224 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
It may be admitted without argument that the Single Tax would 
put an end to speculative farm holding. It would make every 
farmer look to current production alone for the reward for his 
labor. I shall not raise the question of the hardship involved 
in wiping out some forty billion dollars’ worth of property that 
the farmers own or think they own. In the long run a more 
serious evil would appear. The Single Tax would strip from the 
farms every bit of the surplus above the wages of the farmer and 
interest on his working capital. It would make of the State the 
universal absentee landlord. The position of the farmer would 
be assimilated to that of the tenant farmer of the present, under 
whose hand the land seldom thrives. 
The Single Tax philosophy originated with a city man, Henry 
George, and derived its theoretical impetus from the works of 
another city man, David Ricardo. Its fundamental assumption 
is that agriculture is based on the “original and indestructible 
properties of the soil.” But no close student of agriculture ean 
accept such an assumption. Rather he must assume that a 
sound agriculture is based on the technical skill and energy of 
the farmer, his insight, spirit and love of the countryside, the 
jollity of the country picnic and dance, the fresh cheeked maidens 
who eagerly accept the role of sweethearts of country boys and 
develop into contented farmers’ wives. The original and inde- 
structible properties of the soil are all very well in their way, 
but they are dead matter which counts only if organized into the 
living rural community. And that the community may live and 
prosper, much of the surplus produced by the fields must remain 
in the community, in the form of new and better buildings, better 
equipment for farm and house, better churches, schools, social 
halls. 
VT 
Inflated land values are after all only one factor in a complex 
problem. To operate destructively they must be combined with 
other factors that produce a rapid turnover of holdings, with a 
resultant excessive burden of debt. Much, if not most, of the 
farm land of France is held at preposterously high prices. Ask 
the proprietor of one of those splendid wheat fields on the Loire 
at what price he holds it. You will be staggered. ‘The most 
inflated American farm price won’t match it. But here is the