The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1895, Page 31

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 25, 1895. 31 SOME REMEDIES SUGGESTED FOR SOME OF THE EXISTING ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES. In C other lifornia, less, perhaps, than in any t of the United States, are the symptoms of social unrest manifested. But even on these golden shores there are depressions, some labor troubles and other di ble economic difficulties that thoughtiul men and women are consider- ing the best way of obviating. This fact reues not that the conditions are more alirming, but that the public conscience s more susceptible to the wrongs and troubles of the weaker than ever before in the written history of the world. The following thoughtful essays, written by men whose studies give them the right to speak authoritatively on their respec- tive subjects, will be found interesting and instructing. Needs of the Farmer. w for THE CALL By D. EDSON SMITH. “What needs has Californian agricul- turists that might be supplied by the State governmen The firs great need of California agri- culturists is cheap, fertile, well-watered land; secondly, a good market, with cheap transportation: and, thiraly, a system of taxation whereby they will not have to pay e than their just share for society expenses and for the products of othe: people’s labor that they are obliged to use. Can these three great important needs be suppliea by State government? I think so. These needs could all be supplied if we were free from monopoly. And the greatest of all monopolies is land mo- nopoly,- because all wealth is produced from the land. Life with all its necessities and comforts and luxuries comes from the land. Hence, if a few persons are allowed to monopolize all of the land the remain- der of mankind is dependent upon that few for life and all that pertains thereto. The bulk of the best land in this State is in the hands of a few people and the taxes upon it dre merely nominal, while the actual agriculturist pays an undue pro- portion of taxes. Thirty years ago a man came to this val- ley, there were but two or three e families in it, and bought hun- dreds of acres of land at a merely nominal price. Soon it became noised abroad that this was a most desirable location for home-building, and people began to come v this land of this first pur- The price n years ago, I paid $1000 for ten acres d, which had never been touched by man's hand. I planted vines and trees re none erew before, and made a blades of grow where but one grew before. I raised horses, cows and poultry, and I employed laborers to build buildings. But for all this laudable effort I have been heavily fined (taxed) each while R’slands have been rapidly lue, through the lab, of 1t for §1000 an acre—land as it came from nature’s ha nd then invested ce received land in bank ation. Thus [ ts have had to ar the burden of taxation, wh large land-owner almost entirely e yet he cou , simply because he had a ¥y, given him by our State and as our lav's now stand, to prevent the aggreg: land into still fewer hands— to the bands of one man. This eans slavery for the agriculturist, well as for all other laborers, for all labor and all wealth are dependent on land resources. ‘What just right have a few men to monopolize the natural resources of life? They do it, not justly, by the right of ght. And our whole so-called’ civiliza- tion is built upon this barbaric founda- tion. In Europe the lands conquered by force of arms were parceled out to the leaders of the army and the soil-tiilers were reduced to serfdom. In this country the conquer- ors took the land from the original occu- piers of it and made laws whereby one wealthy man could become possessed of all of it. A few was held by a few persons having grants from the Mexican Gevernment, while the tillers of the soil, the real agricultur were practically siaves. Through force of arms by the United States there has been a new deal of these lands, but the laws are still such that the real agriculturist is stiil practicaliy a slave. Who can give a good reason why the child born to-day in the poorest hut in San Francisco is not as justly entitled to its per capita share of all the land of Cali- fornia as is the child of the richest million- aire? ‘Was not the land created equally for all mankind, the sameas air and sunshine? Has any one the justright to sell or give away anything that has not been pro- duced in part by human labor? Aseach human being has an inherent, natural t to an equal access to ali of nature’s resources of wealtn on this earth, as most of the best minds of all ages have affirmed, then how can we arrange it so that each cun get his share without confusion or in- justice to others? There are two ways. First, through a truly representative Gov- ernment which controls all production and distribution, “requiring from each accord- ing to his ability, and giving to each ac- cording to his needs.”” This plan has been successfully worked .out, producing the most contented nation that ever existed, probably. I refer to the Incas of Peru, This system, greatly improved and revised to date, is aiready practically talked of by the Twentieth Century Company of New York. A second method is to have each person desiring more than hisshare of the natural recources pay a fair yearly rental for his excess to the resi of the people to whom it equally belongs. Or, if several persons de- sire the same locality, owing to any specia! advantages it may have over other land, let it be rented to the highest bidder, the rent to be divided among all others having an equal right to that desirable lo- cation. Thus, if Lux & Miller desire for their ex- clusive use several million acres of land, let them pay the full rental value