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150 THE A B C OF TAXATION 
themselves to stopping the continuous drain of wealth 
from the pockets of the producers into the coffers of 
the privileged? President Roosevelt in his last 
message enjoins upon Congress: “ Let us not do what 
the next generation cannot undo. We have a right 
to the proper use of both the forests and the fuel during 
our lifetime, but we should not dispose of the birth 
right of our children.” Mr. Bryan, in his prediction of 
“A Great Moral Awakening,” quotes the declaration of 
the United States Supreme Court that “an unjust tax 
is larceny in form of law.” Unjust fortunes are, 
we claim, the fruit of unjust taxes, taxes that subtract 
from wages and make almost impossible the savings 
of labour while augmenting the fortunes of privilege; 
or, to be more exact, unjust fortunes are due to the 
absence of just taxes. 
But it is asked, what are you going to do about it? 
We say that there is just one punishment to fit the 
crime, to wit, the taxation of privilege. Tax the oil 
and the coal, the franchise, and all other forms of 
economic rent, at its fixed initial source, the land, 
which, without inquisitorial or dooming process, bears 
always the imprint of its own market valuation. Tax, 
not private ownership or corporate franchise, but the 
privilege attached thereto. The colossal error of the 
century is the private appropriation, instead of the 
taxation, of rent. This it is that makes the shopping 
district of every city a continuous battlefield for the 
business interests of her people, and every battle a 
Waterloo. 
For the prevention of unjust fortunes a natural 
process is already provided. For an equitable reduc 
tion of accumulated fortunes artificial machinery