must always be held as common or social wealth, and used as the revenues raised by taxation are now used, for public purposes. The economic problem of Socialism is thus solved." Similarly Wm. Clarke, in "The Industrial Basis of Socialism," says: "Granted private property in the raw material (ie., land) out of which wealth is created on a large scale by the new inventions which science has placed in our hands, the ultimate effect must be the destruction of that very freedom which the modern democratic State posits as its first principle. Liberty to trade, liberty to exchange products, liberty to buy where one pleases, liberty to transport one's goods at the same rate and on the same terms enjoyed by others, subjection to no imperium in imperio. These surely are all fundamental democratic principles. Yet by monopolies every one of them is either limited or denied. Thus Capitalism is apparently inconsistent with democracy as hitherto understood."

Here we have exactly the same inconclusive reasoning and the same wild assumption. Private ownership of land is incompatible with freedom. Monopolies, arising either from Protec: tion or private ownership of land, limit or destroy freedom. Therefore private ownership of capital is inconsistent with democracy. It reminds one of the old puzzle of one's childhood, "If a chicken lays one egg a day for thirty days, what is the price of butter ?"

66

In the essay on " Transition," there is the further statement, "What the

achievement of Socialism involves

economically is the transfer of rent from the class which now appropriates it, to the whole people. Rent being that part of the produce which is individually unearned, this is the only equitable method of disposing of it.. The economic object of Socialism is ...collecting all rents and throw ing them into the national treasury." The only economic basis which the teachers of Socialism have been able to find for their doctrine is the injustice and maleficience of private ownership of land, and the right of the people to the rent of the land. This basis manifestly affords no support for the superstructure which they would erect upon it. It condemns not the private ownership of capital or the private conduct of such industries as are not dependent upon special privileges; but condemns the private ownership of land. Their doctrines, therefore, are bereft of all economic justifi

cation; the evils which they desire to them. Women who lead immoral combat do not arise from the causes lives may be divided into two classes— which they posit, but from one of them those who prefer licentiousness to alone. The abolition of that cause virtue, and those whose only chance alone, therefore, is economically justi- of life is a life of shame. With the fied. The teachers of Socialism them- former, the Phrynes and Aspasias of selves prove that the appropriation of modern times, we have nothing to do. rent by the community would remove It is sad, no doubt, that they exist, the cause of the existing injustice in but their reformation is the work of the distribution of wealth, and would the Churches and their conscience. lead to the removal of that injustice. For the latter it is salvation, and not reformation that is needed; and the only chance of that salvation being found for them lies in a clear comprehension of the causes of their exist

"The Social Evil."

ence. These causes are the selfish

ness of men which induces them to gratify their desires though it involves a share in the degradation of women, and the poverty

which makes women submit to degradation for a means of livelihood. It is impossible to entirely eliminate selfishness, but it can be much softened by better conditions, under which life is no longer a terrible struggle with our fellow men, making its assiduous cultivation the cardinal requisite for success. But though selfishness of a kind must always remain, poverty, as we know it now, need not; and it is in the reduction of poverty alone that we can have any reasonable hope for the reduction of the social evil.

An improvement in the material condition of the people would lay siege to the stronghold of vice from

two sides at once.

The social evil is a subject which it is difficult to treat in such a way as to avoid at the same time the Scylla of hysteria and the Charybdis of indifference; but it is one of such terrible importance to the life of the people that upon it a Democratic paper cannot well be silent. The numbers of the unfortunate creatures, known as fallen women, in Melbourne, and in all other great cities, are no doubt appalling; but this does not justify Madame Sterling and the Social Purity Society in their hysterical denunciation of the men, who, they allege, are responsible for their existence, and their attacks upon that portion of the law called the "Crimes Act," and the judges who administer it. Madame Sterling and her followers, in their attempts to perceptibly increase the sum of Melbourne morality by an alteration in the "age of consent," resemble children trying to sweep the sands from the beach with a broom. At the pleasant Sunday afternoons," where the subject has lately been under discussion, much prurient nonsense was talked, and not a particle of good was done. Appeals for particular legisla tion and abstract morality made to ever so many thousands of young people, enforced though they be by the the prostitute, would be an accompanykeenest physiology, the saltest tears, ing reduction in the class from which and the nastiest particulars, will not the prostitutes' ranks are recruited. close a single disreputable house in When every father is able to keep his Melbourne or save one girl from ruin. family in comfort, it will be seldom inBut while we disapprove the methods deed that his daughters will adopt a of these fanatical amateurs in social life which can bring them only reform, we have no sympathy with unhappiness and contempt. Those the cynicism of those who, regarding girls who have no father or brother to prostitution as a necessary evil, are work for and protect them, while able too much inclined to overlook the to earn an honest living for themevil in preaching the necessity. Hence selves would have the strongest inwe would oppose any proposal to in-centive to virtue in the reasonable stitute State regulation of immorality hope of a happy and honourable marsuch as exists in several countries of riage. Europe, Queensland, and elsewhere. For though this may very possibly tend to mitigate some of its attendant evils, it is a confession on the part of the people of powerlessness to suppress