of the Jand to the rest of the people of the State, who have an equal natural right to the same land. That is, as all members of so- ciety have equal natural rights to that land, let the full rental value be paid into the public treasury for public expenses. And if a man desires the exclusive use of a piece of land on the corner of Market and Third strests, San Francisco, or else- where, let him pay into the public treas- ury, for public expenses, the full rental value of the bare land. This full rental value would be determined by the real- estate market, by the society demands, and not by arbitrary bide; and so long as a man paid this equalized assessed rental value he could hold .his spot of land for lis private use just as long as he can hold nen of | 1f and neighbors, until he sold some | vearsdgo the land of California | it under our present system, that is, just as long as he pays his rent (tax). A tax on land valuesfultills nearly every requirement of a perfect tax, because the | land cannot be hidden nor removed, and { can be assessed with more certainty and | less expense than any other, while it does | not check production. It is simply a rent | taken for the use of the community of a value made by the community, and not by the labor of the user, or owner, and, as all weaith comes from the land, by this method every person is compelled to pay | his rightful share of the public expenses. Such a method, I am satisfied, would provide for all the needs of the agricultur- istthat I have enumerated, and would re- quire but little chanee by the State gov- ernment. first thought, a superficial thinker might conclude that such a method would add to the farmer’s burdens,'instead of re- lieving them. But a deeper investigation will clearly show, I think, that this plan will not only relieve the pressing need of the agriculturist, but of alllaborers. Areas of land are not considered, butland values. The rental value of the land used by the soil-tiller of California is very small com- pared with the rental value of other lands. It is mated that the renters of bare | land the single city of San Francisco into the pockets of private individuals, yearly, nearly $19,000,000. This vast sum should be spent in defraying public ex- | penses and constructing public utilities, | because the public alone has created this | value, and therefore it rightfully belongs | to the public. Under present laws a man is allowed to monopolize a hundred thousand acres of Jand in sight of my window, and can live in luxury and ease and compel many agri- culturists of this county to pay him $2 pe acre each year for the use of thousands of acres of land. Ii the State Government would require the full rental value of this land to be paid into the public expense fund, this man would be compelled to give up his vast monopoly of natural resources, for the speculative value would be gone, and the $2 an acre now going 1nto his pocket, be- ing then used to pay public expenses, would re the agriculturist from all | | but the 40 per cent t | nearly everything he buys. For if y lieve the products of all labor from all roducts at lea This, Orange, county ha assessable land. Does any | that the best balf of this | rented for §1 per acre? Yet at this ridicu- lously low figure it would give us several thousand dollars in excess of our public | expens our county expenses never | baving been over §208,000. And the rental | value of the other half at only 25 cents per {acre would give us $55.000 additional, which if spent in road building would in a cars give us the finest roads in the | world amd greatly increase the rental value of all our lands by attracting a large immi- |= n to our county. But we have land | in some of the cities of our county the rental value of which is thousands of dol- lars per acre yearly. Thus the burden of | public expense would be mostly borne by a few men of wealth in cities, who hold the | most desirable pieces of land for wealth- getting purposes, but which land justly be- | longs equally to all. And the large tracts | of farmingland now monopolized by a | dozen men in California would be thrown | open to the agriculturist, and his present | heavy fines for building homesand caus- ing four blades of grass to grow where |one grew before, and whole orchards of | trees and vines to grow where none grew J before would be entirely removed. This plan would also give him his desir- able market. For in making all the fertil lands in a State easily accesssble to every one, you start all the wheels of commerce. Why were tons of agricultural products | dumped into San Francisco bay last sum- | mer? It was because the masses, who | were in great need of those products, could | not get work at wages permitting them to | buy those products. It does not matter w urgent the demand or abundaut the supply, there must be ability to purchase. | Therefore it follows that the ability to | purchase,1n all cases where an article is | in demand, absolutely establishes the price. Since ability to purchase makes the | price, and the real demand for all our products, the question naturally follows, what causes this ability? As all wealth | comes from the brain and brawn of the | toiling millions, bestowed.on nature's re- | sources, their ability to purchase is oppor- | tunity to labor and receive the full products of their labor. A right to labor is of no use unless one also has the oppor- In a republican commonwealth one should have equal acccss to s bounties, should pe free to earn a competéncy by bestowing labor on nature’s resources, provided equally fo all the children of men. ’ With proper State legislation this would be done, and an effective demand created for the greatest imaginable production. For the wants of mankind are boundless, end if each