Then $30,000,000,000 divided by 60,000,000 gives $500, the per capita amount. Now, assume the valuation of Illinois to be $1,500,000,000; divide this by the per capita amount, $500, and we have 3,000,000 as a basis of representation. This method would tend to correct assessments and prevent under-assessment, as the representation of a State would be based on its valuation for taxation.

Let us now apply the same method to the counties in a State. For this purpose I will take the figures given by the census of 1880, for the State of Illinois. The aggregate State valuation was $600,000,000; population, 3,000,000. Dividing the former by the latter, we have a per capita amount of $200. The valuation of Morgan County was $9,000,000. Dividing by 200, we have 45,000 as the population to be represented in the Legislature. This shows a proportionate over-valuation in that county, for the actual population at that date was 31,514. Cook County had a valuation of $150,000,000. Dividing by 200, we have a quotient of 750,000 as the basis of representation, though the actual population was 607,524. This shows a proportionate over-valuation, as compared with the whole State, but an under-valuation as compared with Morgan County.

These examples show how the system would work, and how it would serve our purpose. When larger measures of local self-government are given, as in the future they should be, this system can as well be applied to precincts and townships in a county as to counties in a State, or to the States in the Union. It will be seen that it is as useful in correcting assessments under the present system as under the Single Tax. The idea is original with myself, and there may be objections that I have not been able to discern. I submit it to the readers of THE STANDARD for consideration and criticism.

Murrayville, Ill.

WILLIAM CAMM

PROGRESS!

What’s a gem to Irish renters When they need its worth in bread? What are cars to dead inventors When they jar their grassy bed?

While you gain a proud ascendance O’er some sophistry effete, Can you sever your dependence On the man who sows the wheat?

Does some savant, fossils turning, Rank the man who turns the sod? Shall you in the hill of learning Burrow out of sight of God?

Progress! Yes, in simple living: Love that leaps from door to door; Open lives and secret givings For the cheering of the poor!

Springdale, Conn.

C. H. CRANDALL.

COMMENTS ON THE STANDARD.

JAMES MIDDLETON, New Orleans.—I can congratulate Mr. Croasdale on the excellent showing THE STANDARD makes and the grand work it is doing.

JOHN CASEY, Chicago.—I like the appearance of the new STANDARD. When my subscription expires I guess I will have to go you another.

G. C. MADISON, St. Paul, Minn.—THE STANDARD is as good as ever and more attractive.

R. G. BROWN, Memphis.—THE STANDARD in its new dress is as charming to me as of old—it could not be more so—and I think it more likely to please the general public.

ALF H. HENDERSON, Cincinnati, Ohio.—The new form of THE STANDARD pleases the members of our club, and hopes of its continued success are expressed on every side.

P. J. SNAY, Galion, Ohio.—While I don’t think anybody can beat Henry George, THE STANDARD in its new form is a continued delight to us.

HAMLIN GARLAND, Roxbury, Mass.—I like the new STANDARD.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Typographical Journal, the organ of the International Typographical Union, has for some time past contained letters on “The Country Printer” and his relation to the union city printers. The discussion, up to the issue of February 2, had been, how to get “the country printers” into the International Union, so that they would not be a menace to the unions. A number of those who had contributed letters to the discussion considered that the menace could be easily removed by organizing “the country printers” in local unions of the trade, regardless of the fact that the whole energies of the international organization have been used in that direction for more than forty years. The latest letter on the subject comes from Topeka, Kansas, and the assertions contained in it are astonishing when one considers the large amount of work that has been done in “the work of organization.” The Topeka writer shows by comparative tables that only one in about eight of the persons who make their living in the printing business are members of the printers’ unions. He finds that in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska there are 19,832, printers^sic employed; yet only 1,782 are members of printers’ unions—or about one in eleven. In the East it is not so bad, for out of 31,317 printers employed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts, 8,757 are members of the union—about one in four. “And yet,” says the Topeka writer, “we boast of ours being the oldest trades union in the country!” “If,” he continues, “in forty years we can muster only a skirmish line, how long will it take to get absolute control of the situation?” It is a gloomy showing, and forces upon us the conviction that the printers have been working on the wrong lines. It would seem that there is not sufficient in the trades union idea, of itself, to hold men together in these days of hard work and poor pay. A week’s idleness means hunger to nine out of ten journeymen printers—and other artisans as well—not to speak of the large number to whom a day or two’s idleness would mean no dinner or supper.

* * * *

The fact is, we must take conditions as they are—a thing that trades unionists, as a rule, ignore—and look about us for a state of things, or a remedy, that will do away with the “menace” that threatens later generally. Among the most active members of the printers’ unions of the country to-day are men who believe that the needed relief can be found in the Single Tax. That idea is steadily gaining ground among printers. A declaration from their international organization to that effect would hasten the day that will bring its realization. Let our Single Taxers continue to assist in all proposed organizations of unions: but let them keep in view the thing that will succeed when all other things have failed.

* * * *

We have said that a declaration in favor of our principles by the International Union would advance our cause very materially. How can it be done? Under the new law of the union the election for delegates by the local unions will not be held until April. Let our Single Tax printers begin a canvass for delegateship now. Find out who our best advocates are, and when found begin electioneering for them immediately, so that when the time for nominating comes round public opinion will have been crystallized in favor of our friends. Then work diligently for the candidates. Success will be almost certain, and the declaration in favor of the Single Tax will follow.

* * * *

The Buckeye Mower and Reaper Works at Akron, Ohio, have declined to make a readjustment of hours and wages with the result, so far as the workmen are concerned, that they will have to stand a cut ranging from thirty to sixty per cent., or else work longer hours in order to make the old wages. But the products of the company will cost the farmers just as much as before they reduced wages.

* * * *

The news came from Pittsburg to-day that 15,000 coke workers were preparing to go on strike. The operators have demanded that the men accept a reduction of ten per cent. in their wages; the men, in their turn, demand an increase of twelve and a half per cent. over their wages of last year.

* * * *

THE STANDARD told its readers some weeks ago of the fate that befell some French pauper-made dresses that had been seized by our ruthless customs officers while in transit to Mrs. Astor, on account of their being under valued. Their value was raised 2,000 francs by these officials, and Mrs. Astor appealed to the Appraising Board. This board has raised the valuation another 1,600 francs, and now Mrs. Astor is very angry. She says she won’t stand the second raise. Rather than “see” it, she declares that she will let Uncle Sam keep the dresses, and wear them, if he wants to. Our Uncle wearing Mrs. Astor’s dresses would appear ridiculous. He is not built that way. But still our Uncle cannot look more ridiculous than he does now in his role of parent of the protective tariff. As to Mrs. Astor, when she has sufficiently composed herself, she had

p. 12, col. 2 better call a council of the men of her family, who are all Republican Protectionists, and talk over with them the beauties of our protective system.

* * * *

The people interested in smelting of gold ore in Mexico are trying to secure from the Mexican government the enactment of an export duty on ores, so as to encourage domestic smelting by preventing the ores from being sent to the United States. This is all good protection policy; but the point worth noting is that these people who are asking for the duty are in part United States capitalists, who have invested their money in Mexican smelting furnaces. They are now trying to develop their Mexican interests at the expense of the smelting establishments of their own country.

* * * *

The Dakota Building Company of Chicago is the owner of a building on the corner of State and Jackson streets, Chicago. They have a 99-year lease of the ground on which their building stands, paying $25,000 a year in ground rent. Tne^sic capital stock of the company is $100,000. The building which they erected they have leased for ten years at a rent that nets the company $17,000 annualy^sic, or 17 per cent. on its capital. The lessees of the building finding that the site was growing rapidly in value, re-leased it at a rate that nets them $15,000 a year. If it were not bound by its ten years’ lease to the first tenant the building company could thus be realizing $32.000^sic a year, or 32 per cent. on its capital. It would be interesting to know what the rent of that building will be after the ten years’ lease expires, and what it will be at the end of the ninety-nine years’ ground lease.

* * * *

The City of New York now owns five-eighths of the water-front and derives a large revenue from the dock privileges. A case is mentioned where a dock which cost the city $100,000 paid annually over $30,000.

* * * *

> MONTICELLO, Ind., January 25.—With regard to an article in your last issue entitled “Taxing Foreign Capital,” I would suggest that capital ceases to be capital when invested in land, whether directly (in the deed) or indirectly (in the mortgage) And^sic “home rule” demands that the land should be taxed at home (in the county in which the said land is situated). Now when Indiana commences to tax her own land, it is but right that she ask her sister States to quit taxing the same. And I don’t see how it could be construed as being a treaty if they should do so: or how it could be in any way unconstitutional. I am a member of the Farmers’ Alliance, and I preach the Single Tax to my brethren, but I honestly believe that you should reconsider this question to see if you have not violated the principles of “Progress and Poverty.” > > G. N. GALLOWAY.

If Mr. Galloway preaches the Single Tax understandingly he can show the people of Indiana that if they will abolish all the taxes that they levy, except a Single Tax on land values, that there would be no necessity for consulting with the people of other States on the subject. If the virtual owners of the land thus taxed found that other States also tried to tax them on Indiana land they would indignantly shake the dust of such States from their feet and move to Indiana or some other reasonably honest commonwealth. Whenever Indiana tries this system it can afford to laugh at any attempt by other States to rob it of any part of its natural revenue and devote itself to compelling the United States Government to cease robbing its people by means of tariff taxes.