Were every man, willing to work, able to secure a decent livelihood, there can be not the slightest doubt that the marriage-rate would be immensely increased, and that marriages would take place at a much earlier age than they do at present. With

this reduction of the class that keeps

The more it is considered the more.

clear will it be that the only chance. of promoting virtue in this respect lies in taking away the temptations and necessities that lead to vice. It is

"DON" TOBACCO AGAINST THE WORLD.

little wonder that the girl who has once made a false step should sink lower, for it is almost impossible for her to get back. It is little wonder that the factory girl or half-starved victim of the sweater is some times but too ready to adopt a life which for a few years at least offers money in plenty, excitements and pleasures of a kind, and relief from her terrible daily toil. It is useless to preach to her of immorality in the real world life is dearer than virtue. It is useless to alter the age of consent, and make criminals of men who are no worse than their fellows, possibly to give one more year of innocence to half a dozen girls. It is an old maxim that people cannot be made moral by Act of Parliament, but it has lost none of its truth with age. Nevertheless, it is true in a limited sense only, as meaning the statutory forbiddal of a particular action or class of actions. By Act of Parliament, in a wider sense, people can be made moral, by that Act which will effect a peaceful revolution, giving work to the workless; food to the starving; the means of earning a sufficient and honest livelihood to all mankind. The only Act of Parliament which can do all this is that which enforces, or, at least, inaugurates the Single Tax. When the land is given back to the people from whom it has been stolen, and not till then, will morality find an atmosphere in which it has any chance of thriving. Vice, allied with dismal poverty, must be rather the object of our pity; such of it as remains under conditions of prosperity will gradually wither before righteous anger and contempt.

Two Pictures From
Modern History.

G. H.

(Concluded.)

tune for an attempt to be made to re- land to work on?" Thousands of move the cause of our disasters. If acres around Melbourne which a few one moment is preferable to another years ago were used as market garfor urging people to attend to the dens are now open grass paddocks, sanitation of the place they live in, it marked off on plans as building allotsurely is when an epidemic has ments. Ridiculously high prices were brought misery and death to nearly given for portions of this land by perevery household. We have been sons who thought that Melbourne visited with a fever which has left us would continue to grow at the same deplorably weak; but we hope our abnormal rate as when we were borheads are clearer now than when the rowing. Even still the land is condelirium was at its highest. We see sidered too valuable for such purposes now that our troubles arose because as market gardening, and is therefore of our unwise and inequitable system held out of use, the owners vainly whereby the community was allowed hoping for another "boom" to enable to lose that which it produced, them to rid themselves of it. In namely, the value given to land by many quarters it has yet to be realised the expenditure of public money on that Melbourne is overgrown and overrailways, schools, telegraphs, &c. built, and that the price of such land The flaw in the drain which induced as we have referred to, instead of the fever will induce it again if nothing rising, will fall even below nominal is done to repair it; and so surely as value on account of the supply being we leave unmended the flaw in our so much in excess of the demand. fiscal system, which periodically in- But if land is taxed in proportion to duces booms" and consequent de- its value, whether it is in use or idle, pressions, so surely will there be a re- it will not pay to let it lie unproduccurrence of disaster and distress. It tive; the owners will either be obliged seems clear, too, that the longer the to part with it to those who will make application of the remedy is post-use of it, or put it to some use themponed, the more complicated the in- selves. What it is desirable to aim terests involved will become, and the at is that labour shall have access to difficulty of applying it will increase. land, in order to produce food and other commodities, in the same way that access is granted when gold and other minerals are the things produced. What has been said about suburban land holds true also with regard to great tracts of land throughout the country, where people have been tempted to take up far more land than they can manage, by the prospect of reaping a harvest, not of crops, but of the produce of other men's labour, when the value of land increases. Remove this temptation, and land will cease to be so grabbed for.

