THE FARMER AND THK SINGLE TAX. 325 



robbers, und those holding this view contend that the state 

 can not too quickly perforin its duty by imposing a tax 

 upon land equal to the entire profit which arises from its 

 use,* which would yield, as they claim, a revenue quite 

 sufficient to supply the state with funds for all public purposes, 

 national, state, or local. The term "land," of course, in eco- 

 nomic science, includes the entire surface of the earth, even 

 if covered with water, so that coast and river fisheries, and 

 mines, would be included. It docs not, however, include 

 buildings, fences, orchards, roads constructed by private 

 enterprise, or anything which is the result of man's labor, 

 the theory being that man is entitled to the fruits of his 

 own labor, but that all gifts of nature belong to the public 

 at large. 



This doctrine is similar to one of the chief contentions of 

 socialism, but single taxers, as such, differ from socialists in 

 not antagonizing tiie idea of profit or interest. They would 

 permit men to compete with each other in the products of 

 their own labor, as to which they may do what they please, 

 but insomuch as they make use of any gift of nature, of 

 which the supply is not unlimited, as air, or water where it 

 is in abundance, it is insisted that the state should be paid 

 all profit derived from that source, the individual having 

 no claim upon a farthing of it. " Franchises" are treated 

 as interests in land, and to be taxed to the extent of taking 

 the entire profit of quasi-public corporations, except interest 

 on cash investments. 



The answer to the contention of the single taxers, of course, 

 is that whatever might have originally been just with respect 

 to land, as between individuals and the public, and even 

 conceding, which the opponents of the theory do not con- 

 cede, that private ownership of land in old countries origi- 

 nated in robbery, as a matter of fact, society has for ages 

 recognized private ownership in land; that upon the faith 

 of that recognition the unquestioned profits of labor have been 



*Sin^le taxers call this "restoration;'' their opponents call it "confis- 

 cation." 



