THE A B C OF TAXATION 168 Its appeal is no less to the Catholic than to the Protestant; no more to the Christian than to the Jew or the Mohammedan, or the Pagan; it appeals alike to Republican and Democrat. Being a veritable lodestone— all attraction, no repulsion, and with the whole arsenal of arguments on its side — why should it not quickly gather to itself a victorious host ? Economically, the single tax proposes the displacement of an unjust distribution by a just distribution of wealth. Instead of distribution according to special privilege, and taxation according to ability, it proposes distribution according to ability, and taxation according to special privileges, chief of which is the private appropriation of ground rent. Morally, it offers itself as a fundamental bond of unity to reinforce the great accomplishments already made, and greater efforts to be made along the line of Christian agreement. Henry George offers to the world, not only a political philo sophy that will stand the test of the gospel, but a religious philosophy also, that removes a great beam from the eye of the Christian Church, enabling it to see clearly where it now confesses blindness, and adding to its light a warmth and a radiance which the indifference of the world could not resist. Hence the persistent disciples of Henry George ask Christians to consider this doctrine; to gather to the standard of the single tax, and to follow that standard, not as the hound follows the fox, winding and redoubling upon its own trail, but as the bee flies, and as the carrier-pigeon flies, by the instinct of principle, in the straight line that lies between right and wrong. B TOLSTOY AND HENRY GEORGE* Tolstoy’s letter to the London Times upon the subject, “A Great Iniquity,” is the Russian philosopher’s latest utter- ♦ Published in the Springfield Republican, December 10, 1905; New York Evening Post, December 19, 1905; and the Boston Evening Transcript, December 26, 1905.