* * * *

Another law, even more Socialistic in its tendencies than the “Workingmen’s Insurance Law,” has been proposed by the Conservative and Catholic parties in the German Reichstag. According to this project, every German subject, on reaching the age of twenty-four, is to have the right to a homestead of sufficient size to supply the necessaries of life required by a peasant’s or workingman’s family, including a dwelling house and all necessary outbuildings. The homestead cannot be pledged as security for debt, except in case of a failure of crops or for necessary improvements, or for portioning co-heirs, and then only by permission of the authorities, and to the extent of half the productive value, the repayments extending over a period depending on the particular case. A limit is fixed to the size of the homestead, which, on the other hand, cannot be divided. No person is entitled to more than one, and the homestead is inalienable, except with the consent of the holder’s wife.

* * * *

The Henry George Institute, of Glasgow, Scotland, has for its objects:

I. To spread the Principles of Political Economy, as taught by Henry George and others of that school.

2. The means employed shall be the holding of Sunday evening meetings; the dissemination of literature, and such other means as may be from time to time deemed necessary.

The list of lectures to be delivered at the institute during the first three months of this year is as follows:

General Booth’s Scheme; Fraternity: In Darkest Poverty, and the Way Out; Some Ancient Greek Experiments in Economics, and the Principles of Society: An Eight Hours’ Day and How Best to Obtain it; The Submerged Tenth in Darkest England; The House of Lords; Politicians and Political Obligations; The Relationship of the Sexes; Why are House Rents High in Cities; Books; The People’s Leaders and Mis-Leaders.

Professor G. G. A. Murray, Joseph Davidson, John Mitchell and J. M. Cunningham are among the lecturers.

CURRENT THOUGHT.

DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN.

The results of the first election ever held by the people of Japan has shown how certain one step in progress is to lead to further progress. Constitutional government was secured there less than two years ago, and the first election of representatives to the Diet took place in July last. Rev. W. E. Griffis. in the February Forum, writing on “Political Progress in Japan,” says that in the first parliament the progressive parties have, if united. a sufficient majority to easily control the entire Government. This is surprising, because only the richer classes were allowed to vote, about one man in fourteen possessing the franchise, and of the two houses of the Diet the upper house is composed of the different classes of nobility and imperial appointees. And yet a great majority of the 600 members of the whole Diet are in favor of at once increasing the number of voters. restricting the royal prerogative and extending popular rights. Men who were a few years ago in prison and outlawed for their political opinions have been elected to the Diet. Every rank and all professions are represented. The two great noble families, who for the past twenty years have controlled, absolutely. the imperial Government, have together only twenty-eight members in the Diet. From the government of a theocratic dynasty, controlled by a handful of nobles, Japan has at a bound become “a land of public schools, of ballots, and of churches owned by the people.” Eleven Christians have been elected to the Diet, and a large number of graduates of European and American colleges.

The elections went off smoothly. Over 90 per cent. of those entitled to vote availed themselves of the privilege, and as il iteracy^sic is almost unknown. the system of writing ballots worked very well. In fact, the people have shown that they know how to take care of themselves as far as they are allowed to do so, and they propose to give themselves more opportunities in that regard as soon as they can. As Mr. Griffis says: “Demos is rising.”

HAS CHRISTIANITY FAILED?

“Christianity is the religion of democracy, of universal equality. * * * The feudal lords who shouted Christian war-cries, and the despotic kings who swore by the Holy Rood and by Our Lady, were wholly unconscious that in the creed they cherished were the germs of the democratic influences which would in time undermine thrones and make aristocracy an empty name.” So writes Ouida in the North American Review for February, in an article entitled “Has Christianity Failed?” But while appreciating the spirit of the teachings of the New Testament. she is nevertheless forced to answer the question proposed in the affirmative. A consideration of the monstrous discrepancies between the social adjustments of the so-called Christian nations of the world and those teachings compel her to say:

May not this religion justly be said to have failed conspicuously in impressing itself upon mankind? It has impressed its formulas; not its spirit. It has sewn a phylactery on the hem of humanity’s robe: It has never touched^sic the soul of humanity beneath the robe. * * * For of all absolutely powerless things on earth Christianity is the most powerless, even though sovereigns are still consecrated, multitudes still baptized, parliaments and tribunals still opened, and countless churches and cathedrals still builded in its name. It has become a shibboleth. a husk, a robe with no heart beating within it, a winged angel carved in dead wood.

Seeing clearly the spirit of freedom and equality that is the vital power of Christianity, she is at a loss to explain the failure of professedly Christian people to adjust their arrangements to it. She thinks it is partly because it has too much in it that is egotistic, selfish, leading a man to think only of his own salvation in a future world, regardless of others; hence men are careless about others in this world. But this, if it were true, would completely contradict her

p. 14, col. 2 statement that it teaches the widest community of interests and the universal brotherhood of man. The other reason she gives is its impracticability. She says:

In a small and a poor community Christianity may be a creed possible in its practical realization and consistent in its simplicity of existence; but in the mad world of modern life, with its overwhelming wealth and its overwhelming poverty, with its horrible satiety and its horrible hunger, with its fiendish greed and its ghastly crimes, its endless lusts and its cruel bitterness of hatreds, Christianity can only be one of two things—either a nullity, as it is now in all national life, or a dynamic force allied with and ruling through socialism.

Father Ignatius, the English monk, tries to answer her in the same issue of the Review, but his reply is mainly devoted to denying her statements about what Christianity has or has not done. He fails utterly to account for the main fact, that our social system is not a system that conforms to the spirit of equality. Such a dodging of the question is no answer at all.

There is but one explanation of it. It is that men have not realized, have not taken the trouble to think out, what equality and democracy really mean. Christianity, like every great religion, teaches general truths. It is for men to constantly seek out how to apply these truths. Men confuse themselves and others by dwelling on the literal teachings and specific details of Christianity, and finding them as they think impracticable, they forget or do not try to follow out to its logical conclusion its great general teaching of equal rights. Men must think for themselves; religion can only give them a basis to work on. They must think out, as well as work out, their own salvation. As Voltaire says: “Think makes think;” the general thought of a religion must lead men to think out the particular applications. When men will do this the truth will indeed make them free; and the great principle of equality will cease to be a nullity without the aid of Socialism to keep it alive.

WELCOMING GEORGE TO BERMUDA.

When Mr. George was talking with his friends about a good place in which to take a complete rest a suggestion was made that perhaps in Bermuda he would find a place where the Single Tax had never been heard of, and where he would escape all invitations and temptations to discuss the principles with which his name is identified. It seems, however, that the editor of the Bermuda Colonist, the Liberal paper of the island, is a Single Taxer and has been such for years. It was, therefore, an easy task for him to reply to an article in a Tory paper of the island, in which Mr. George was alluded to as “a Socialist.” The reply is the leading editorial in the Colonist for Wednesday, February 4, and is as follows:

The most distinguished civil visitor Bermuda has had for many a day is Mr. Henry George, of New York City—who is comfortably quartered at the Princess Hotel. Mr. George, was a few weeks ago^sic run down by work and sought these Islands for rest. Only a short time ago he returned from a lecturing tour in the Australian colonies, where he was received with great enthusiasm. His themes were “Free Trade” and the “Single Tax.” At Sydney, New South Wales, 7,000 people in a drenching rain filled the Exposition Building in their desire to hear him. It was the arduous work on this trip that largely contributed to his break-down. We can hardly blame the Australians, however, for having given us this opportunity of entertaining so distinguished a public man.

Mr. George is famous the world over as the author of “Progress and Poverty,” which advocates the abolition of all taxes, save a Single Tax on the value of land, irrespective of improvements. This is the direct opposite of Socialism and for this he is no doubt ironically called a “Socialist.” The movement his book inaugurated is now forcing itself on public attention in the United States, Australia and England. The next Congress at Washington, meeting March 4, will have a dozen Single Tax members who are also Democrats. The Democratic party is largely honeycombed with the Henry George idea, and the Colored Farmer’s Alliance^sic, representing 4,000,000 colored farmers, has come out for the Single Tax. Within the past month the Mayors of New Haven, Conn., and of Minneapolis, Minn., have declared for the Single Tax. The Knights of Labor, the great wage-earner’s order, have for a year or more been fighting hard to force the Single Tax to the front.

Mr. George, who is accompanied by Mrs. George and Mr. and Mrs. Simon Mendelson, of New York, will remain here till next month. Were it not that Mr. George’s physician recommends absolute rest and freedom from excitement, there is no doubt many of our citizens would be glad to tender him a recognition of their appreciation of his public services in the interest of humanity.

MORE STATE SOCIALISM.

The municipal authorities of Cologne, Germany, have resolved to furnish employment to 13,000 men in that city who are now out of work. The rate of pay will be 36 cents a day. As Cologne has an adult male population of only 40,000 or 50,000 at the outside, the 13,000 unemployed are about one-fourth of the whole number. These men are practically paupers. They will be set at work, of course, probably on the roads and streets, but it will be just the same kind of work done by a tramp who applies at a charity organization society woodyard. Such expedients not only degrade the people but lead directly to socialism, for the idea that the government shall “furnish employment” to its citizens is one of the fundamental ideas of socialism as the ordinary people understand it.

SINGLE TAX NEWS.

SINGLE TAX LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE, 42 UNIVERSITY PLACE, New York, February 10, 1891.

The attention of officers of Single Tax organizations is called to the resolutions adopted at the National Conference to the effect that all organizations subscribing to the National Single Tax platform shall be eligible for membership in the League. Thus far but very few clubs have formally subscribed to the platform and enrolled themselves in the League, and officers of organizations that have as yet made no move in the matter are earnestly requested to bring the question before their clubs and apply at once to the secretary of the National Committee for enrollment.

