LAND AND LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 4

LAND AND LABOUR.

. (This column, weekly sot aside for the discussion of land and labour prob- ' loms, is edited by Mr Arthur Withy. ; general secretary of tho New Zealand 1 Land Values League, with whom alone rests, the responsibility for the opinions | expressed therein.) INCOME TAX# OR LAND VALLES TAX ? The question is very often asked—- \ why not tax great incomes rather ; than land values? The answer is that a great income necessarily means ■tlmt the person enjoying it is appropriating values that ngntfully be.qug either ic. the- community that has > created them by its collective enter- - prise, industry, and expenditure or to individuals who liave created them by - their individual labour. • GREAT INCOMES ARISE FROM ; MONOPOLY in one form or another. Great in- ’ comes, that is co say. consist ot monopoly proiits. direct or indirect. '.the root monopoly is land monopoly, including as it does the monopoly or 1 coni, iron, and other mineral cu posits. ■ water-rights and So on, and that big class of monopolies duo to exclusive 1 privileges to use long, strips of land inr railways, gas-mains, tramways, ! water-mains ami so on. Another - large class of monopolies is based upon protective tariffs; and still another 1 upon patent rights and similar priviJ leges. 4 The profits derived directly from '■ these various forms of monopoly, or, 1 as is often the case, from combinations 4 of two or more monopolies, account 5 for most of the great incomes. But i many great incomes arise from em- ' plovers paying workers a wage which - is less than the equivalent of the value > they produce. Though not directly 1 due to monopoly, such great incomes ’• are, nevertheless, INDIRECT RESULTS OF AIONI OPOLY • for, but for the fact that land monj opoly robs tho workers of their econo- } mic independence—robs them, indeed, of their one economic foothold, tho ; land—no man would work tor another '. for less than the full value, that is, j the full product, of liis labour. Tho taxation of land values will take for the. community the communityj created monopoly value of the land, and the great incomes now derived , from the several forms of laud mon- ; opoly will then no longer exist; though such monopoly undertakings as 1 railways, tramways, gas, water, and j so on, will more probably bo dealt i with bv being nationalised and munij cipalised, respectively. 3 The taxation of land values, by open- - ing up thd land to labour, will cause i wages to rise to the full earnings of - labour, and so great incomes that.re--3 suit from tho exploitation of labour r will cease. And by providing the fc funds to render possible the repeal of . Customs taxes, the taxation of land 1 values will put an end to tariffs aud > to the trusts based on tariffs and the I hip; incomes derived from them. As • for the monopolies due to patent rights, ’ some better means than patents will - have to bo found—either a. system of . State bonuses or some such method—s for rewarding and encouraging inventors without the danger of building up s • trusts to oppress and bleed tlie people. 1 In short, monopoly is tho enemy. Land monopoly is the root monopoly, and THE ROOT REMEDY is the taxation of land values. The ■ economic effect of land values tax is to cut through the tap-rcot of monopoly. But an income tax has no such economic effect. An income tax does nothing to put an end to tho cxploita- ! tion of labour. Those, therefore, who oppose the taxation of land values and say that justice can bo established by manipulation of the income, tax—graduation and j so forth—are content to see a sys- > tem maintained which enables capital to exploit labour. They would let the capitalist get the great income, and I then by an income tax take for the J State n part of what the capitalist has I taken from the workers. At the same time they would leave the land monopolist free to withhold land from use. and so force wages down by limiting the field available for the employment i of labour, and they would leave the tariff monopolist, the franchise monopolist. and the patent monopolist also free to exploit the people. The community is entitled to its own —the site value of the land a,nd all beI noath it—and land values taxation will j take for the common use that which ! rightly belongs to the community and that alone. ! THE WORKER IS ENTITLED TO j HIS OWN—the value that bis labour creates—and land values taxation, by raising wages to the full earnings of labour, will I secure to the worker that which is | rightly his. The worker has also the right to ! freely exchange the products of his 1 labour for the products of the labour of others. It is. indeed, only by means of such free exchange, combined with free land, that the wage of the worker

can have its full purchasing power and the cost of living be kept down to the actual cost of production; and this freedom of exchange the taxation of land values will secure by providing the funds for the repeal of the Customs taxes that force up prices, force up house rents and force down wages. Taxation of land values will provide the funds for State bonuses to inventors, and thus render possible the abolition of monopoly-creating patent rights. PREVENTION v. CURE. In short, . there are two methods of dealing with great incomes—(l) To tax land values and untax trade and. up dustry, thus putting an end _ to great incomes by putting an end to tho monopolies from which great incomes are derived; and (2) to. allow these monopolies to continue to bleed and oppress the people, to allow the result-. ing great incomes to continue, and: then tax a part of these great’'incomes—some say tho whole of them-- ■ into the public coffers. But “prevention is bettor than cure,” and therefore tho taxation of land values is better, • far and away better, than the income tax; better than a graduated income tax; better even than “ the taxation of unearned , incomes to extinction” by means ofn the income tax. LLOYD GEORGE EXPLAINSTHE TRUE INWARDNESS OF “ ULSTERIA.” Speaking at Holloway on November 20. states the “ London Daily News,” Air Lloyd George, dealing _ with a speech bv Air Bonar Law, said: —“Although it referred to Ulster the real question was the land. It was an old trick of the "Tory Party. Whenever the people got restless about their conditions—wages, housing, hours of labour; or any other grievance—they instantly raised another topic. They diverted their attentions to something a little more distant than their own homes. (Laughter.) ■ “ I do not know,” ho continued, '“ whether you liavo, ever been, bird-nesting. Those of you may have, who, like me, have been brought up in the country. (Applause.) You might imagine from Tory speeches that I know nothing about the country, that' I am a sort of street arab. Those of you who have been brought up in the country know that when you go birdnesting there is one kind of bird, not a particularly intelligent one, blit it has one and one only trick. When you are getting,hearer and nearer it. runs , screeching to another place in ..order to give the impression. that the eggs are there. (Laughter.) The . Tory Party is a bird of that sort. (Laughter.)’ When the people are gettiug somewhere near, as they are, now with this restlessness, this desire for improvement, this resolve to get it—(Hear, hear) —tho Tory Party rises up in full High:, and starts wailing and we.eping for the woes of Ulster. (Applause.) It is all to get yoti off tho eggs, (tiaugater and cheers).” ARTHUR WITHY.