THIRD  BOSTON  OBJECT  LESSON

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rate  amounts  to  say  $90,000,000.  Is  it  charged  that
Boston  is  to-day  confiscating  $90,000,000  of  the  land
of  her  citizens?
All  taxes  are  expended  in  maintaining  the  value  of
land.  How  can  any  vested  right,  or  statute  law,  or
hoary  custom  make  it  confiscation  for  the  community
to  tax  a  value  of  its  own  creation,  especially  since,
through  the  capitalisation  of  an  established  land  tax,
it  is  now,  or  soon  becomes,  to  the  owner  of  the  land,
a  burdenless  tax?
What  Is  Meant  by  the  Single  Tax
At  the  eleventh  Dinner-Discussion  of  the  Economic
Club  of  Boston,  the  club  was  addressed  by  Professor
E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  of  Columbia  University,  upon
the  topic:
Resolved-.  That  it  would  be  sound  public  policy  to
make  the  future  increase  in  ground  rent  a  subject  of
special  taxation.
On  that  occasion  there  was  printed  and  placed  at
each  plate  a  statement  of  the  meaning  of  the  single
tax,  which,  slightly  revised,  was  as  follows:
1.  It  means  the  abolition  of  all  taxation  (not
regulative  or  restrictive)  except  that  upon  land  values.
2.  It  means  the  gradual  transfer  to  land  of  all  those
taxes  now  raised  from  buildings  and  other  improvements, ­
  personal  property,  etc.
3.  It  means  that  Boston  would  raise  its  whole  tax
in  the  same  way  that  less  than  one-half  of  it  is  now
raised,  viz.,  by  a  tax  upon  the  value  of  its  land.
4.  It  means  to  provide  for  common  needs  out  of
ground  rent  —  a  common  product  —  instead  of  out  of
Wages  —  an  individual  product.