Who is this Man, and why does he Weep?

He is a Plain, Good Man, who Works at a Trade, and has by Years of Toil got a Nice wee Home all paid for. And he sheds Tears now at the Thought of the One-Tax plan which will Rob him of the Land he Owns, and do him much Harm. Poor Chap!

He Means well, but he does not Know. He will by no means be Hurt, as he Thinks.

In the First place, his Bit of Land will have to pay a Tax as bare Land, and as it is not Large, nor in a Fine part of the Town, that Tax will not be a Great one. But that One Tax will be All.

His House will be Free, and all the Goods he has; and he may Build and Paint and Mend things all he Likes, and there will be no more Tax, nor will there be any Tax on what he Wears, or Eats, or Earns.

Woodcut: A working man, well-dressed but not fancy, standing on a sidewalk; a house behind him has a picket fence. In front of him are two placards on a fence or wall:

• The Single Tax is Coming — Lecture by Wm Lloyd Garrison
• Equity Does Not Count — Enhance Private Ownership Of Land -- Herbert Spencer, Social Statics IX

The man is holding his forehead, grief-stricken.

labor

single tax

urban land value relative to rural

untaxing buildings

perverse incentives

LESSON LXII — Stop Drink Curse ... Lay Down Arms ... Make Things Worse

Here is a Man with a Gun; he is in the Troop. And next to him is a Man who Drinks; and next is a Jail Bird, and next is a Sick Man.

Each of These is just one of a great Crowd of his Class. It is the Aim of Good Men to have Peace on Earth, so that no Men need to Fight; and to stop Gin Mills and all their Ills, and to make all men Good so there need be no Jails, and to Heal all the Sick on Earth.

This is a good Work, is it not?

But if so much of the Earth has a Barb Wire Fence round it, and is Held by those who Own it; and if the World is now so Small that there is not Work for All who now ask for Work, would it not make things a deal Worse if Good Men could Reach the Aim they are at, Break up the Jails, Heal the Sick, Stop the Drink, and so on? Would it not Add new Crowds to the Out of Works?

Woodcut: Four figures:

• The first is a soldier, with a rifle;
• The second is a bedraggled looking man, perhaps drunk;
• The third is a prisoner, in striped clothes, with a ball and chain;
• The fourth is an invalid, propped up with pillows in an armchair and covered with a blanket

peace

desperado

enclosure

purpose of living

justice

LESSON LXIII — Land Lord Stays ... Still On Top ... Can't Down Him

What does this Cut Mean?

It Means that the Land Lord is on Top all the While, and it is True. He is just like a Cork that Floats on a Stream. If the Tide comes in and the Stream gets High, Up goes the Cork. It is still on Top, and you can not Down it.

Just so, if we had Free Trade in this Land or if we shut out the Drink that does so much Harm, and if Thus we made the Land bloom with new Life, what would it Do? It would bring more Folks, and the Town would Grow.

We would have more Works, and more Hands, and so Goods would go Down in Price, but the New Crowds would need Land to Stand on, and have Homes on, and as we can not Make more Land than there now is, Up, Up, Up would go its Worth -- the Rent for the Purse of the Land Lord.

landlord

all benefits...

population growth

land value

urban land value relative to rural

in one's sleep

barriers to entry

LESSON LXIV — Fine Bright Town ... Free Street Cars ... Land Rents Rise

It would be a Fine, Bright Town that would have Free Street Cars, would it not? No Town yet has such a Snap as that. But if it had, and Fine Parks as well, and all Things that Heart could Wish for, who would Gain Most by it?

The Men who own the Land, to be sure.

It would be Worth more to Live in such a Place, would it not? And Folks would Flock in, would they not?

Yes; and when they Got there, the Chaps who Own the Land of the Town would just put up the Rent of the Land so as to make the Cost of Life in that Town as High as in Towns where they have to Pay to Ride in Street Cars, and have Few or None of the Good things I speak of.

The Land Lord owns the Toll Gate, my Child, as you see, and he does not Fail to get his Toll, Rain or Shine.

public spending

population increase

all benefits...

in one's sleep

theft

unearned increment

deadweight loss

LESSON LXV — Squid Eats Men ... One Tax Plan ... Spear That Kills

Have no Fear, my Child: it can not Get Out to Eat you. It is a Thing of Vile Shape, is it not?

What is it?

It is what they call a Squid. It lives in the Sea, and Eats Men if it gets hold of them.

It lives on Land, too. And here you see Men caught in its great Arms. There are Words on the Arms to tell you what they Mean.

Men may Kill Squids in the Sea with Spears, but on Land the thing to Kill them is the One-Tax plan, which will Cut off the Land Arm by a Tax on Rent; and will Cut off the Rest by a Law which will give All these Lines of Trade in to the Hands of the State, to be Used and Held for All.

When that is Done the Squid will do no more Harm; and there need be no more Vile Slums, but all may have a Chance to Live a Clean Life in this World.

Woodcut: a somewhat comical looking octopus or squid. Its body is labeled "Monopoly." Its tentacles each hold a struggling human figure. The tentacles are labeled:

• Light On Co.
• Water Powers
• Railways
• Telephones
• Telegraphs
• Land

single tax

justice

equality

monopoly

land monopoly

railroads

privilege

land

land monopoly capitalism

LESSON LXVI — With Bad Laws ... Greed Won't Let ... Gold Rule Work

"Do to Men as you would have them Do to You."

This is what we call the Rule of Gold. It is Grand and Good, is it not?