The National Committee is circulating a petition asking the United States House of Representatives to appoint a special committee to make inquiry into and report upon the expediency of raising all public revenues by a Single Tax upon the value of land, irrespective of improvements, to the exclusion of all other taxes, whether in the form of tariffs upon imports, taxes upon internal productions, or otherwise. It will send blank petitions on application to any address, and Single Tax men are urged to obtain petitions and solicit signatures as a most convenient and effective way of starting the discussion of our principles.

It has also taken up the newspaper work of the Memphis committee, and is now engaged in circularizing newspapers in every State, calling their attention to the wide-spread interest now shown in the subject of the Single Tax, and urging that they call on tue^sic press companies supplying their ready prints and plates for Single Tax matter.

The secretary desires to appeal again to our Single Taxers for renewed effort in behalf of the petition. But ten months now remain for its completion, and it seems almost criminal not to take advantage to the utmost of this opportunity to bring the question of the Single Tax so prominently before the whole country.

Reports from our friends go to show that six or seven of our Congressmen elected to the next House of Representatives are Single Taxers, while many others are favorable to our ideas. The respectful consideration of our petitions is therefore not only assured, but the appointment of the special committee of inquiry is almost a certainty. Draw on the committee for a supply of petition blanks and give the petition the boom that its importance deserves.

Subscriptions toward the expenses of this committee work remain as reported last week, viz., $1,452.20.

Cash contributions for the week ending February 10, are as follows:

Penny Contributions, through L. E. Simon, Cleveland, Ohio…….. 50 E. G. Foord, Chicago, Ills…….. $2 00 John Casey, Chicago, Ills…….. 1 25 Wymore S. T. Club, Wymore, Neb…….. 1 00 El Passo^sic S. T. Club, El Passo, Texas…….. 1 50 W. F. Wakeling, Brazil, Iowa…….. 25 Jas. [Holmes?], Brazil, Iowa…….. 25 Jas. Campbell, Brazil, Iowa…….. 25 ————— $7 00 Cash contributions previously acknowledged…….. 998 54 ————— Total…….. $1,005 54

The enrollment now stands as follows:

Reported last week…….. 97,806 Signatures received since last report…….. 447 ————— Total…….. 98,253

For news budget, see roll of States.

GEO. ST. JOHN LEAVENS, Secretary.

WOMEN’S ENROLLMENT COMMITTEE.

Mauch Chunk, Pa., February 9.—Since our last report we have received the names of Single Tax women in three additional States—Indiana, Maryland and Nebraska—while from women in New Jersey and Kansas have come letters asking for further information about the Single Tax. One of our members has written that our enrollment has been the means of her introduction to a most interesting Single Tax club; she has attended one of its meetings and hopes to attend regularly. Another writes that she has found cheer and encouragement by receiving letters from “others who are working for the uplifting of humanity and the preservation of our Republic.” One State Representative of the National League has sent us the names of several Single Tax women in his State. We would be glad to have other members of the National League send us the names and addresses of Single Tax women in their State, that we may write and ask them to help us, as our only aim is to advance the Single Tax cause, and that must be dear to them also. The outlook is encourageing^sic and to every Single Tax woman we say again: “Send us your name^sic and address, with any advice or suggestions you can offer as to how to advance the knowledge of the Single Tax among women. Please address our secretary, C. Estella Bachman, Mauch Chunk, Pa.

SUGGESTIONS WHICH SHOULD BE ACTED UPON.

R. G. Brown, Memphis, Tenn.—It has been some time since Tennessee was heard from in the Roll of States, but we have not been quite dead in this neck of the woods for all that. The cotton season in Memphis means hard work night and day for a number of our men, and particularly for one who is frequently a contributor to this department, M. H. McDowell. Since last Spring he has had charge of the column in the Weekly Appeal-Avalanche, but the pressure of work forced him to give it up in December, and since then it has been in my hands.

I want to call the attention of Single Tax men all over the country to this means of reaching the people. Almost all the large dailies publish weekly editions, mainly for circulation in the country surrounding the place of publication. These weeklies are a resume for the most part of what has appeared the week previous in the daily, and special deparments, which are filled, in many instances, by plate matter. We have succeeded in getting the Appeal-Avalanche to publish every week a “Single Tax De-

p. 15, col. 2

partment,” which is entirely under the control of the Memphis Single Tax Association, and for the opinions and views of which the paper is in nowise responsible. In this way all questions can be treated in the most radical manner without embarrassment to the editor, who is perfectly at liberty to roast us in the editorial column, if he sees fit. He has not seen fit so far. The discussion of economic problems in the city and in the country is becoming so universal, and the people all over the land are [interesting?] themselves so much in the Single Tax, that it will require very little [effort?] to induce any wideawake newspaper man to see that his paper will be benefited by having a Single Tax Department. It need not take more than three or four hours of a man’s time each week to make such a column bright and newsy; and the work will afford larger returns than any other that I know of. There is never a week passes that I do not get from two to five requests for tracts from some reader of our column, and every now and then I am cheered by a letter from some man who has seen the cat, whiskers, claws and all. The articles need not be original; THE STANDARD will supply plenty of material, and often men who have not the ability to write, are possessed of critical process^sic in a high degree, which would enable them to make excellent selections. The mere fact that a man sees a subject treated in his paper week by week will often excite his interest in it, and induce him to examine into it for himself. Printers’ ink is what the cause needs most at the present time, in my judgment.

In addition to the column in the Appeal-Avalanche, I have since the first of the year been furnishing a series of Single Tax articles to the Unionist, the organ of the Farmers’ Alliance and trades unions in West Tennessee. These articles were solicited by the editor of the Unionist, and no limit is placed upon me either as to the scope or length of the articles. Organized labor in this section is practically unanimous in support of the Single Tax, and the farmers all over the West are studying earnestly its principles and arguments. On January 15 there appeared in the St. Louis Journal of Agriculture an article of mine, in which I offered to send tracts to such of its readers as were desirous of investigating the subject more at length than the space allowed me permitted of. Since then every mail has brought me requests for tracts, and up to date I have sent out more than five hundred of them. I enclose you the article to use in any way you may see fit. The Journal is the official organ of the Farmers’ Alliance in Missouri, and more than half the requests for tracts have come from secretaries and lecturers of sub-unions of that body. We have numbers of men in our ranks who have more time and greater ability in this kind of work than I have, and I am persuaded that if they will make the effort we can get a full and free hearing for the Single Tax in the official organs of the Farmers’ Alliance and kindred organizations all over the country. The effect of so doing would be of incalculable benefit to the cause of industrial emancipation.

SPREADING THE LIGHT IN SOUTH DAKOTA.

W. E. Brokaw, Sioux Falls.—Tuesday morning, January 27, I walked to Brandon station (a mile), and took the train to Valley Springs. After making arrangements for a meeting there the next night and transacting other business, I left one grip at the hotel and, taking the other one, walked to Manley, about a mile over the line in Minnesota. I had just read in the paper of the blizzard in New York and throughout the East, but I found the sun too hot for my fur overcoat, so I carried it on one arm. There was no snow in sight, the road was dusty, and the day as mild as May. At Manley I took the train to Hills. I never saw finer weather at this time of year, except in Southern California. I found no arrangements had been made for me at Hills, but, there being some farmers in town, I stuck a notice up in the post office and the merchants told them to tell all they should meet. I talked in a room in a vacant dwelling. As at Brandon, I called them to order and began my talk without any introduction, and closed it by asking for a collection, and I got a liberal one. I took an order for eleven copies of “Protection or Free Trade?” When I got up Wednesday morning it was snowing, and the wind from the Northeast, our snowy quarter. In returning to Valley Springs I had to walk the mile and a half from Manley junction through the snow, in a snow storm. The storm prevented any one coming in from the country that night, so that my audience in the Town Hall was small. I met a Single Tax printer in Valley Springs, who said he was in New York city during the George-Hewitt campaign. I had quite an enjoyable visit with him.

Thursday morning, 29th, was clear and mild. In the afternoon I caught a ride with a farmer who took my grips to Rowena. I left him a mile from the home of the man I had written to to^sic announce my talk, walking there through drifted snow in a corn field. I fonnd^sic that no arrangements had beenmade^sic. But after supper he took me to town, stopping on the way to inform neighbors. Less than a dozen farmers gathered in a store, and then we adjourned to the hotel, where a lot of Italian and Irish paving cutters were boarding. It was after 8 P. M. when we entered the hotel. The men laid by their cards and squared themselves around to listen. More chairs were brought in and the ladies in the hotel came into the room. I proceeded “to business” without any introduction and talked an hour, after which an aged farmer made numerous objections, which I answered. I noticed a STANDARD laying on the connter^sic, and was told that the man who took it happened to be out of town that night. All the quarrymen who could read English signed the petition.

Friday morning I took the train to East Sioux Falls, two and a half miles, where I found a batch of mail awaiting me, among them the first STANDARD I have received since I left Watertown. I am highly pleased with the new form of THE STANDARD. The greatest hardship I have to endure is not to be able to see its welcome face promptly each week, but I suppose that is a “cross” I will have to bear until victory perches on our standards. After looking over my mail I took one grip and walked out to Mr. Banning’s, one and a half miles, where I began devouring my STANDARDS. As Mr. Banning said that notice had been posted and the public fully informed of my coming, I remained at his place until evening. But, although we waited in the schoolhouse until 8:30, none but a few of his neighbors came. I told them what the Single Tax was, gave them some tracts, and took their signatures. I then went to the drug store and secured the names of those continued on p. 16 →

[continued on page 16]

A LOUISIANA SINGLE TAX MEMORIAL.

