The Present Status of
the Single Tax Movement

Charles H. Ingersoll

[Reprinted from Survey, 31 January 1914]

That the Single Tax is growing apace the world over is obvious even to casual observers. I have had exceptional facilities for knowing its status in other parts of the world, and doubt if such constructive progress has ever been shown as in the past year.

The backbone of the Lloyd-George movement is the Single Tax principle. The budget fight grew directly out of the inclusion of one per cent tax on land values and the land valuation clause through which this was to be effectuated. Lloyd-George has now announced that he proposes to take further definite steps. In England, although militancy has driven almost every- thing else from the limelight, the conviction is firmer and more general that the Liberal government is definitely committed to progressive land value taxation.

In Germany the movement is organized, and, though taking a form which does not meet the full approval of American single taxers, i.e., the tax on increment as now suggested here in New York by the mayor's commission, is perhaps for this reason a stronger and more popular movement than that in any other country.

In Spain, at Ronda, in May, there was held a Single Tax conference, which not only attracted delegates from many countries, but was also popularly successful, leaving in its wake a national organization and an organ of the movement.

While in Berlin I received a message from one of the leaders in Copenhagen that "Denmark would be the first nation of the earth to write the Single Tax into national law - and that soon." I found in Denmark greater general intelligence and in some respects stronger organizations than elsewhere.

In Sweden, also, the movement is well organized, and one of the indications of its strength is a daily paper in Stockholm under Single Tax auspices.

Besides these countries there are nebulous agitations for the Single Tax in Italy, France (where there is a Single Tax paper) and Belgium. Australia and New Zealand have long been known as experiment stations of the movement.- The latter, especially, has produced the most concrete results up to the recent developments in western Canada. There is good reason for believing that the new government of China will adopt definite measures. Dr. Sun Yat Sen is known as an advocate of the Single Tax.

Notwithstanding these facts, my opinion is that the movement will hereafter make greater progress on this continent than elsewhere, and that Canada is at present furthest advanced. Vancouver has taken the final step in the removal of practically all taxes from industry, i.e., buildings, personal property, etc., and the most reassuring thing regarding her experience is the fact that the process has covered a period of eight or ten years, and four distinct stages, wherein one-quarter of such taxes were removed at each step, thus proving that the theory was sound and its working satisfactory.

The history and present condition of Vancouver is the best commentary on the Single Tax that can be cited. Her experience has resulted in a general trend in Canadian cities of the Northwest in the same direction. In these communities the Single Tax will be found in its early and cruder stages, and with uniformly satisfactory results. Furthermore, this influence is being definitely felt in neighboring cities in the American Northwest, and is beginning to create unrest throughout this country.

The way in which it works is that other cities become envious of the prosperity of the Single Tax towns, and join the movement in self-defense. This stage of the evolution would indicate that we are winning general success.

Some Canadian and northwestern cities are advertising in the United States to attract industries, boldly proclaiming the Single Tax as a reason why industries thrive there. The great influx of Americans to Canada, now amounting to something like 200,000 annually, is doubtless accelerated by the current reports of Single Tax prosperity.

It is necessary to call attention to the fact that the untaxing of personal property and improvements is by no means a full measure of the Single Tax, and we are aware that stopping at this point would not produce any, and surely not all, benefits of the unlimited Single Tax. The unlimited tax would not only raise all needed public revenues from land values and, if it did not absorb all the value of the land, would proceed to take all remaining land values, so that all speculation in land would be adequately checked. There is danger that with merely partial measures land speculation would even be accelerated, so that the Single Tax must not be judged by any existing exemplifications of its beginnings, favorable as are the present results.

In the United States there are a dozen healthy but more or less sporadic political movements directed toward the Single Tax. These are in Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana and other states. Some are being promoted definitely by the Joseph Fels Fund which has been disbursing from $50,000 to $100,000 for several years in this work. But to my mind the strength of the movement is indicated by the fact that it appears in many respects most healthy where unpromoted.

