Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

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Title:: The farmers' indemnity / Alvin S. Johnson

Collection:: Economics Books

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

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