OPENING UP THE LAND 229 



movement from the city to the country and from the 

 country to the city that should be the principle 

 of industrial eflSciency and of industrial democracy 

 as well. The immediate effect of increasing the 

 taxes on land would be to check speculation. And 

 speculation is the real reason why men want more 

 land than they can use. They are holding it against 

 the needs of society. This is not only true of farm- 

 ing land, it is true of city land as well. This is why 

 one-half of the land enclosed in farms is not under 

 cultivation; this is why the West and South, aside 

 from the plantations and ranges that are econom- 

 ically dedicated to large-scale production, are di- 

 vided into great manorial holdings like those of 

 feudal Europe. 



This reform, known generally as the single tax, 

 is comparatively easy to inaugurate. It can be 

 put into effect by the legislature of any State or 

 by a county where home rule in taxation exists, 

 by an act which exempts from local taxation all 

 houses, barns, improvements, growing crops, ma- 

 chinery, and personal property of every nature and 

 description. By merely exempting these kinds of 

 property from taxation all taxes will automatically 

 fall upon the land. No other taxes will be levied. 

 As a result the taxes on land will be automatically 

 increased. And if the tax is heavy enough it will 

 discourage the holding of land for any other pur- 

 pose than production. Such a change would not 