A committee of the Louisiana Single Tax Club of New Orleans—James Middleton, George W. Roberts, J. B. Cameron, Thomas Dunn, F. D. Van Valkenberg and H. Riggio—have prepared a memorial on the subject of taxation and public revenues. The memorial is addressed to the “police, jurors and assessors^sic of the State of Louisiana,” and appears in the New Orleans City Item of January 30.

The address begins with the declaration that the question of taxation and public revenues is a subject of vital interest to every consumer, “for out of them must all taxes come,” and that, therefore, “the just assessment and collection of public revenues are essential to wise and economical expenditure; for where the masses bear the great weight, and the wealthy few escape their just share, corruption in expenditure must develop; whereas, if all contribute their just proportion, then the great masters of industry and controllers of public opinion will see to it that the revenues are judiciously and economically spent.” The memorial goes on to state briefly what duties the officials addressed are sworn to perform. and then hints that each of them may have in his mind what he considers an “ideal system” of taxation. The petitioners also have an “ideal system,” to which they beg respectfully to call the attention of the tax officials. It is, of course, the Single Tax on land values. The committee tell what it means by the phrase “land values,” which it is not necessary to explain to STANDARD readers. The effects of such a system of taxation would, the committee truly says, “be far-reaching in every department of human industry,” and would “stimulate industry and discourage speculation. especially^sic speculation in land.” After drawing a picture of the happy results that would follow the adoption of the Single Tax, the committee frames it in these words: “An act establishing the Single Tax might well be termed an act to increase the number, stability and comforts of homea^sic.”

But the petitioners recognize that—“to use the language of America’s foremost statesman”—it is a “condition” and not a “theory” that must be met. “Louisiana, with a soil of greatest fertility, with a climate unsurpassed, with vast forests of magnificent timber, with water ways furnishing a facility for commerce, unequaled by any state in the Union, and with a brave and industrious population, is yet a laggard in the sisterhood of commonwealths. Her levees give way before the floods, bringing ruin to many; her highways in wet weather are well nigh impassable; her provisions for the indigent and insane are by no means the best; her schools, which should be her pride and her bulwark of safety. are in^sic a dangerously backward condition.” The committee especiallv^sic emphasizes the needs of the school system, and goes on to show that as at present conducted it is a blot on the State of Louisiana to be contemplated with dismay. “But,” says the memorial, “there is an immediate and sufficient remedy directly at hand, one that will give ample revenues and yet will promote industry, and interest the wealthier and privileged classes more fully in the judicious and economical administration of public affairs. It is the equitable assessment of all taxable property of the State according to the constitution and laws. Article 203 of the constitution provides that ‘taxation shall be equal and uniform’—‘and all property shall be taxed in proportion to its value’ Act No. 85^sic of 1888, sections 19 and 24, provides that all taxable property be assessed ‘at its actual cash value.’” The investigations made by the committee show conclusively that if these provisions were faithfully and impartially carried out, that at the lowest estimate there would be $50,000,000 added to the assessment lists in the parish of Orleans and $40,000,000 in the balance of the State, which would make an addition to the city revenues of over a million dollars, and a corresponding increase in the State. This increase of about $2,000,000 in the various revenues of the State would provide amply for every need, and yet it would not, says the committee, add one cent to the burdens of the mass of small property holders and purchasing consumers, but would come wholly out of the rich and privileged classes who are yearly taking advantage of the State, parishes and municipalities to that amount. Evidence in support of the above statements is given as follows:

The assessment of the State for 1879 was given in the United States census report at $160,000,000, in round numbers. The estimated wealth of the State was given as $422,000,000 for 1880.

In the World Almanac for 1890 the estimated wealth of the State was given for 1880 at [$586,000,000?], as against the assessment of $226,000,000 of 1889.

In the census estimate stocks, bonds, mortgages and currency are omitted and only actual wealth estimated.

The committee then says:

If we make the ridiculous assumption that the wealth of the State has remained stationery^sic since 1880 at $422,000,000, and deduct the assessment as given in the last Auditor’s report for 1889 of $226,000,000, we have $193,000,000^sic of unassessed property: allow $100,000,000 for exemptions, and we have left [$96,000,000?] that should be added to the assessment list.

Are we too conservative then when we say only ninety millions, fifty for the city and forty for the State?

Investigations in particular lines of property tend most strongly to show that these estimates are too low.

Space will not permit to go into details regarding private property, though many glaring illustrations can be cited.

This is markedly true regarding vacant and unimproved city lots and country lands.

There are thousands of acres, including some of the best timber lands in the State, assessed at less than a dollar per acre.

p. 16, col. 2 > But the improved property of small taxpayers is usually assessed at its full cash value. > > Those who improve lands are a benefit to the State; those who hold them vacant are an injury to the State, and should pay all that the law will permit for the privilege.

The committee then turns its attention to inequalities in the assessment of the properties of the telegraph and telephone companies, and cites instances where wires alone are asssessed^sic at from nothing to $350 per mile. As to assessments on railroad tracks, the committee shows that Orleans parish assesses them at $5,000 a mile, while in other parishes the assessment reaches $7,000 a mile. The total assessment value for all the railroad property in the State, including the steamship property of the Southern Pacific Railway Company, is a little over $11,000,000, or about $11,000 a mile; yet the Compendium of the Tenth Census reports the “total permanent and cash assets” per mile for the railroads of the United States at $63,797, and the “total capital paid in and borrowed” at $55,522 per mile. The Comptroller’s report of the State of Texas for 1889 estimates the “average cost of roads and equipment per mile at $63,160.” Commenting on these statements the committee says:

The roads centering on New Orleans, with their valuable privileges, should be worth as much per mile, but suppose they are worth $13,160 less per mile, or $50,000. Multiplying by the total mileage we have: 50,000 times 1,028 equals $51,400,000, as against an assessment of $11,355,780, or a deficiency of over $40,000,000 in the railroad assessment alone. Gentlemen, do we need go any further to show that we are conservative in estimating that $90,000,000 worth of property evades taxation in this State: that this property belongs to the wealthy and privileged, and that if it were assessed as the law demands, that nearly $2,000,000 would be added to the public revenues without increasing the burdens of the small property-holders and purchasing consumers.

The memorial concludes with the following peroration:

Gentlemen, with this princely addition to our revenues we could sweep away forever the odious occupation tax which is a burden upon the masses and an injury to the State. We could build good levees, improve the highways in the country, pave and drain New Orleans much more rapidly than we are now doing. We could provide for the indigent and insane in a proper manner, and pension the maimed heroes of the war. We could place our school system on a par with the more advanced States. A new era of prosperity would be ushered in such as we have not yet approximated to. With the advance in culture and prosperity among the workers would come the possibility of other and great reforms.

Gentlemen, the key to the situation is with you. Will you use it? We know your task will be onerous, not only because of our complex and unwieldy system of taxation, but also because of the opposition you will meet from those who have hitherto evaded their just share of the public burdens. But the welfare of the State demands its accomplishment. Your oath of office demands it. If you but meet the task in the spirit of that oath, you will be surprised how the people will rally to your support, and hail you as benefactors. We ask you so to do in the name of the industrial masses. We ask you for the welfare of the commonwealth of Louisiana.

SINGLE TAX LETTER WRITERS.

Next week will complete the list of new Democratic Congressmen elected to the next House. All letter writers who have not already done so are earnestly urged to get THE STANDARD of the last two weeks and write to every man named therein. These men are in a peculiarly receptive mood just now, and most of them will feel really grateful for pertinent information regarding direct taxation which will assist them in acquitting themselves creditably in their new positions. Tracts Nos. 4, 5, 6, 9, 17 and 36 are excellent for enclosures.

Hon. J. S. Gorman, Chelsea, Mich^sic.: Hon. M. H. Ford, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Hon. B. G. Stout, Pontiac, Mich.; Hon. H. M. Youmans, Saginaw, Mich.; Hon. H. Wheeler, Bay City, Mich.: Hon. T. E. A. Wheadock^sic, Menominee, Mich.; Hon. W. H. Harris, Caledonia, Minn.; Hon. O. M. Hall, Red Wing, Minn.; Hon. J. N. Castle, Stillwater, Minn.; Hon. John J. O’Neill; St. Louis^sic, Mo.; Hon. Seth W. Cobb, St. Louis, Mo.; Hon. Samuel Byrnes, Potosi, Mo.; Hon. David A. DeArmond, Butler, Mo.; Hon. Robert W. Fyan; Marshfield^sic, Mo.; Hon. Marshall Arnold, Commerce, Mo.; Hon. William Wirt Dixon, Butte, Montana; Hon. W. J. Bryan, Lincoln, Neb.; Hon. L. F. McKinney, Manchester, N. H.; Hon. W. F. Daniels, Franklin, N. H.; Hon. C. A. Cadmus, Paterson, N. J.; Hon. Thomas D. English, Newark, N. J.; Hon. Edward F. McDonald, Harrison, N. J.

Please send me the names and addresses of all Single Tax men or radical tariff reformers in your locality who are members of any farmers’ or labor organization. Also please suggest to them, wherever possible, the advisability of their union taking advantage of the present opportunity to get “Protection or Free Trade?” for ten cents. Tract Extra No. 36, containing some extracts from “Protection or Free Trade?” subscription blanks and press notices will be sent free in any quantity to any address, by writing to W. J. Atkinson, 42 University Place, New York.

NEW YORK CITY.

