224 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK
It may be admitted without argument that the Single Tax would
put an end to speculative farm holding. It would make every
farmer look to current production alone for the reward for his
labor. I shall not raise the question of the hardship involved
in wiping out some forty billion dollars’ worth of property that
the farmers own or think they own. In the long run a more
serious evil would appear. The Single Tax would strip from the
farms every bit of the surplus above the wages of the farmer and
interest on his working capital. It would make of the State the
universal absentee landlord. The position of the farmer would
be assimilated to that of the tenant farmer of the present, under
whose hand the land seldom thrives.
The Single Tax philosophy originated with a city man, Henry
George, and derived its theoretical impetus from the works of
another city man, David Ricardo. Its fundamental assumption
is that agriculture is based on the “original and indestructible
properties of the soil.” But no close student of agriculture ean
accept such an assumption. Rather he must assume that a
sound agriculture is based on the technical skill and energy of
the farmer, his insight, spirit and love of the countryside, the
jollity of the country picnic and dance, the fresh cheeked maidens
who eagerly accept the role of sweethearts of country boys and
develop into contented farmers’ wives. The original and inde-
structible properties of the soil are all very well in their way,
but they are dead matter which counts only if organized into the
living rural community. And that the community may live and
prosper, much of the surplus produced by the fields must remain
in the community, in the form of new and better buildings, better
equipment for farm and house, better churches, schools, social
halls.
VT
Inflated land values are after all only one factor in a complex
problem. To operate destructively they must be combined with
other factors that produce a rapid turnover of holdings, with a
resultant excessive burden of debt. Much, if not most, of the
farm land of France is held at preposterously high prices. Ask
the proprietor of one of those splendid wheat fields on the Loire
at what price he holds it. You will be staggered. ‘The most
inflated American farm price won’t match it. But here is the