Men would like to Act on it, too, but they Do not. Why? They Dare not.

They say it is a Fine Rule but it will not Work in our Day, for Biz is Biz.

You see, the Cause is this: Each Man now Feels that his Feet are not in a Sure Place. He has Want, or the Fear of Want in front of Him or, so to speak, He has all he can do to Keep the Wolf from his Door.

He says, "I must be Just to my Own, and so I can not be Kind to All. Who knows but I may Lose what I have? If So, I will need Work to Earn more, and who Knows that I can get Work? No: I must Show Greed like the Rest of Men and get all I can by Fair means or Foul."

The Rule of Gold is Good, but it will not Work in this state of Things.

golden rule

poverty

justice

LESSON LXVII — Take First Step ... Make Land Free ... Then Go On

Oh, see the Great Head, and what a Lot of Limbs! What does this Mean?

This is the State as Some Good Men think it Ought to Be. They would fix Things so that the Few could not Hold Land for Spec. In This they are at One with Us.

But they Go On to Say that the Tools of Trade, all the Mills, and Works, and Shops, must be Held by the State as Well as the Land, or Things will not be quite Right.

As it is now, they Point out, there is a vast Waste of Toil and Wealth, while those who do most Work are the Ones who Starve.

This may be True, my Child, but let us Take the First step First. When we have Made the Land Free, and have put the Rail Roads and such Things in to the Hands of the State, we will have Time to Talk of this Next Step.

is this socialism?

land different from capital

LESSON LXVIII — How One Tax ... Plan Would Work ... Made Quite Plain

Now, my Child, we come near to the End of the Book. I hope you see through the Plan of the One Tax and How it would Work.

Yes, I Think I Do. The State would take All the Land and Rent it Out. Is not that it?

No; You are quite Wrong. The State would Leave the Land with Those who now Own it. It would just tax the Land at its Right Worth, and Each Man who Held it would get a Tax Bill for that Sum each year, to wit, the Sum of the Rent of the Bare Land, and there would be but this One Tax to pay.

From the Whole of the Funds thus Got, a Part would go to Meet the Needs of the State. There would still be a Good Sum Left, and this would go Back to the Folks at Large in the form of Good Roads, Lights, Parks, and so on. Get this Clear in your Head, my Child.

single tax

title

ownership

possession

usufruct

land value

land value taxation

public spending

infrastructure

LESSON LXIX — Hard On Chap ... Who Holds Land ... Just For Spec.

Now I see what you Mean. But, Pray tell me, would it not be Hard on the Man who bought Land and Paid for it, to put the One-Tax Plan at Work and Knock out the Spec. there is now in Land? He paid for it in Good Cash, but if he can not Sell it or Rent it for More than he Gave, will he not Lose the Gain he meant to Make?

He will, my Child; but God made Land for Use, and the Man who Lives on Land Rent is of no more Use than the Worm that eats our Vines.

The State has a Right to Tax what it Likes, and so it can Tax Land Rent.

We may Weep for the Poor Chaps who thus get Hurt, but what of Those who are Hurt in the same way by the Tax we now put on Things in which they Deal? There is the Man who has Built a House for Gain. Do we not Hurt him the same way when we Tax a House?

Woodcut: a large striped beetle, filling nearly the whole panel. The paler stripes are labeled

• landlordism;
• land speculation;
• consumes but does not produce

compensation

single tax

landlord

slavery

speculation

LESSON LXX — See The Cat ... Now Go Forth ... And Spread Light

Now, to bring the Book to a Close, I ask you, my Child, Do you see the Cat?

By this I Mean do you see Through the One-Tax Plan, and grasp the Thought that it would in Truth make men Free?

That Thought is like the Trick which you have seen in a Print on a Card, as in this Cut. It is a lot of Trees, and you are told to Find the Cat. At First you can see no Shape of a Cat, but at last you Find it and it is then so Plain you see it with Ease. So when you once see the One-Tax Plan it will Grow on you in the same Way. The Cat is in the Grove at the Top of this Page. And in the square space you read these Words, "A tax on Land Rent will make us Free."

I have Shown you how it will Do this, my Child, and now I bid you Good-By.

Go Thou and Spread the Light.

seeing the cat

single tax

freedom

RESTITUTION

Enough! the lie is ended; God only Owns the land;
No parchment deed hath virtue unsigned by His own hand;
Out on the bold blasphemers who would eject the Lord,
And pauperize his children, and trample on His Word!

Behold this glorious temple, with dome of starry sky,
And floor of greensward scented, and trees for pillars high,
And song of birds for music, and bleat of lambs for prayer,
And incense of sweet vapors uprising everywhere!

Behold His table bounteous, spread over land and sea,
The sure reward of labor, to every mortal free;
And hark! through Nature's anthem there rises the refrain:
"God owns the Earth, but giveth it unto the Sons of men."

But see, within the temple, as in Solomon's of old,
The money-changers haggle, and souls are bought and sold;
And that is called an owner's which can only be the Lord's,
And Christ is not remembered, nor His whip of knotted cords.

But Christ has not forgotten, and wolfish human greed
Shall be driven from our heritage; God's bounties shall be freed;
And from out out hoary statutes shall be torn the crime-stained leaves
Which have turned the world, God's temple, into a den of thieves!

J. W. BENGOUGH.

earth is the Lord's

title

poverty

land as God's provisioning for all

well-provisioned ship

created equal

natural opportunities

equal opportunity

ownership

slavery

theft

thou shalt not steal