person could have free access to nature’s bounties and could exchange a portion of his products for an equal por- tion of any other man’s products, the de- mand for all products of labor would be boundless. By giving all the idle employment at hope-giving wages, an effective demand wiil be created for all the products of the agriculturist, There can be no over-pro- duction of anything that is wanted by some one. The natural resources of California are sufficient to employ a much larger popula- tion than the present one for a thousand vears. And yet our laws have allowed a cunning few to so appropriate and monopo- lize these resources that industry starves. ‘What would result if the great weight of taxation that now rests upon industry was removed, so that anything and everything which is produced by human labor should be entirely free from the burden of taxa- tion, and all the expenses of society be paid by those who, now specially favored by existing laws, enjoy the fall benefit of location values without proper compensa- tion to society which made these values? Would not this throw millions of fertile acres in this State on to the market, free to everybody by paying to the State a small yearly rent per acre? And would not some of the crowded laborers in the cities start independent homes and indus- tries? This method of taxation wou.d | relieve the farmer of his greatest burden, by throwing the burden of taxation upon the holders of city property and valuable mining and forest lands—lands worth im- mense sums per acre. And this stopping | the fines (tax) on industry would give such an impetus to all industries that building enterprises of all kinds would spring up so rapidly and so .numerously that there would be such a clamor for laborers in the cities and in the manufactories that wages would rapidly rise so high that a man might choose what he liked best to do. And with everybody working at good wages there would necessarily be a full | few | tunity. What the State Government Might Do to Benefit the Agriculturists and Smaller Land-Holders of California. demand for all the products of the agri- culturist. . Just as the rental value of land fails as you approach the rural districts, so will the rental tax be light on farmers, because their land values are small in proportion {o city property and valuable manufactur- ing sites. A careful examination of the Assessors, books, such as I have recently made in this county, will reveal the fact that the proportion of taxes now paid by the agri- culturists of this State upon their lands, improvements and personal property, and their indirect taxes on all their farming machinery, is very much greater, when compared with owners of city and com- mercial property, than it would be under a tax of rental or land values only. Certainly the great number of tenant farmers (rapidly increasing—Living Issues says: ‘‘There are four real estate firms in San Francisco that for some time past have foreclosed farm mortgages weekly at the rate of $1,000,000”) in the State would be greatly benefited by the system I have mentioned, which would place the entire burden of taxation upon the margin of production which they now pay as rent to private owners. To farm laborers, and in fact to all labor- ers, this nlan would open up unlimited op- portunities for procuring homes. Itwould be a greater boon to them than has ever before been offered in the world’s history. It would also benefit all commercial enter- prises. Forif you remove the heavy bur- den now laid upon improvements of all kinds capitalists will flock here from other States and start manufacturing enterprises of every conceivable kind; and our capi- | talists will turn their attention in the same direction, and the hum of machinery | will be heard throughout the whole length | of our great State, calling into action all the brain and muscle of every able-bodied | person, and at greatly advanced waces. For this making of large tracts of fertile 1and easy of access {o the masses will at once tend to make laborersin cities scarce; hence when an increase in building and manufacturing comes, as I have described, only a raise in wages will secure the neces- sary men to carry on the work. Of course this great impetus to commer- cial enterprises will at once react favorably on the agriculturist, creating a full de- mand at good prices for all his product. 1 would then, in consideration of the foregoing, suggest that the State Govern- ment can relieve the pressing needs of California agriculturists by so arranging our system of taxation that the excessive burden now borae by labor’s products shall be removed, and all of society’s ex- penses be paid by that which society earns —locality, or rental, values of land; and | not only will the needs of agriculturists be supplied, but the needs of all laborers, and an era of prosperity will dawn upon California unequaled by anything in the annals of history. Prisons and Prisoners. -« Written for THE CALL By DR. ALLEN GRIFFITHS. Crime and criminals are present prob- lems of prime importance. tionate increase of crime is far in excess of the increase of population. The causes are numerous, complicated and not alto- gether apparent; the methods of reforms not always clearly indicated. Still, the evil is in painful evidence, and efficient re- form imperative. Recognize the former and the latter exists as a necessity; public and private welfare demands it. State prisons are considered the appro- priate goals of criminals. When a public culprit is lodged therein the self-satisfied citizen congratulates himself upon duty done, and permits his mind to be occu- pied with other things. The short- sighted parent has chastised the child, shut him in a closet, and is now at liberty to follow his bent without