The monthly meeting of the Manhattan Single Tax Club was held at the club rooms last Monday evening, William McCabe in the chair. Mr. Doblin, reporting for the Agitation Committee, said that he had been in communication with Mr. Thomas G. Shearman regarding the matter of drawing up a bill to be presented to the Legislature, which would provide for a separate assessment of land values and improvement values, and with the consent of the club vigorous steps would be taken to push such a bill until it became law. The reports of the other committees of the club were taken up and discussed. Mr. Steers said he had been requested by the Executive Committee of the People’s Municipal League to extend invitations to such of the members of the club as were favorably disposed to attend a meeting of the General Committee of the League on the evening of February 18. He also asked that the club take steps looking to acting officially with the League. There was considerable discussion on this point, and the club decided to not act in the matter as a club, on the ground that it was going outside of the work for which the club was formed.

Dr. Walter Mendelson addressed the club on the necessity of amending the constitution so as to make women eligible to membership, with the result that the Managing Board was requested to come together immediately upon the adjournment of the club meeting and prepare such amendment. The board met as requested and appointed a sub-committee con- continued on p. 17 →

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BROOKLYN.

G. W. Thompson.—At last Wednesday evening’s gathering of the Brooklyn Single Tax Club a joint meeting was held between that club and the Woman’s Brooklyn Single Tax Club. It is hoped that these Wednesday evening meetings will continue under their joint auspices. At this meeting, on Wednesday evening last, this resolution was discussed:

Resolved, that in spite of the advance of civiiization^sic the tendency now is of wages to the minimum that will give a bare subsistence.

The question was very generally discussed by the large numbers attendant. Thos. G. Shearman will speak at the meeting next Wednesday night, on the “Money Question.” It is to be hoped that a large audience will greet him on this occasion.

NEW YORK STATE.

S. T., Buffalo.—The Tax Reform Club, of this city, has issued a circular, showing the advantages that could be gained by the adoption of the Single Tax.

MASSACHUSETTS.

S. T., Boston.—Local Assembly 5572, K. of L., composed of freight handlers, met in Dexter Hall, January 30. A committee, appointed at a previous meeting to investigate the amount of vacant land kept out of the hands of the working people by speculators, referred to in the last STANDARD, made a lengthy report and the following recommendations:

That a bill be drafted by the State Legislature that the State Government seize, under the rights of eminent domain, all vacant lands held for speculative purposes, adjacent to all steam or electric surface and elevated railroads, at present erected or to be erected; that such lands be cut up into house lots and deeded to, at a sum not to exceed $200 per lot, working-men under a mortgage by the State; that 2½ per cent. be charged as interest; that the land be appraised by a State appraiser; that each holder of a deed be advanced enough money to build a home of reasonable dimensions thereon; that when the sum advanced by the State be refunded a clear conveyance of the title should be made to the holder of the title.

The matter was discussed at length, and was referred to the next meeting of the Assembly.

At a hearing on the extension of school suffrage for women to municipal suffrage, given by the committee on women suffrage of the Massachusetts Legislature, on February 4, among the many speakers was William Lloyd Garrison, who argued that the conduct of municipal affairs was a private business matter, and should be taken out of the realm of politics. Municipal government is housekeeping enlarged. He sympathized with the Governor in his endeavors to extend the suffrage, but could not see why he was blind to the fact that more than one half of Massachusetts’ population was deprived of the ballot.

At a meeting of the Boston Common Council on February 5 Mr. Kinney, of Ward 22, offered the following:

Whereas, it is believed by the City Council of Boston, that the best interests of our citizens and taxpayers would be subserved by the City of Boston having complete control of all elevated railroads that may be constructed within the bounds of this municipality, it is therefore

Ordered, That his Honor, the Mayor, be and he hereby is requested to petition the General Court for such legislation as will authorize the City of Boston to construct and maintain such elevated railroads as the City Council, with the approval of the Mayor, may from time to time adjudge to be required for the convenience and necessities of the inhabitants of this city. And it is further

Ordered, That his Honor, the Mayor, be requested to remonstrate against the granting by the General Court of the petitions of any private persons or corporations for leave to locate elevated railroads in Boston, until the petition of the Mayor, as above provided, is finally disposed of by the Legislature, or until authority has been granted to the City of Boston to exact compensation for the use of its streets by persons or corporations.

The order was assigned to the next meeting af^sic the Council.

Hamlin Garland, Roxbury.—The work goes merrily on here. My own work outside the regular Single Tax lines increases. I read my Arena article, “The New Declaration of Rights,” in Worcester on the 5th, and I am to read it for “Old and New,” a woman’s club in Malden, in the Universalist church, on the 10th. On the 19th I speak before another woman’s club, in Melrose, on “Individualism and Nationalism.” Each Friday evening I meet a group of inquiring people in a parlor on Huntington avenue, and I have each week a page of Single Tax matters in Living Issues. I have just received a notice from the “Round Table,” a well-known

p. 17, col. 2 literary club here, that Mr. Garrison is to be present on the 12th to speak on the Single Tax, together with a special invitation to me to be present. So far as I know this is the first time such a subject has come before that club.

Herbert E. Collum, Haverhill.—We have formed a Single Tax League here in Haverhill, and there seems to be a strong sentiment among a great many of the citizens in favor of a one tax system, but there is a lack of interest in the matter of organizing. However, we have every hope of making our League one of power if not of numbers. We have circulated quite a number of Single Tax petitions to Congress, and in the majority of cases have received signatures. We have not, I believe, so much logic to contend with as prejudice and misconception concerning what belongs to man as against any other man, and what belongs to all collectively.

NEW JERSEY.

J. A. Craig, Paterson.—Thirty-four petitions. Those which I have been sending you for some time past, including the present batch, should be credited largely to William Parkins, James Hill, John Ridgway, Jacob Mick and Charles M. Mick. These gentlemen keep steadily on in the work.

OHIO.

Alf. H. Henderson, Cincinnati.—A large and enthusiastic meeting of our club was held January 22 in the parlors of the Dennison House. New officers were elected and steps taken for aggressive work the coming year. Among other subjects discussed was the Rawlings bill, just passed by the Ohio House, requiring manufacturers to pay taxes on the raw material as well as on the finished product. The bill has excited the violent opposition of the manufacturers and merchants of the cities, while, on the other hand, the Farmers’ Alliance, in session at Galion, has taken strong ground in its favor. Our club appointed a committee to draw up resolutions against it and to confer with like committees from the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, that active measures of opposing its passage in the Senate may be taken. A resolution was passed favoring the Mallon Australian Election bill. The Single Tax platform was formally subscribed to and application made for membership in the National League. The action of the Executive Committee of the club in opposing a bill which has been introduced into the Legislature, giving corporations the power to own and sell real estate, caused much adverse comment on the same lines as Mr. Shearman’s article in THE STANDARD, “Reforms which do not Reform.”

P. J. Snay, Galion.—Two petitions. I received a bundle of 500 tracts, furnished by L. E. Siemon, John Quinlan and Mr. Davies, of Cleveland, and at the Farmer’s Alliance Convention’s first evening session (held in January) took a position at entrance to the hall as soon as it was opened, and handed a tract to each person as they passed up stairs. I might have used a hundred more if I had had them. There was a light where I was posted, and at least one-third of those who received the tracts read the headings, folded the papers and put them in their pockets. The others put them in their pockets without looking to see what they were. After I had exhausted the supply, I went into the hall and up into the gallery and looked over the assembly to see the result. A good many were reading the tracts. When I left the hall, I looked to see if any had been thrown away, and I counted three. I was pleased with the showing. The next evening I took about 600 of the circulars (passages from “Protection or Free Trade?”) which we had marked (at the blank for signatures) and folded and took my position again; and again I was graciously received, and about 500 circulars were distributed. On the third evening I took more circulars and some blanks, reached the hall early and made personal attacks upon the delegates as they entered; and, after urgently soliciting perhaps fifty individuals, got into a questioning crowd, which kept me busy until after the gavel called order.

I now think that the farmers, more than any other class, are ready to consider reasonably presented theories, and that as soon as they have sufficiently grasped the true inwardness of the Single Tax principle, it will go in spite of the hyena opposition it will encounter.

I had intended to spend one full day among the delegates, but was compelled to attend to my regular business. The work that was done, however, will bear fruit, I think, and be heard from later.

H. M. Stott, Miamisburg.—We are doing our work in the Farmers’ Alliance and K. and L. Assemblies. At every opportunity we present the Single Tax to the members of these organizations. We are now working for ballot reform and to circulate the tenth edition of “Protection or Free Trade?” If farmers will only read it will certainly^sic lead their thoughts in the direction of their best interests.

ILLINOIS.

Warren Worth Bailey, Chicago, February 6.—We were admirably entertained yesterday evening by Mr. Leon Hornstein, another of our developing speakers. He talked of “Reciprocity,” and talked well, the audience remaining interested throughout. Mr. Hornstein denounced the Jim Blaine reciprocity scheme out of hand. He said it was a scheme and nothing more, as dishonest as it was futile, and as shameless as it was absurd. What we want is Free Trade, not trade dependent on the whims, the caprice, the ignorance or the interest of legislatures and presidents. The Blaine scheme is a cover for the High Taxers, a stalking horse behind which the Protectionist is but poorly concealed. It remained to be seen whether it would fool the people.

Dr. J. G. Malcolm, of Hutchinson, Kansas, was present, and very happily responded when called on to open the discussion. The doctor, as far back as 1856, in a public debate in Canada, denied the right of private property in land, and during all the years since has held to the fundamental doctrine he then proclaimed. But it was not until “Progress and Poverty” came into his hands in 1881 that he saw how the rights of all to the use of the earth could be established and equitably maintained by means of the Single Tax, of which he has since then been a sturdy, an intelligent and an indefatigable champion. His remarks on Blaine’s policy were highly humorous, and the audience cheered and cheered again in recognition of his frequent hits. He also spoke passingly of “booms,” many of which he had witnessed, and continued on p. 18 →

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IOWA.