In California, for example, in 1912 150,000 votes were cast in certain counties for a tax measure intended to open the way to the Single Tax, and this in a movement but a few months old. Everett, Wash., carried a complete abolition of taxes except on land by a two-thirds vote. Forty per cent of the votes in St. Louis and Kansas City were cast for Single Tax measures, and one-third of the voters in the three largest counties in Oregon voted Single Tax. Altogether, nearly 400,000 voters in Oregon, Missouri, California and Wisconsin declared for Single Tax.

Seattle elected a Single Tax mayor, and a Single Tax measure was defeated by only a small majority. Another campaign is under way.

Herbert S. Bigelow, one of the oldest and most prominent single taxers in the country planned and carried through the new Ohio constitution, although a specific inhibition of the Single Tax was made a part of it. This "victory" Bigelow did not strenuously contest. A similar inhibition is now being sought by the frightened interests of Oregon and Missouri. These, though negative, are strong evidences of the imminence of the Single Tax, as in each of these three states the initiative and referendum, promoted always by Single Taxers, has been made a part of the fundamental law. Through these measures inhibitions are as easily removed as affirmative laws are secured.

The 1913 elections contributed heavily to publicity, and in some cases more substantially. In Pueblo a contested campaign was conducted for 50 per cent exemption of improvements the first year, and 99 per cent thereafter; carried 2,711 to 2,171 against; Commissioner Burton, Single Taxer, re-elected though bitterly opposed ; so general was interest, in the state, that movements are already under way in other cities there. In Houston, Tex., J. J. Pastoriza was re-elected, and his program of exempting improvements approved by the voters after several years of practical experience.

In New York, Benjamin C. Marsh and his organizations for "halving taxes on improvements" were active factors in the election of Mayor Mitchel and twenty-seven assemblymen, pledged to his proposition. That the mayor's pledge was not perfunctory may be concluded from the fact that he has retained J. J. Murphy and Lawson Purdy in, and appointed Raymond V. Ingersoll to, his cabinet. All these men are Single Taxers. John J. Hopper was elected register.

In New Jersey a spectacular Single Tax campaign was waged by George L. Record, Edmund B. Osborne and others, to nominate the latter as governor, on a plank written in the Progressive platform at the convention. This failed, but Colby ran third on the issue, which was widely exploited all over the state for months. Charles O'Connor Hennessey, single taxer, (a brother of John A. Hennessey, Tammany's Nemesis), was elected to the Senate, and R Yancey Cohen, defeated for Assembly.

Massachusetts had a campaign similar to New Jerse3r's with Single Tax a leading issue with the Progressives, who came in second. Controversies between the candidates, on this issue, obtained national publicity.

I might mention that there are at least thirty single taxers in Congress, and a half-dozen governors definitely "under suspicion." The fact is that almost all statesmen in the country are under similar suspicion, and Single Tax sentiment unquestionably pervades many progressive movements.

State Single Tax leagues have been organized in several states in the last year. One interesting collateral fact is the extent of the agitation for better methods of appraisal ; besides the general adoption of separate valuation of real estate and improvements and of various improved methods of real -estate appraisal, such as that of President Purdy, of New York. The Manufacturers Appraisal Company of Cleveland is steadily installing the Somers system in large cities throughout the country. Secretary Lane's recent messages, especially concerning water powers and Alaska, are full of Single Tax doctrine. The contest at the annual meeting of the National Conservation Association was mainly on Single Tax principles, which President Pinchot upheld successfully.

In conclusion, let me cite as further secondary evidences of progress - equally as significant as the numerous events cited - the fact that the three great national illustrated weeklies, the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and Harper's, are all writing Single Tax editorials. The Outlook has given an extensive review of the movement. More significant perhaps, is a series of articles in the Real Estate Magazine, the first of which is a veritable call to arms in defense of vested rights - in fact, acknowledging that the Single Tax is on the way and may not be blocked without arousing those whose property values would suffer by it. The Atlantic Monthly is publishing a series of debates on this subject between F. W. Garrison, affirmative, and A. S. Johnson, negative. The press generally is giving generously of space to this subject. An exhibit of Single Tax literature is being prepared for Columbia University by Professor Johnston, the librarian.

Altogether, single taxers are inclined to join the Real Estate Magazine in the admission that the Single Tax cannot be stopped, even by owners of speculative real estate.