further inter- ruption. Should the child remain quiet he may be forgotten, but upon release, or, if in- ventive, he liberates himself and resumes disturbance, the enraged parent inflicts greater punishment by a longer term of confinement. He may even blot out the exasperating existence by bullet, hemp or electricity, still deeper drugged with the delusion that “reform’ has been worked upon this particular creature, at least. ‘While admitting of variations this is the | general action and attitude which relates the law-serving to the law-breaking class. Until changed present conditions cannot improve, “reform” will remain a byword, and well-meaning but uninformed humani- tarians waste time and energy in fruitless attempts to achieve the impossible. No attempt is herein made to more than hint at the causes of crime which, while superlatively important, do not come within the scope of this article. Three phases of reform as regards con- victed criminals appeal to thinkers, viz.: (a) As to the manner of the appoint- ment of prison officials, their tenure of of- fice and responsibility ; (b) As to influences upon inmates; (c) As to the relation of citizens to ex- convicts. (a) The management of penitentiaries should in no way be connected with poli- tics. Principal positions in State prisons are frequentlv obtained solely by reason of the political preference of this or that party which is in power at the time. An official so chosen ‘may be entirely inexpe- rienced and incompetent; or, if qualified, 2nd because tenure does not depend upon qualification but upon whether his *“‘pull” 1s strong or weak during the changing phantasmagoria of party politics, his po- sition is insecure. % The incumbent realizes his situation and that continuation in office depends not upon qualification and fidelity, but upon the success of his party or political sup- porters remaining in power. He is crushed betwixt nether millstones. We will assume that he desires to discharge his duty to his wards and that he is capa- ble of doing so; but, on the other hand, in order to maintain his position he is com- pelled to keep up with the procession of his party by contributions of both money and service, for to his party he is indebted for office, without the favor of which he cannot retain it, and to which he is ac- countuble. He is thus incapacitated for right service to the institution. His sub- ordinates take their cue for action from his own, and the result is that penitentiaries, instead of being principal factors for reformation of criminals, really exist as handy hooks upon which to hang political prizes for party service. This state of affairs is deplorable, as it The propor- | PRISON REFORMS. Timely and Thoughtful Essays on Topics That Are Inter- esting to All Citizens. San Francisco Was the Birthplace of the Big Single-Tax Movement. very largely defeats the very object for which State prisons exist and are in- tended to effect. Present incumbents of offices in these institutions cannot reason- ably be held solely accountable for defec- tive management simply because the system under which they hold office al- most precludes possibility of better results than now obtain. The warden or chief officer of a State prison should be ap- pointed by the Governor to hold office dur- ing life or the term of his competency and fidelity. The Governor should be guided in his selection by the wishes of State citi- zens, expressed in petition, and irrespect- ive of the politics of the candidate. The Warden should have his assistants whose tenure of office should, like hisown, rest solely upon qualification and good service. This phase is the most difficult to deal | with, and can really be exhaustively con- | sidered only by those who have had ac- tual experience as officers or inmates. Al- though the writer has visited many State prisons in the United States, lectured fre- quently and talked to officers and in- | mates, and also had some experience with ex-convicts, he is as yet but a student of the problem, and certainly does not as- sume to be an authority upon prison dis- cipline. Still, observation and experience | demonstrate that present methods are but | very partially perfect, and afford ample | scope for improvement. A prison is a world in itself. fnmates naturally classify themselves, and class distinctions are usually based upon the varying character of crimes committed. The slums, the middle class and the upper ten, with all intermediate stages, are faith- | fully represented, together with every kind | and degree of crime. There are innocent | victed; others confined for crimes either | greater or less than were actually com- mitted; some in for life, others again for a long or short term, and still others who | are incorrigible criminals, now servinga | third, fourth and even a tenth term-—a conglomerate mass of human beings, with differing objects and aspirations, high and low. Stolidity, mediocrity and brilliancy jostle and surge together. Hopeful and hopeless, young and old, the hardened wretch and some mother’s boy, eat, sleep and work and go through the mechanical routine of prison daily life like automatons. All.are huddled together with scarcely any discrimination as to age, degree of crime or term of service, or fitness for this or that vocation. These beings are dead before the law during their term of incar- ceration. They have no rights which any one is bound to recognize or respect; no | privileges except those doled out to them ofttimes on the whim of a capricious keeper. { True, a credit system exists whereby good behavior shortens term of service, but often “‘good behavior’’ depends upon the favor of a tyrannical keeper, who holds his position for political reasons and not because of competency, and who may be a greater