64

Let us try and consider what the effects will be if a tax on land values is introduced now at this crisis in Victoria. We shall consider, in the first place, the colony as a whole, bearing in mind its indebtedness to England, and, afterwards, we shall endeavour to trace the effects upon the position of our banks and other financial institutions.

to

In the first place, the colony has to face its debt, and provide means for paying it. The way to do this is to will have to be paid with wool, stimulate production, for our debt wheat, wine, butter, fruits, gold, and everything else which can be produced here cheaply enough to supply the demand for it in England. Apart from the general question as In a previous article it was pointed whether gold is really worth, as a out that most of the disasters which medium of exchange, all it costs to occurred both in Germany, when produce it, gold at the present time the war indemnity ceased flowing into affords us one of the readiest means for it, and again in Australia, when borrow- discharging our debt. Indirectly too ing was checked-might have been it helps us, for if we can cause gold to averted had it been the practice to tax be abundant in England, our other land values. We saw how, in the two products count as of more value. Their cases, similar results followed from prices will be higher than if gold were similar causes; and, after studying scarce. The question then is, "Is the events pourtrayed in the two pic- our production likely to be stimulated tures which were presented, we pro- if we adhere to the present system, posed next to inquire whether, in under which land is held idle while Australia, the present time is oppor-our unemployed labourers can find no

We have with us great numbers of men who, for many years past, have earned their living by working on the construction of railways, irrigation works, &c., and for whom provision will have to be made. What better, then, than that this available labour should be employed in producing its own subsistence, while, at the same time producing something wherewith to pay our debts?

So far, then, as the colony as a whole is concerned, it is plain that a recovery from our present distressful position would be hastened by the introduction of a tax on land values; productive industry would receive an impetus; many who are poverty would soon be engaged in producing their own means of living.

SMOKE THE BEST TOBACCO.

now in

tain cases, trace the tendency of the
changes which a measure may bring
about, or we can infer the probability
of an evil continuing to exist should a
change not be made. For instance, if
things are allowed to go on just as
they are, it may be taken for granted
that the banks will continue to keep
land unused, vainly hoping for a re-
turn of boom prices. In five years'
time, if the land is still idle, when the
banks have again to face their credi-
tors, will not their position be even
worse than at present? Is it not
absurd to suppose that under any cir-
cumstances the vacant land in our
suburbs will be disposed of in building
allotments within five years? Is it

Consider next the case of the local financial institutions which collapsed recently some partially, and some wholly. In general, the principal business done by these institutions for some years past has been to advance the money of shareholders and depositors on the security of land values. Such money was-much of itspent in buildings, furniture, food, and other consumable articles. So long as we were borrowing freely, everything went merrily enough; land values became artificially high, and some of our financial businesses inflated themselves in proportion. Amongst those who recognised how this condition of things was dependent upon our ability to borrow, the question asked was, "Would our borrowing (which had to cease some day) cease suddenly, or would it grow gradually less, year by year, and so cause the shock to be diminished when it did cease altogether?" It happened that the shock came suddenly. The collapse of the Argentine Republic compelled holders of stock to realise; our stock was thrown on the market in such quantities that its price fell; brokers were. unable to ease themselves of it except at a loss; and, suddenly, borrowing freely at low rates was no longer possible. Then, as we know, our local financial institutions either fell to pieces or reconstructed."

66

that the banks must look for
provement in their position.

Two years ago one would have to muster up all the courage of conviction he possessed in order to propose a tax on land values, for the result would have been the immediate collapse of many financial institutions which rested upon inflated land values. Suchi a tax would have at once caused these values to drop. But the case is different now. The collapse came from a different cause. The bubble burst as all bubbles must when they become too big. The banks now have five years' grace, and, so far as we can see, their only chance of righting themselves is the speedy introduction

PROTECTION REDUCES PRICES.
MELBOURNE, A D., 1894.

likely, if our fiscal policy remains as
it is, that the unused but locked-up
land throughout the country will be
put to profitable use within five
years?