Dr. N. Johnson, Marion.—I am getting around to where I hope to be able to do good work for the cause.

James A. Ford, Sioux City.—I have secured signatures to our petitions, and intend to work the town for more.

MISSOURI.

Charles E. Reid, Kansas City.—We had a very interesting meeting on Sunday afternoon, February 1, at which Mr. Homer Reed read a paper on “Government Control of Monopolies.” He evidently wished it to be understood that he did not agree with the doctrine of Heary George^sic, but his address was almost straight Single Tax doctrine. Tne club^sic passed a resolution asking (1) our Legislature to pass the bill now before it, which provides for the opening of the schoolhouses of evenings for the use of reform aud^sic educational societies, clubs, etc., and (2) that the assessments for proposed parks and p. 18, col. 2 boulevards be levied upon the property owners already benefited. Mr. Cody has been elected to serve as the local representative of the Hand-to-Hand Club. We hope on our next meeting to have with us Rabbi Berckowitz and Congressman-elect Jeremiah Simpson, of Kansas.

Gus A. Menger, St. Louis.—Five petitions. Almost every letter that I get now from friends tells me of the progress of our ideas. I am now working for the success of that ten cent edition of “Protection or Free Trade?” and am doing some good in that way.

G. W. Eadington, Lexington.—Twenty-three petitions. I have caused several in this community to see the new, yet old, truth and justice of the Single Tax.

Percy Pepoon, St. Louis.—Mr. John J. Bailey, secretary of the Mercantile Library, will address the next meeting of the Single Tax League at Bowman’s Hall, Thursday night, February 19. His subject will be “Some Fallacies of the Old Political Economy.” At the last meeting Charles Edward Turner made an address on “Industrial Slavery Through Land Monopoly,” and was followed by Judge Meriwether, who spoke in favor of the Single Tax limited.

An informal meeting of the Reform Club was held here recently at which Mr. C. L. Deyo read an interesting paper on “Taxation and Poverty.” Mr. Deyo’s address was favorable to the Single Tax. Mr. Keeler made a sensation by claiming that the recent great political protest against the tariff was not so much due to the McKinley bill as to the spread of the Free Trade doctrine through the agricultural districts. Rabbi Sale made a very eloquent speech in which he stated that there was no word in the Hebrew language for pauper, and claimed the remarkable preservation of the Jewish race to be due to the justice of the Hebrew land laws. The Reform Club has a plan on foot to place a number of copies of Henry George’s work, “Protection or Free Trade?” before each one of the 42,000 Farmer’s Alliance organizations in the United States.

TEXAS.

George H. Higgins, El Paso.—At our last meeting the following were elected as officers for the ensuing term: President, G. E. Hubbard; vice-president, J. E. Townsend; secretary and treasurer, M. W. Stanton. A monthly assesment^sic is made for the National League.

Albert Philpot, St. Joseph.—Twenty-seven petitions. I hear but little talk now-a-days of a “Tariff for Revenue Only.” Our people seem to regard Free Trade as the coming fact, and hence to talk of direct ad valorem and income taxes for the general Government. Of course I always attempt, on such occasions, to show the failure and injustice of such methods, and wind up by offering the true remedy. I find some of the tracts of the library excellent help in getting signatures to the petition. When I strike one of those long-winded knowalls I just hand him a tract or STANDARD, and he will generally sign the petition when I see him next.

I. J. McCollum, Snow, Leon County.—Sixty signatures. These signatures were gathered in a county that only has one family of five to every square mile, towns included. It is yet the home of the wild turkey, the deer and the wolf. Land in the wild state has little or no rental value; yet the landlord has been watching the earth here for almost a hundred years, and taking tribute from the tillers of the soil. Most of the people here were born and reared amid the fastness of the wilderness, and have had but little advantage of book education, yet I find the average man as clear-headed and in most cases in a better condition to be impressed with the truth than professors that are the product of great institutions of learning. These hardy sons of the forest know they are robbed; and five out of six are saying in unmistakable language, “Give us back our heritage, the Earth!”

COLORADO.

H. C. Niles, Denver.—Thirty-one petitions. We are taking great interes^sic in the tenth edition of “Protection or Free Trade?” and I am trying to get the Democratic County and State Committees to make a subscription for distribution among the fosilized^sic Protectionists of this State and county. The chairman of the County Committee, Mr. Whittaker, is reading the book, and is favorably impressed with the idea.

MINNESOTA.

W. A. Carpenter, Minneapolis.—Seventeen petitions. They were taken at the Single Tax meeting of the Chatauqua^sic Circle of Hastings, which was a most enjoyable and profitable gathering. No. 1 is the Presbyterian minister: No. 2 is the City Superintendent of Schools; No. 3 is the president of the circle; Nos. 4, 5 and 6 are merchants. I spoke at this meeting for about an hour, after which questions and answers took up the time for an hour longer. A large quantity of literature was taken and several questions were asked privately after the adjournment, showing the interest of the people in the matter. We shall hear from Hastings again. To-night, February 5, the following committee from this city will consult with the House Judiciary Committee in St. Paul, in relation to the amendment permitting local option in taxation: Mayor P. B. Winston, O. T. Erickson, S. M. Owen, E. J. Phelps, M. P. Finnegan, Henry Mead, Matt Walsh, W. H. Lynn, S. A. Stockwell, George McAlister, C. M. Foote, Titus Mareck, F. G. Winston, S. R. Child, W. A. Carpenter, A. M. Goodrich, H. B. Martin, L. K. Campbell, J. C. Haynes, C. J. Baell^sic.

Charles H. Hohlman, St. Paul.—Five petitions. The movement is making great progress in this section. The Single Tax is being discussed on every hand.

G. C. Madison, St. Paul.—Three petitions. Though you have not heard from me much lately, as I am still under the doctor’s care, I am by no means idle, but give tracts, mail them or talk with someone daily, and know that the seed is taking root.

G. R. Perkins, Rockford.—Ten petitions. No. 1 was candidate for County School Superintendant^sic; No. 2 is a preacher; Nos. 3, 4 and 5 are merchants—the two latter Republicans.

NEBRASKA.

H. C. Jaynes, Wymore.—Our club has been dormant, or nearly so, for continued on p. 19 →

[continued on page 19]

CALIFORNIA.

Ign. Ferlin, Virginia Post Office, San Diego County.—Seven petitions. Will soon be able to organize a Single Tax club.

WASHINGTON.

F. M. Marquis, Walla Walla.—Six petitions. I am out of literature, and could use more to advantage. I think I will succeed better in the near future, though I receive many a cold shoulder. The air is full of wild schemes for speculating in land, and the people, therefore, are hard to reach. I am told that the recent contest for the United States Senatorship was the most disgraceful affair ever witnessed in this State.

CANADA.

S. T., Toronto.—The evening News has announced that it will shortly publish a series of articles on the Single Tax.

ENGLAND.

S. T., London.—Recently, Mr. James Harvey Watson, secretary of the Railway Reform Association of Great Britain, lectured before the National Liberal Club, at Whitehall, advocating the purchase of railways by the government and the working of them on a home system, similar to the plan so successfully working in different parts of the continent of Europe. He was ably seconded in his advocacy by Mr. Thomas Briggs, well known to STANDARD readers, who pointed out that it was the duty of the govern ment to purchase the railways and place them on such a footing as will develop the resources of the country.

MICHIGAN SUBSCRIPTIONS.

In accordance with L. W. Hoch’s recent appeal to Michigan men, and offer of a prize to the man getting the greatest number of subscribers to the new cheap edition of “Protection or Free Trade?” we will publish weekly till February 25 the list of subscribers from that State. On February 9 the list was: F. Conn, St. Johns, 20 books; P. G. Wood, Undine, 70 books; J. F. Dunnebach, Detroit, 100 books; George Lemke, Menominee, 500 books; L. W. Hoch, Adrian, 2,500 books.

Mr. Lemke expects shortly to increase his subscription to 5,000. Circulars and tracts will be freely supplied on application to W. J. Atkinson, 42 University place, New York.

“PROTECTION OR FREE TRADE?” FOR TEN CENTS.

C. B. Fillebrown, Boston, Mass.—Enclosed find $500 for five thousand copies.

S. F. Shorey, Seattle, Washington.—I think I can dispose of a thousand copies. Am acquainted in every town in Western Washington, and believe I can make expenses and fair wages at it. Last Fall I had a copy in my grip, and every time I took it out to read, some one insisted on buying it.

Billy Radcliffe, Youngstown, Ohio.—Get orders without exertion. Will make a canvass of business houses and public generally. Therefore raise order to six hundred. I think I can make it one thousand.

J. E. Morier, Troy, N. Y.—One hundred of enclosed orders were taken by C. Huest, in the largest dry goods house here, in three hours. They are nearly all from Republican Protectionists.

D. N. Johnson, Marion, Iowa.—Enclosed is my subscription for one hundred copies. The Alliance of this County have all promised me a hearing.

W. W. Forrester, Secretary Tax Reform Association, New Westminster, British Columbia.—We will subscribe for a hundred copies. The plan is good for throwing a flood of light on this much vexed question.

W. B. Addington, Secretary Reform Club, St. Louis, Mo.—Enclosed is $50 for five hundred copies. Will send $50 more soon.

Isaac R. Strouse, Editor Tribune, Rockville, Ind.—Will increase enclosed order for fifty copies, and will give matter editorial mention.

