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Chapter  XII

THE  SINGLE  TAX*
F OR  the  practical  views  which  it  is  my  privilege
to  present  toAhis  distinguished  conference  I  beg  to
assume  responsibility  individually,  rather  than  as
representing  any  organised  body,  who  thereby  might
be  compromised.  To  express  my  conviction  in
ecclesiastical  form  I  begin  with  the
Credo
(i)  I  believe  in  the  single  tax  defined  by  Henry
George  in  “Progress  and  Poverty”  as  ‘‘the  abolition  of
all  taxes  save  those  on  land  values,”  to  be  accomplished,
as  he  said  at  Saratoga,  ‘‘by  the  slow  process  of  educating ­
  men  to  demand  it”;  to  which  he  added:  “In
thinking  of  details  it  should  be  remembered  that  we
cannot  get  to  the  single  tax  at  one  leap,  but  only  by
gradual  steps,  which  will  bring  experience  to  the  settlement ­
  of  details.”
(2)  1  believe  that  the  amount  of  the  single  tax
should  be  limited  to  the  needs  ot  the  State  for  an  effective ­
  and  economical  administration  of  government.
♦Address  before  the  National  Tax  Association,  November  13,  1907,  at
Columbus,  Ohio.  See  il  State  and  Local  Taxation.  First  National  Conference,
1907.”  The  Macmillan  Company,  1908.  The  reader  is  warned  that  this
chapter  is  made  up  largely  of  expressions  found  elsewhere  in  the  book,
especially  in  the  first  three  chapters.  The  only  reason  for  its  insertion  is
that  it  represents  the  author’s  latest  resume  of  the  subject,  prepared  for  an
important  occasion.