On the other hand, there is some It is, of course, impossible to fore- chance of recovery, even within five tell exactly the effects of introducing years, if idle lands be thrown open for any fiscal change. So many interests idle hands to work on. Any cure are involved many of them conflict- must work slowly, even if unhealthy ing that it exceeds the power of the surroundings are removed; but what human intellect to grasp all the con- hope of improvement can be expected ditions of the problem, or to see how if unnatural and unjust restrictions different persons and different inter- are allowed to remain? It is to a reests will be affected by any given vival in productive industry, and not measure. We can, however, in cer- to a reversion to "boom" land values,

of a tax on land values. Such a tax cannot, in any case, do the banks harm, because land is practically unsaleable, and not even the pro-. posed tax can cause its price to drop lower than it is.

To conclude,

we are some

64

times asked to bring our proposals within the domain of practical politics." Just permit us to ask, "If imports fall off, and the Customs do not produce sufficient revenue, where is it expedient, and where is it fair to look for revenue?" We reply, "Take the value which the expenditure of the borrowed money has given to land, and pay back the debt with it."

66

"Tis said that sorrow makes us wise." Will our sorrow make us wise enough?

64

As a proof that not all the Labour leaders are held in the bondage of "Protection," though they may enthuse as little as we do over mere English Free Trade," we reprint the following from the New South Wales edition of our contemporary, the "Worker":

"Twenty thousand persons starving in the State of Wisconsin, U.S.A., owing to the depression in the iron trade. Another proof that Protection does not protect anybody but the monopolist." This sounds different from the talk of our monopolist-loving Labour leaders.

PHOENIX TOBACCO has no Rival

for Flavour.

Current Accounts.

Our friends in Albany, W.A., are informed that the Beacon, including back numbers, can be obtained either from Mr. G. H. Woodleton, of Stirling Terrace, or Mr. C. H. Iftla, booksellers.

Where justice reigns charity is out of a job.

Rent is money paid to a man to get out of the way.

The Single Tax will not only secure equality of natural right, but will preserve it.

Men who oppose the taxation of land values desire Protection for the vacant lot industry.

The aggregate circulation of daily and weekly papers distinctly favourable to the Single Tax in the United States is about 5,000,000.

Three quarters of the land in Chicago is held out of use. How men will use it when the opportunity is secured is shown by a piece for which £25 per square foot was paid. On it is erected the Masonic Temple. It is 335 feet high, and has lift accommodation for 100,000 a day. The annual rental is £110,000 per year, These heavy rents must be raised somehow, and the fact that many men in the packing houses earn only 1s. 3d. per day may show upon whose shoulders some of the burden ultimately falls.

Every man who pays twopence postage for a letter without feeling mad at being robbed, is ignorant of the equity of and supreme demand for a tax on land values.

At 6 per

The little Astor baby born recently is heir to £30,000,000, chiefly in land values. It is a most interesting baby, especially to the army of New York city poor, who are going to pay it a large proportion of their earnings for permission to stay where they are. cent. this baby will keep 40,000 men at work, each handing it over 3s. per day. Good patient souls! and they will continue doing so till America gets the Single Tax. 'You may fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

says:

:-" Agitation is booming

The sacred rights of man are more im. "Punch
portant than the sacred rights of property." ahead. One can smell it afar off. It is not
We welcome the reverend gentleman's jaw the country wants, but labour." Yes,
advent to the ranks of the true democrats ; "Punch." We understand monopolistic
but what, we would ask him, does he mean organs. The one aim you, our blatherskit-
by "the sacred rights of property"? Pro- ing members and prostrated boomers, have
perty can either mean "property in a thing," is to-
or the thing itself, such as a piece of land,
a house, or a coat. In neither case can pro-
perty have any rights, sacred or otherwise.
Man has rights; among them the right of
property in the result of his labour. But
talk of property having any rights confuses
matters, to the advantage of those who wish
to fish in troubled waters.