James R. Carret, Boston, Mass.—Put me down for two hundred copies.

Charles E. Reid, Kansas City, Mo.—The first man, a Protectionist, would not subscribe to a Free Trade book till shown the press notices. When he read extract from Omaha Republican, he put his name down for five copies. Two other Republicans later followed suit in exactly the same manner.

John Adams, Dorchester Club, Fields’ Building, Fields’ Corner, Boston, Mass.—Our club have voted to help you in your noble work, by subscribing for two hundred copies of “Protection or Free Trade?” As soon as those are disposed of, we will do our best to subscribe for more.

In answer to numerous inquiries, it seems necessary to state that the retail price, twenty five cents, will be plainly printed on the outside of each copy, and that ten cents is the lowest price per copy for any quantity. As orders for a few copies do involve greater expense, it was originally intended to charge twelve and one-half cents for orders for less than one hundred copies. This was dropped (at the risk of actual loss on small

p. 19, col. 2 orders) to secure the largest distribution possible. Cash with each order will save a great deal of clerical work here, and there is very little margin for clerk hire. Please try to have resolutions passed urging members to subscribe by all Alliances, Knights of Labor and workmen’s organizations in your locality. We will gladly mail tract extra No. 36 to any names you furnish. These are the tracts containing press notices to which Mr. Reid refers. Some most encouraging news will have to be held over till next week’s STANDARD. For circulars, tracts, etc., address

W. J. ATKINSON, 42 University place, New York. Secretary Hand to Hand Club^sic,

LOWER WAGES—HIGHER PRICES.

New York Times

The continued reduction of wages perceptibly disturbs our high-tariff contemporaries, and some of them are constrained to offer feeble explanations. Unfortunately for them, the people who were too stupid to “understand” the new tariff in the recent campaign have not forgotten their assertions and promises, and know inconsistency when they see it. They have not forgotten that Speaker Reed said, on October 15, at Buffalo:

They ask me whether I consider the McKinley bill just to the poor. Well, I should say so. A bill which has for its object the aiding of the poor by raising their wages, it seems to me, is a just one.

They remember that Mr. John Wanamaker introduced Mr. Blaine at Philadelphia on November 2 in a speech in which he said:

It has been said, and is still being said, that wages in this country are not keeping pace with protection. Everything cannot be done in ten minutes. Neither can wages be raised in one day.

And here is an explanation of the tariff makers’ purpose, published on December 24 by the Cleveland Leader, the newspaper representative of McKinley himself:

The aim of the Protectionists in Congress was to preserve the existing evel^sic of wages in this country, and they have fully succeeded in doing so.

How well they have succeeded is shown by the reports of reductions which are published every day, and especially by such action as that which has been taken by a well-known manufacturer of knit goods at Little Falls, in this State, whose workmen find that a large increase of tariff duties on imported knit goods has been followed by a loss of 20 per cent. of their wages, and are thus forcibly reminded of their employer’s use of the “scare-pay envelope” in 1888 and of his predictions in 1890 as to the effect of the McKinley act upon their incomes. To show why our high-tariff contemporaries are annoyed, we group some of the recent reductions in the following list.

Brooke Iron Company, Birdsborough, Penn., closed February 2, and 450 men thrown out of work because they refused to accept a reduction of about 7 per cent.

Ellis & Lessig Steel and Iron Company, Pottstown, Penn., closed February 2; 700 men out of work because a reduction of 12½ per cent. was rejected.

Hopedale Fabric Mill, Hopedale, Mass.; wages of weavers reduced 2½ cents a yard last week.

Silk mill at Warehouse Point, Conn.; wages of winders and doublers reduced from $1.37 to $1 per day.

Sturtevant Blower Works, Jamaica Plain, Mass.; reduction of from 10 to 30 per cent.

Pottstown Iron Company, Pottstown, Penn.; reduction of about 7 per cent.

Bethlehem Iron Company, Bethlehem, Penn.; reduction of 10 per cent. February 2.

Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, Penn.; reduction of from 8 to 10 per cent. February 1.

Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, Scranton, Penn.; an average reduction of 20 cents a day on January 1.

Homestead Steel Works, Carnegie, Phipps & Co.; 10 per cent. by agreement.

Pullman Palace Car Company’s works; new scale making a reduction of about 10 per cent. brought forward January 1.

Otis Iron and Steel Company, Cleveland, Ohio; reduction of 30 per cent.

Coal mines, Duquoin, Ill.; reduction from 69 to 60 cents per ton.

Ribbon weavers in Paterson, N. J.; reduction of 15 per cent.

Coal mines near Leavenworth, Kan.; reduction of 11 per cent.

Cocheco Manufacturing Company; wages of weavers reduced 4 per cent.

Manufacturers of pottery, Trenton, N. J.; wages of sanitary ware pressers reduced 22 per cent.

Merrimac Mills, Lowell, Mass.; wages of mule spinners reduced 3 cents per hundred.

Buckeye Mower and Reaper Works, Akron, Ohio; reduction of from 30 to 60 per cent. reported on February 3.

Saxony Knitting Mill, Little Falls, N. Y.; reduction of about 20 per cent.

“Protection moves toward higher wages and lower prices,” said the Milwaukee Sentinel a few days ago. Ex-Congressman Brewer, a prominent manufacturer of pottery at Trenton, where a reduction of potters’ wages has been made, published in the Tribune on October 20 a long statement as to the pottery manufacturers’ “additional protection under the new tariff law.” The new law, he asserted, “can but be beneficial to the manufacturers, as far as it goes, and it is my opinion that American prices will be firmer in consequence of the benefits above referred to.”

Some of our high tariff friends are beginning to account for reductions in the iron and steel trade by reference to reductions of tariff duties. One of them complains that the duty on steel rails was cut down. But did not the Bulletin of the Iron and Steel Association say that the new rate would “fairly protect our steel rail manufacturers”? And we also direct attention to the following from the same Bulletin:

Take it all in all, the new metal schedule is a good one, and our iron and steel manufacturers will never see a better one. It has been secured with much effort and no little anxiety. It is the best that was attainable. We are satisfied.

Mr. Henry W. Oliver, who acted as advisory counsel for Mr. McKinley and his associates, reported that most of the rates of the iron and steel schedule “were those proposed by the manufacturers,” and that the new duty on rails would “prevent importations at present or ordinary prices.” Speaker Reed complained, after the election, that protected manufacturers had been ungrateful “after they had obtained just what they needed and wanted at the hands of the majority in Congress.” Our high tariff friends must try to account in some way for the reduction of wages, but they should not forget everything that they have said in the last six months.

ENCOURAGING HOME INDUSTRY.

Captain Codman in Commercial Advertiser.

Bill Strang is a peddler at Oakbush and he wants a new wagon. Bob Harrington, the wheelwright of the town, says he will build one for him, charging him $130. Strang says he can go down to Peekskill and get a wagon for $100.

“I know that,” replies Harrington. “but you^sic must encourage home industry. We’ll have a town meeting called and I’ll see if I can’t force you to take my wagon at my price instead of going to Peekskill, as the Yorktown, Croton and all other men about here do to get their wagons 30 per cent. cheaper, beating you out of the peddling business in that way. We’ll see if you can get even with them at somebody else’s expense.” So they have a town meeting and the case is stated with a great deal of lying on the part of the wheelwright (for when a man wants to steal he is apt to be a liar), and the simple truth on the part of the peddler, who merely says: “I want a wagon on the same terms that other men in my line of business get theirs, so that I shall have a fair chance in the markets of Westchester County.”

Bob states his argument thus: “To be sure, I do charge the man $30 more than Joe Lockwood, down at Peekskill, would charge him. but I^sic employ two men in my shop who eat beef and potatoes and wear clothes. If I get that $30 extra I can pay those two fellows higher wages—that is, if I have a mind to; so it is on their account that I ask all you farmers, from one or two of whom I will occasionally buy a bushel of potatoes, to pass a

p. 20, col. 2 vote that the town shall make an appropriation of $30. It would be all the same to me if the money came out of Bill Strang or out of the town, only if the town don’t pay Bill says he’ll have to go out of business.”

Notwithstanding, Bill received permission to supply himself with a new wagon, in the place of the old one which was no longer serviceable, wherever he could procure it to the best advantage; and to the great delight of the farmers’ wives, who preferred to patronize their own townsman rather than strangers, he continued his business of peddling fish.

As for Bob Harrington, when having lost his monopoly he was thrown upon his own resources he ceased to be a beggar, and, devoting himself to honest industry, was soon able to turn out wagons as cheap and as good as those built by Joe Lockwood, at Peekskill.

BUT PROTECTIONISTS DON’T BELIEVE THEIR OWN FIGURES.

Philadelphia Record.

If the effect of tariff duties were not to raise the prices of articles upon which such duties are levied there would be no advantage in tariffs. The duty on the imported article is added to the cost of it, the consumer paying it and the Government receiving it. If the duty be so high as to be prohibitory it is added to the price of the domestic article unless the price be cut down by competition. Competition is made ineffective by combination. No tariff is a success if it do not raise prices. Yet the advocates of the McKinley tariff are trying to deaden the force of popular aversion by showing that it has not raised prices. When they shall come to believe their own figures they will be the loudest advocates of repeal.

p. 20, col. 3

SINGLE TAX LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES.

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VAN HOUTEN’S COCOA

THE STANDARD COCOA OF THE WORLD. A SUBSTITUTE FOR TEA & COFFEE. Easily Digested—Made Instantly.

