"SOCIAL JUSTICE" CANT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 140, 13 June 1912, Page 2

"SOCIAL JUSTICE" CANT

TO IKB EDITOR. Sir,— Your leader of to-day sufficiently opposes the absurditj- of your- charge in your 'issue of Saturday that tho Hon. Geo. Fpwlds "has got into a habit of ranting about 'social justice' in a manner vague . . . /'for you yourself supply the missing words, , "Single Tax" ; and everybody > who knows anything that is worth knowing* about -'politics in New Zealand knows right well that in Mr. Fowlds's opinion- thd*"Singlo ) Tax" is the necossai'y foundation for '"social justice." If you were better versed in Single Tax principles, you >vould know that, as against Single Ta,x _ principles, it is ingenious rather than ingenuous to "assume that all earnings are 'publlo earnings,' " for Single Taxers teach no such nonsense. You would also -know that Single Taxers clearly recogniso that Judges, teachors, and "other public sorvants of tho 'nonproduoing' order," sis you call them, though wo rocogniso them as producers, havo to bo provided for out of the total yearly output of wealth. Wo havo noquarrel whatsoever with those who render useful public service in return for what they receive- Wo class them among "the useful people" who are eligible to join tho United Labour Party. Our quarrel is with the idle, useless, and worse Ihdn useless "eaters of other mon's bread" — the land speculators and dog-in-the-manger monopolists, by whom "the men able to intelligently direct the work of land settlement," and to take part in it themselves, too, are "unduly harried," and -by whom tho "mon well qualified to help in increasing the yield of goods for the advantage of tho general publio" are "hindered to tho general disadvantage of the public," with _ tho inevitable result that the cost of living is swollen to a degree that is becoming well nigh intolerable. Those land monopolists and land speculators receive to-day, as the Hon. George Fowlds has shown, some £16,500,000 a year of "community-oreated values" i —of values, that is to 6ay, whioh are pro- j duced by and, therefore, rightfully belong j to the community Us a whole. What becomqs of this sixteen millions sorting, what "tho plunderers," as you call them, do with their "plunder" has, • "like the flowers that bloom in the spring, nothing to do with the case." It is not necessary "to trace the alleged booty to the fcpending point." It is only necessary to trace it to and tax it out or the pockets of the useless and worse than useless classes above mentioned and into tho public coffers whore it justly belongs. And that done, all taxes on private earnings, can be at onoo remitted. That is to say all taxes that really _ are taxes can bo abolished. What, sir, would you say to a pickpocket caught with your purso in hie hands, who tried to put you off with: "You submit that you are robbed, that I havo levied tributo upon you. But what becomes of this alleged plunder? Am 1 going to eat it, or drink it, or wear it out, or bury it like the talont of the stqward in the parable? Assumo that it exists. Will it not bo mainly invested in industries, primary and secondary, etc.? It is not enough to allege that I have taken your p"urise. Tho advocates of any such theory need to trace tho alleged booty to tho spending point. I grant that my system of picking pockets is not perfect, but even a perfect system of rearranging tho present quantity of food. clothing, ami other goods, produced ." Would yog nob pub him sboi\ sk\ afid.

say ; "Enough of that foolery ! Hand over my purse, or I'll givo you in charge 1"— I am, etc., ARTHUR WITHY, Gen. Sec. N.Z. Land Values League. 11th June. [Our correspondent's faedtiousness in garbling Tho Post's comment— a sort of double taxing of tho article in an attempt to got an unearned increment of argument— k published in full to umato or confuse those who care to be amused or confused. Wo cheerfully allow Mr. Withy the last word. It would bo vain to argue seriously with him.]