criminal than those over whom he domineers. The greatest judicial erime of modern civilization is capital punishment. - When a murderer is executed he is neither killed nor is his criminal career cut short. The reverse is the fact. Were he kept aiive in his physical body and lodged in prison his sphere of action would thus be restricted to prison limits and his evil powers and propensities be imprisoned as well as his bedy. But when he is hanged, decapitated or electrocuted, he is deprived of all present opportunity for reformation, which should | be the first object in view. Besides, his physical body alone is destroyed, while his evil and ferocious mind, seething with desire for revenge, is liberated from the | physical and goes forth in the astral body | to seek and find the haunts of the vicious wnd criminal minded and to influence and impel them to commission of similar crimes. Furthermore, capital punishment does not lessen crime nor the criminal class, | but increases both evils. Statistics prove that one suicide or murder, judicial or otherwise, is usually succeeded by a train of similar occurrences. This fact is so conspicuous that sociolo- gists are now giving it studious attention. The reason for the above fact is that the souls of suicides and judicially executed victims are earthbound and naturally at- tracted to those still in the body in whom lurk latent tendencies toward suicide or murder, which aroused, too frequently culminate in similar acts. It is believed that when this subject becomes rightly understood, nations will abolish capital punishment, if for no other reason than as a protection for the living against the vampirism of the ghoulish, miscalled dead. The factors of revenge and punishment must be eliminated from public considera- tion of criminals before even entrance is had to the realm of probability as to their reform. Intemperance is now regarded as a dis- ease, and at no far future day it is believed that crime will be regarded in its true light and accepted as evidence of mental dis- ease, to be treated accordingly. Nowa- days the criminal is too often a focus for vent of venom and vengeance. With the cant phrase, “May God have mercy upon not more sinned against than sinning, is assigned to a judicial murderer, the hang- man. During the interval between con- viction and execution heis waited upon by those who, frequentiy by violence of force and fear, induce him to accept the fallacy that ‘“Jesus died and paid itall,” and that belief in Jesus as his Savior will release him from all responsibility for the cruel consequences of his murderous act upon his victim’s famil®; while he, the real culprit, escapes scot. free and gdins an eternity of bliss by proxy. He steps upon the scaffold and is permitted to ad- dress the crowd of accessories to the mur- derous act of his taking off. He tells them that Jesus has forgiven him and he hopes to meet them all in heaven. The black cap is drawn, the trap | sprung, he falls and is pronounced dead. inmates, unjustly and unfortunately con- | your soul,” a poor devil, often as much if| (It is significant that for one whose desti- nation is heaven start is made in the wrong direction.) Religious and moral influences brought to bear upon inmates of prisons are im- portant faciors of reformation.. The at- tendance of inmates upon theosophical lectures given in prisons is larger by far than upon all others of whatever kind, and prison officials have repeatedly recog- nized the elevating influence of such lec- tures. The theosophical tenets of Karma and Reincarnation appeal to the sense of reason and justice in a marked degree. A given individual is a changed man when he once realizes that his present as- sociations, environment and conditions, happy or unhappy, are results of his own thoughts and actions of previous lives on this same earth; that then and there he sowed the seed of which his present life is the harvest; in other words, that there is no possibility of escape from consequences of his own thought and action, good or evil, With the realization that his present is a product of his past comes the further realization that as he now thinks and acts he is making his many future earth lives happy or miserable. He is immeasurably changed for the better, for he perceives that his own success and happiness, here and hereafter, depend entirely upon his efforts to help othars attain the same. This is the finding of the Christ, the mys- tic birth of all the ages, for in himself is born the Christ child, for which his lower nature has been crucified, and he thus ‘‘becomes one with his Father in heaven.” This true conception that his present good or evil lot is the just award of merit or demerit for his own past gives him bal- ance in fortune, fortitude in adversity, and courage under all circumstances. The universe is governed by law, not by whim and caprice. The teaching that a man may violate law and by any means or atany time escape corresponding conse- quences is not only fallacious, but offers a premium upon vice, outrages enlight- ened conceptions of reason and justice, is subversive of all forms of law and order, and a deadening blight upon all atiempts to reform lawbreakers. (¢) The relation of citizen to ex-convicts is a problem only second in importance to the greater one, How to prevent crime. On this coast there now exists no organi- zation or systematic effort to help those who, while having discharged their debt to the law for its infraction, are still un- justly and uncharitably held under public ban. When a prisoner is discharged from a California penitentiary, he is furnished with one suit of clothes, $5 in money and | a ticket to any point in the State. Under the present state of affairs, the prison offi- cial, by so equipping the