HIGHEST AWARDS AT PRINCIPAL EXHIBITIONS. The Original—Take no other.

“Best & Goes Farthest—Largest Sale in the World—Once Tried, Always Used.”

[small key number at lower right, illegible]

p. 21, col. 2

THE SINGLE TAX PLATFORM.

ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE SINGLE TAX LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES AT COOPER UNION, NEW YORK, SEPT. 3, 1890.

We assert as our fundamental principle the self-evident truth enunciated in the Declaration of American Independence, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.

We hold that all men are equally entitled to the use and enjoyment of what God has created and of what is gained by the general growth and improvement of the community of which they are a part. Therefore, no one should be permitted to hold natural opportunities without a fair return to all for any special privilege thus accorded to him, and that value which the growth and improvement of the community attach to land should be taken for the use of the community.

We hold that each man is entitled to all that his labor produces. Therefore no tax should be levied on the products of labor.

[Advertisement] Pears’ Soap

Pears’ Soap, established over 100 years has^sic, from the World’s first great Exhibition in 1851 down to its last in Edinburgh, 1890, in every instance obtained the highest Medals and Diplomas at the disposal of the Judges. A series of achievements without precedent amongst exhibitors of any class of goods whatever. Of these awards, A. & F. Pears hold no fewer than twenty.

As at each Exhibition the Jury is composed on an average of more than five of the Chief Experts of the World (Analysts or Soapmakers), these awards represent the consensus of opinion of over 100 of the world’s foremost authorities.

[Advertisement] Ely’s Cream Balm (Catarrh)

[Illustration: display advertisement, the word CATARRH in large white letters on black, with a phrenological head at right whose zones are lettered with the ailments.]

—ELY’S CREAM BALM—Cleanses the Nasal Passages, Allays Pain and Inflammation, Heals the Sores, Restores Taste and Smell, and Cures

CATARRH

Gives Relief at once for Cold in Head.

Apply into the Nostrils.——It is Quickly Absorbed.

50c. Druggists or by mail. ELY BROS., 56 Warren St., N. Y.

[Labels on the head:] THE CURE FOR CATARRH / COLD IN HEAD / HAYFEVER / DEAFNESS / HEADACHE / ELY’S CREAM BALM / 50c

p. 22, col. 2

[Advertisement] The Single Tax of Hygiene. (The Health Process Co.)

THE SINGLE TAX OF HYGIENE.

[Advertisement] Morris R. George

MORRIS R. GEORGE,

Manufacturing Jeweler

AND

ENGRAVER.

Society Badges and Jewels Made to Order

S. E. COR. 11th and SANSOM STS.,

PHILADELPHIA.

JOBBING. DIAMONDS RESET, ETC.

[Advertisement] Henry George & Co., Publishers

HENRY GEORGE & CO.,

PUBLISHERS,

42 University Place, New York City.

THE STANDARD

A WEEKLY REVIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY, BY WM. T. CROASDALE, AT NO. 42 UNIVERSITY PLACE.

[Entered at the post office in New York as second-class matter.]

VOL. IX., No. [6?] WHOLE No. 21[5?]

NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1[1?], 1891.

ONE YEAR, $3.00 FOUR MOS., $1.00

[Note: Handwritten pen marks on the folio line. A pen stroke runs over the issue number and the last digit of the whole number. A handwritten figure, probably “8”, is written over the second digit of the date, so the date may have been changed by hand to “18”. The printed digits underneath are partly hidden. The “$3.00” and “$1.00” are filled in with ink.]

LEGAL NOTICES.

IN PURSUANCE OF AN ORDER MADE BY HON. ROGER A. PRYOR, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for the City and County of New York, on the 2d day of February, 1891, notice is hereby given to all creditors and persons having claims against Elisha T. Weymouth, lately doing business at No. 5 Howard street, in the City and County of New York, that they are required to present their claims with the vouchers therefor duly verified, to the subscriber, the duly appointed assignee of the said Elisha T. Weymouth, for the benefit of creditors, at his office, No. 234 Broadway, New York City, on or before the 28th day of April, 1891.

Dated New York, Februsry^sic 13th, 1891.

FRANK E HIPPLE^sic, Assignee.

H. B. WHITBECK, Attorney for Assignee, 234 Broadway, New York.

IN PURSUANCE OF AN ORDER MADE BY THE HON. ROGER A. PRYOR, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, on the 12th day of February, 1891, notice is hereby given to all the creditors and persons having claims against Edward H. Ammidown, lately doing business in the City of New York, that they are required to present their claims with the vouchers therefor duly verified, to the subscriber, the duly appointed assignee of the said Edward H. Ammidown, for the benefit of his creditors, at his place of transacting business, No. 58 Worth street, in the City of New York, on or before the 1st day of May, 1891.

New York, February 14th, 1891.

ALBERT D. SMITH, Assignee.

[Advertisement] Volume VIII. of The Standard

Volume VIII. of The Standard

(July 2 to December 31, 1890.)

[Advertisement] Consumption Cured.

[Advertisement] Morris R. George

MORRIS R. GEORGE,

Manufacturing Jeweler

AND

ENGRAVER.

Society Badges and Jewels Made to Order

S. E. COR. 11th and SANSOM STS.,

PHILADELPHIA.

JOBBING. DIAMONDS RESET, ETC.

[Advertisement] Poems by Longfellow, Tennyson and Whittier

POEMS by Longfellow, Tennyson and Whittier, 3 vols., only 10 cents.

DUKE TONE, 69 West 12th St., New York.

[Advertisement] Forty-three Dollars Worth of Music

FORTY-THREE DOLLARS WORTH OF MUSIC only 15c. Annie Rooney and 100 other popular songs. WORDS and MUSIC of each COMPLETE, only 15c. Duke Tone, 69 West 12th street, New York.

[Advertisement] Concord Co-operative Printing Co. 

Concord Co-operative Printing Co. (Ld.)

104 ELM ST., COR. CANAL, NEW YORK.

Book, Job and Newspaper Printing.

[Advertisement] Handy Binders for The Standard.

Handy Binders for The Standard.

A lot of Handy Binders, made especially for filing THE STANDARD, are now ready.

Price—[75?] Cents, to any address.

Address

THE STANDARD,

42 University Place, New York City.

[Advertisement] A Single Tax Button in Gold.

A Single Tax Button in Gold.

We have just received a neat button in gold, with blue enamel ground. It has the cat’s head in the centre with “Single” above it and “Tax” below it. It is round in shape and smaller than a three-cent piece. Sent to any address on receipt of fifty cents.

HENRY GEORGE & CO.,

42 University Place, New York.

[Advertisement] Holland’s Coffee and Dining Rooms

Holland’s Coffee and Dining Rooms

[143?] Fourth Av., bet. 13th and 14th Sts.

p. 24, col. 2

RECRUIT SUBSCRIPTION BOOKS AT THE OLD PRICES.

For the convenience of persons wishing to send THE STANDARD ON TRIAL TO THEIR FRIENDS, we have prepared recruit subscription booke^sic. They are handsomely bouad^sic in heavy alligator paper, and sold at prices regulated by the number of blanks in each book.

These blanks are each an order on THE STANDARD to SEND THE PAPER to the person designated, and they save all trouble of remittance, as they are paid for in advance. As soon as one of the blanks reaches our business office a postal card is sent to the person designated, informing him that at the request of the sender THE STANDARD will be sent to him FOR FOUR WEEKS, beginning with the next issue, and that in case he does not wish to continue it IT WILL BE STOPPED AT THE END OF THAT TIME. This attracts more attention to it than is given to a sample copy sent out directly from the office.

EVERY ACTIVE WORKER FOR THE SINGLE TAX should have in his pocket a recruit subscription book, in order that he may be able to tear out the blanks and order the paper sent to anyone with whom he has been having an argument on the subject. If our friends will USE THE STUBS IN THE BOOKS and keep a record of those to whom they order the paper sent they will be able to follow the matter up and probably make converts.

PRICES.

Five subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . $1 00

Twelve subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . 2 00

Thirty-five subscriptions . . . . . . . . . 5 00

THE STANDARD,

No. 42 University place, New York City.

p. 24, col. 3

[Advertisement] Scott’s Emulsion

[Top right corner of the page folded over in the scan; the right end of the first lines of this box is hidden, and a fragment of other type (“…NE.”) shows on the fold.]

Bermuda Bottl[illegible]

“You must go to Bermu[illegible] you do not I will not be respo[illegible]ble for the consequences.” “Bu[illegible] doctor, I can afford neither the time nor the money.” “Well, if that is impossible, try

SCOTT’S

EMULSION

OF PURE NORWEGIAN

COD LIVER OIL.

I sometimes call it Bermuda Bottled, and many cases of

CONSUMPTION,

Bronchitis, Cough

or Severe Cold

I have CURED with it; and the advantage is that the most sensitive stomach can take it. Another thing which commends it is the stimulating properties of the Hypophosphites which it contains. You will find it for sale at your Druggist’s but see you get the original SCOTT’S EMULSION.”

[Advertisement] The Newport News, Hampton and Old Point Development Company

INVEST YOUR MONEY!

The Newport News, Hampton and Old Point

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

HAVING ACQUIRED control of 1,237 acres of very valuable land between Newport News and Hampton, and desiring to develop and improve said land, now seek the co operation^sic of the public, and offer investors the great inducements hereinafter set forth.

THESE LANDS are above the highest tides; are situated between Newport News and Hampton on the one hand, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the waters of Hampton Roads on the other, and their general surroundings are such as to render them highly desirable for manufacturing, residential and other purposes.