JUSTICE  OF  THE  SINGLE  TAX  115

been  so  often  abused.  The  single  tax  offers  itself  as  a
means  of  correcting  this  abuse.
The  Self-operating  Social  Law
We  ask  you  to  look  with  us  until  you  see,  as  we  think
we  see,  in  ground  rent  the  self-operating  law  for  the
social  system,  something  that  will,  if  unobstructed,
tend  to  hold  in  just  equilibrium  the  conflicting  factors
of  land,  labour,  and  capital,
The  particular  factor  in  our  reform  which  we  would
press  upon  your  attention,  because  generally  least
understood,  is  the  nature  of  ground  rent.  While  land
and  wealth  (or  other  wealth)  have  no  feature  in  common, ­
  taxes  and  ground  rent  appear  to  us  to  have  close
resemblance  in  every  feature.  Taxes  are  the  cause,
ground  rent  is  the  effect.  Taxes  are  the  fertilizer,
ground  rent  is  the  crop.  Where  there  are  no  taxes,
there  is  no  ground  rent.  Where  taxes  are  scanty,
ground  rent  is  scanty.  Where  taxes  are  abundant,
ground  rent  is  abundant.  The  ground  rent  of  a  community ­
  is,  roughly  speaking,  one-half  of  it  the  result  of
public  expenditure  and  one-half  the  result  of  quasipublic ­
  and  private  expenditure;  but  all  taxes  (public
expenditure)  are  transmuted  into  ground  rent,  a
change  of  name  without  a  change  of  nature.
The  single  tax,  we  claim,  is  absolutely  just  and
equitable,  because  it  gives  to  every  man  equal  (not
joint)  access  to  the  land;  because  it  exacts  tribute  from
every  man  in  proportion  to  his  use  of  the  land;  because
it  leaves  untouched  the  wealth  which  labour  creates;
taxes  for  the  public  use  only  a  value  of  its  own  creation
upon  land  of  God’s  creation,  giving  full  value  received
ip  the  privilege  of  exclusive  possession  and  hence  is