ex-convict, has done all that is required and washes his | dands of him. San Francisco is the usual destination of the ex-con. He is practically compelled to come to this City, either to remain or to take passage for other parts. Previously discharged convicts know this fact and trade upon it. They aiso know about the time when terms of certsin inmates expire and are in waiting for them on arrival. That $5, the sole capital of the dis- charged, is the principal magnet of attrac- tion. The new arrival is expected and as he steps upon the dock is surrounded and welcomed by his erstwhile associates, who congratulate him upon his release, unfold various schemes to beat the law, usually winding up with a tale of woe about pres- ent lack of funds and immediate necessity for the same, which, of course, are to be supplied from the liberal (!) allowance of the State’s ex-ward. The end is certain and not long deferred. The victim has been long shut out from the great world and now feels the first exuberance of free- dom, This is a moment he has long antici- pated. Maybe, in the solituce of his cell, he made certain high resolves and marked out an honorable career, fully intending to follow it, and which he would follow were his reception to freedom different. Butitis not. No strong helpful hand is extended to him; no word of encourage- ment greets him; no sympathetic heart beats for him, and to quiet the trembling of his own now all a-flutter with strange experiences. How long it seems since he breathed the air of freedom! Years, many years, have elapsed; so many that he can- not realize their flight. Everything is strange, confusing, and like a dream thoughts flood in upon him and all but memory is oblivious, except, perchance, faint stirrings of his high resolves. He strives to hold them, to anchor to them; but they elude his grasp, and he feels his footing insecure and himself afloat again in the treacherous waves. The voices of his companions fill his ear, tempt him, craze his mind with confusion, and with a despairing moan, unheard by all but himself, he is whirled into the sea of vice again and—lost! Who are the accessories to these daily tragedies if not ourselves, upon whom they surely react with terrible disaster? As a consequence of our own folly and negli- gence the waves of vice and crime beat the very threshold of our homes; nay, force entrance and engulf our sons and daughters, who sit in fancied security about the family hearthstone! No universal panacea exists. No all- round remedy has yet been discovered to cure diseases of both body and mind. And while immediate perfection is impossible partial and present success is attainable through well-directed efforts to improve present conditions. Reformation consists not in attempts to mold all men upon the same model, but in helping each individual help himself realize his own ideals. Each man makes his own world and peoplesit with his own creations, which are the 'counterparts of those existing in his own mind. There- fore, all efforts at reform of individuals should be unsectarian and purely humani- tarian, and consist of affording opportu- nities whereby the individual may rise to %he next rung of his own ladder. A State or inter-State organization for the care of ex-convicts, entirely unsect- arian in character, and composed of repre- sentative men in every city and town of recognized stamina, independence and common-sense humanitarian sentiments, would accomplish a vast deal for the wel- fare of that class which 1s now entirely ignored. The organization should have no hard and fast rules, for its success would depend upon the exercise of tact and judgment by its members. It would naturally co-operate with prison officials so that when a prisoner was die- charged and desired to go to a certain point, the officials would give necessary directions and also notify the members at that point. The ex-convict would be met on his arrival and provided for until em- | ployment was obtained through the agency of the resident member.* Very frequently an ex-convict secures employment and gives good service, and were hisemployer to remain ignorant of his past history, all would go well. But some busybody who knows the unfortu- nate’s past, actuated by e senseless and meddlesome goody-goodyness, spite or venom, slyly whispers in the employer’s ear, who, ten to one, is a weakling himself and discharges his man. The careerof the ex-convict is thus cut short, his good in- tenzions frustrated. He is compelled to “move on,” (but where?) and in all prob- ability to meet with similar experience in other places, until, disheartened by re- peated failures at the hands of his cruel fellows, he retaliates by relapse into crime again. It would have been different had his first employer been informed by the mem- ber of the organization that his applicant was an ex-con. whom he was determined to befriend so long as he conducted him- self rightly. Then, when a poisoned tongue drops its venom it would not only fall unheeded, but pointed warning could be given to desist from further malignant attempts. Many a man who has paid the full penalty of a first and only misstep and tried to redeem himself has been defeated by loose-hung tongues of uncharity. And many a man has recovered and honored himself because of the courageous and well-timed aid of a true brother whose heart is so brave and tender that it recog- nizes the appeal of all who sufferasa right- ful claim for assistance. It is to these Heart Men that the weak, the ignorant and the suffering appeal for help, and ap- peal not in vain. The Single Tax. ‘Written for THE CALL By JOSEPH LEGGETT. Already the City of San Francisco has a peculiar interest for earnest and faithful single-taxers all over the world. And this interest must continue to