Where do the unemployed come from? Last year more than 700 farmers were turned off their holdings by Messrs. Grab & Co. These, with their families, joined in the merry life of the unemployed. Previously they had given work to at least 700 others, ie., artisans, labourers, carters, shopmen, &c. These, losing their employers, or customers, were forced into the same company; and so the merry dance goes on. Mean while we continue to tax the farmer by Protection, and to protect Messrs. Grab & Co. against taxation; to talk about the law being the same for the rich and the poor, of the glorious privilege of living in a free country, and various other sorts of cant, too The worst of it is, cant does not fill an empty numerous and too sickening to mention. stomach, nor does it give back the manhood and self-respect which the law crushes out of

our best men.

of the most fertile land of the United States,
There are millions upon millions of acres
which are either not used at all, or used for
ranching only. Yet when a few acres of land
fought for by multitudes far in excess of the
are thrown open for free selection, they are
numbers which the land can carry. Speak-
of the Cherokee reserve, the Age" says:-

100,000 persons are encamped on the borders of the
The last of the Indians is to leave to morrow, and
vacant territory eager to occupy it. Guards have
been placed to prevent their entering before the
time, but at midnight there will be a general rush.
Hundreds of swift horses are ready to convey their
owners to choice spots, and thousands of bicyclists
-among whom are many women-are prepared to
make a rapid advance. It is to be hoped that the
disputes will be settled more amicably than at
Oklahoma. This eagerness to grab unoccupied
land shows that the good lands of the United States
are being rapidly filled up.

The eagerness to grab unoccupied land
does not show that the United States are
being rapidly filled up. The country can
easily maintain five times the present num-
ber of its inhabitants, and in greater com-
fort, too, than the majority of them enjoys
under present conditions. All it shows is
the success with which the land grabber and
speculator have been at work. Tax them in-
stead of the farmer, and there will be land
enough and to spare in the United States
as well as elsewhere.

Two men were recently tried and convicted in an East Portland, Or., justice's court for trespassing on another man's property on the Columbia Slough, whither they had gone to fish. The men stated that they method of furnishing their children with were out of work, had families, and took this food. The justice sentenced them to gaol, or pay a fine of ten dollars. The men went to gaol, but sufficient pressure was made to bear on the justice, and they were released after spending one night in gaol.-Coast Seamen's Journal.

But skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption mining all within,
Infects unseen.

But despite the conspiracy of silence there is thunder ahead, Mr. Punch.

It is not work so much the people want as to be able to retain the results of that work. The woman who sang The Song of the Shirt had plenty of work. Why cant about restoring confidence, having every man employed, increasing our products, &c., and deliberately ignore this-that the hands of a few are on our lands and in our pockets. You know, Mr. Punch, that the more we labour now the more plunder there will be for the land and trade monopolists; that is the reason why you tell us to go on working and not talk so much. It is an old dodge, any. how. The slave-owners and their "independent organs" always have insisted upon their slaves working, and have objected to their talking or reading.

On June 5th the Pacific Coast Council of Trades and Labour Federations met at from British Columbia, Washington, Montana, Seattle, at which there were present delegates Oregon, and California, representing a mem bership of 37,571. Its action was of peculiar importance, in that it unanimously abandoned the policy of political neutrality heretofore maintained.

The following resolution on the taxation of land was adopted by the Council:

"Whereas, taxes laid on personal proCapital, a fine upon enterprise and industry, perty are a burden on both Labour and bear with unequal and grievous severity on the poor, are conducive to perjury in concealing the value of property from the assessor, and a punishment for making true returns, and therefore iniquitous, unjust, and burdensome, and ought to be repealed;"

Resolved-" That the Pacific Coast Council of Trades and Labour Federations do favour the repeal of all taxation on industry and enterprise, and the shifting of taxation on the value of land so as to destroy land monopoly."

Mr. Purves some time ago made a suggestion which Mr. Duffy has since characterised as calculated to make a big Monte Carlo of Victoria. In spite of this condemnation, the idea seems to have born some fruit. The Victorian Freehold Property Syndicate, whose advertisement appears in another place, seems to have adopted Mr. Purves' suggestion to business purposes. Properties of the estimated value of £60,000 are to become the joint possession of the syndicate, and are either to be sold on its behalf, or to be divided among its members by ballot. If carried out fairly, the idea may take root as probably the quickest means of disposing of the land now lying idle, and transferring it to owners who may put it to productive uses.

The Victorian railway employees are meeting adversity with a resolute face. Instead of complaining about the reductions in their salaries, they are setting themselves to work to make their present salaries go as far as the former ones. Self-help is their motto,

"DON" AND PHOENIX DARK TOBACCOES.

The Single Tax, in short, would call upon men to contribute to the public revenues, not in proportion to what they produce or Platform of the Single Tax of the natural opportunities they hold. It accumulate, but in proportion to the value

SMOKE PHOENIX AROMATIC TOBACCO.