CHAPTER  IX

THE  SINGLE  TAX  AND  THE  FARMER
D O  NOT  let  it  be  thought  that  the  single  tax  would
be  less  at  home  in  the  country  than  in  the  city.
The  farmer  was  the  first  wage-earner,  himself  his  own
employer,  his  wages  the  full  produce  of  his  labour.  He
is  the  primary  wage-earner  —  the  one  nearest  the
ground.  His  wages  (one-third  those  of  the  whole
country)  are  sufficient  to  determine  all  other
wages,  and  should  be  the  highest  imputable  to
his  ability,  unabridged  by  special  privilege  or  by
taxation.
One  mission  of  the  single  tax  is  to  raise  and  maintain
the  farmer’s  wage  at  the  primitive  point  of  the  full
produce  of  his  labour,  and  to  protect  and  defend  the
farmer  as  his  own  employer,  not  merely  as  a  tenant
farmer.
What  taxes  ought  the  farmer  to  pay?  He  should,
of  course,  pay  his  fair  share  of  the  common  expenses
in  proportion  as  he  is  benefited  by  the  services
of  his  community.  It  would  not  be  fair  for  him
to  pay  any  part  of  the  share  of  another  man
who  has  greater  benefit  than  he  from  this  service.
What  could  be  fairer  than  to  tax  the  farmer  and
the  village  man  respectively,  in  proportion  to  the
benefits  bestowed  upon  each  of  them  by  the
social  services  which  his  property  puts  at  his