grow as the com- ing years roll by, until, by the adoption of the single tax, the reign of justice is ushereda in and poverty, with its horrid train of vice and misery, shall disappear from the earth, leaving behind it only the monstrous memories of a night forever past. Then will hosts of bappy pilgrims from earth’s remotest bounds wend their way to the City by the Golden Gate to see the place where the single-tax cause had its origin, where “Progress and Poverty” was written and first published to the world, and where the ‘“prophet of San Francisco” and his earliest disciples formed the first organization to spread the light which he had revealed to them. On the 27th of July, 1871, Henry George published at San Francisco a pamphlet of forty-eight pages, entitled **‘Our Land and Land Policy, National and State.”” In this pamphlet Mr. George forcibly pointed out the criminal folly of our National and State governments in squandering the public lands and clearly foretold the evils that have since followed the practi- cal exhaustion of those lands. Fe also presented the germ of the idea which he has since worked out and more fully developed in his subsequent works. The same year, 1871, Mr.. George estab- lished the Evening Post of San Francisco asa penny paper, and during the whole course of his connection with the paper actively promulgated his views on the land question in its columns. On the Fourth of July, 1877, Mr. George was the orator, and at the California Theater delivered a masterly oration on “The American Republic, Its Dangers and Tts Possibilities,” in which he clearly and eloguently presented his views upon the same subject. Toward the end of that yvear a few earnest men to whom Mr. George had, from time to time, explained s doctrines, and who had read his pamphlets, his editorials in the Post, and his Fourth of July oration, and who had become convinced of the truth of his teach- ings, met in an office on Clay street, above Montgomery street, for the purpose of forming an organization for the propaga- tion of their views. They organized under the name of “The Land Reform League of California,’ of which Joseph Leggett was elected president and P. J. Murphy sec- retary. This was the first society ever organized on the basis of the single-tax principle. It numbered about a dozen members, amoag whom were Henry George, James G. Maguire, William M. Hinton, John M. Days, A. L, Mann, John Swett and a few others whose names I am now unable to recall. The league held meetings during the following two or three years, endeavored unsuccessfully to secure the nomination of Mr. George as a dele- gate to the constitutional convention by the Workingmen’s party, held several public meetings throughout the City, which were addressed by Mr. George and others, arranged for a lecture by him, which was delivered in Metropolitan Temple on the 26th of March, 1878, on the subject, “Why is Work Scarce, Wages Low and Labor Restless?”” and published and distributed several thousand copies of this lecture. Prior to the election for delegates to the constitutional convention in June, 1878, the league printed a series of four ques- tions, which it sent to each of the candi- dates at that election and decided to sup- port those who returned satisfactory an- swers to the questions. Mr. George was a candidate for delegate on the Democratic ticket at that election and received 3183 votes, which was a little over 500 votes more than the next highest candidate on that ticket received. The vear following, 1879, Mr., George completed his great work, ‘“‘Progress and Poverty.” He was unable to find a pub- lisher in the East, whereupon his old part- ner in the Post, William M. Hinton, un- dertook to print an edition of 500 copies. This edition, which was got out in & man- ner most creditable to the publisher, met with a ready sale and was widely reviewed both in this country and in England. This edition is known as the author’s edition, and is now highly prized by all who are fortunate enough to possess a copy and is eagerly sought after by those not so fortu- nate. After this Mr. George experienced no difficulty in finding a publisher. The next organization formed on single- tax lines in this City was called the “Cali- fornia Tax Reform League,” which was organized in Lower Metropolitan Hall about the year 1885, Its board of directors were: James G. Maguire, P. J. Healy, Herman Roger, Kate Kennedy, George Cumming. K. M. Smith and E. W. Thur- man. This league held public meetings for discussion and reprinted and distrib- uted an edition of 20,000 copies of Mr. George’s Metropolitan Temple lecture. It did a very valuable work of education on economic questions. The next organization of single taxers in this City was formed about the close of the year 1886, and held meetings every week in B’nai B'rith Hall under the name of the Land and Labor Club. This club reorgan- ized as the San Francisco Anti-Poverty So- ciety at Grand Central Hall, corner of Sixth and Market streets, where 1t held meetings every Sunday night for some- thing over a year. The society next moved to 90914 Market street and changed its name to the *'Single Tax Society of San Francisco.”” Here the society remained several years, holding meetings every Sun- day evening. It also maintained a read- ing-room in the old Jesuit building on Market street for several years. It now meets every Wednesday evening at For- esters’ Hall, 102 O’Farrell street. I believe 1 am well within bounds in saying that during the many years the society has been in existence no other instrumentality has done more to instruct the people of San Francisco in sound economic principles. The man of ordinary natural capacity who has regularly attended its meetings and carefully read the literature it has dis- tributed is able to hold his own in the dis« cussion of economic questions with the best informed men of his time. The range of subjects discussed at its meetings has always been and still is wide and varied, taking in everything pertain- ing to human well-being. Its members have actively and effectively cham- pioned every practical reform calcu- lated to advance the public wel- fare, notably in the case of the Aus- tralian ballot reform. As a society it has done an educational work in economics in this community of which it has just reason to be proud. And from its meet- ings the members have derived an instruc- tion and drawn an inspiration that have greatly aided them in their individual ef- forts to advance the cause to which they are 8o earnestly devoted. It may be of in- terest to know how believers in Mr. George’s land views came to be called sin~ gle-taxers, and the doctrine of land value taxation the single tax. On the 12th of January, 1887, Thomas G. Shearman, the eminent lawyer, economist and statistician, read a paper before the Constitution Ciub of New York City. At the request of Mr. George, who was then publishing the Standard, he sent it in for publication. When the article was set up the foreman asked Mr. George what head- ing he should give it, and he told him to call it the *‘Single Tax.” It went into the Standard of May 28, 1887, under that head, and was afterward published under the same title in the Land and Labor Library in the form of a tract. The movement was at the time looking for a name, and it adopted the title thus given to Mr. Shear- man’s article, Great movements have sometimes had to go a long way from home to get their names. The followers of Christ were first called Christians not at Jerusdlem but at Antioch, and single-taxers got their name not at San Francisco but at New York. San Francisco ought to be the first to accept and adopt the gospel of the single tax, for it was first proclaimed to her people. But unless she speedily bestirs herself her sister city of New York will get the start of her in adopting, as she did in naming, the single tax. The manner in which she turned out to welcome and honor her prophet in 1890 when he passed through on his way to Australia inspired a hope that she might lead the way, but she is too far from the center of thoueht to justify that hope. Some one may here inquire, What is the single tax? Iam not writing this article for the very few who now need an answer to that question. I refer them to the Cen- tury Dictionary for a definition of the term. It is the remedy for the ills that now oppress and threaten the existence of our civilization which the people are going to adopt. This conclusion is justified both by reason and observation. An eminent citizen of this State is reported to have lately stated, as the result of his observa- tion, that the people are going to adopt the single tax, whether it is right or wrong. When he comes to investigate the subject more deeply he will discover that the people are going to adopt the single tax because they know it isright. Rea- son teaches us that a people occupying the vantage ground now held by the American people cannot permit their civilization to perish from the earth. Those who imagine that this Republic is going the way of the Roman republic have not considered the differences between the two peoples. Rea- son also teaches us that such a people as the American people are reasonably sure to adopt for the preservation of what they cherish those means that involve the least cost and that will cause the least disturb- ance to or interference with the institu- tions they have established. Kidd says that the end which the devel- opmental forces at work in our civilization are apparently destined to achieve in the social life of the people is, to complete the process of evolution in progress by event- ually bringing all the people into the ri- valry of life, not only on a footing of po- litical equality, but on conditions of equal social opportunities. The single tax fur- nishes not merely the shortest, but the only road to that end. To those who are able to see only the surface of things this factis obscured by the jumble of ‘‘reforms” that now clouds the social atmosphere. But the fact is there, and it will soon be clearly perceived by all. The single tax is in harmouy with American sentiment, thought and aspiration. It clears the way to that greater freedom and that fuller op- portunity which it is the ambition of every true American to attain. It will restore and forever preserve that personal inde- * pendence and magranimity which free- dom and boundless opportunity in the past stamped upon the American National character. ‘What the single tax will do for usis thus eloquently set forth in the closing chapter of “Progress and Poverty”: “If, while there is yet time, we turn to Justice and obey her, if we trust Liberty and fol- low. her, the dangers that now threaten must disappear, the forces that now men- ace will turn to agencies of elevation, * * * ‘With want destroyed. with greed changed to noble passions; with the fraternity that is born of equality taking the place of the jealousy and fear that now array men against each other; with mental power loosed by conditions that give to the.hum- blest comfort and leisure, and who shall measure the heights to which our civiliza- tion may soar? Words fail the thought! Itisthe golden age of which poets have sung and high-raised seers have told in metaphor! It is the glorious vision which has always haunted man with gleams of fitful splendor. It is what he saw whose eyes at Patmos were closed in a trance. It is the culmination of Christianity—the City of God on earth, with its walls of jas- per and its gates of pearl! Itis the reign of the Prince of Peace!”