EXPLANATIONS.
(For the Review.)
Here are words for the wise, with some careful explaning—
Not done in our schools—left out in our training—
Forgot by professor when making his book.
At these explanations, right squarely to look,
You must off with your glasses. They touch on the times,
In very large letters—in excellent rhymes:—
SHIRKERS are persons who willingly live,
On services workers unwittingly give.
WORKERS are fellows who toil and who sweat,
Very much to produce—very little to get.
LORDS are the shirkers to earth laying claim—
Who'd lay claim to the moon, could it better their game.
TENANTS are workers to lords paying rent—
To live on the planet to which they were sent.
DODGERS are lords—who sell their small souls
To keep ev'ry tax from their rents and their tolls.
DUPES are dull tenants—who pay with hard work
What dodgers quite cheaply and skillfully shirk.
MASTERS are dodgers—who make the world moan—
So small is the tax, on what dupes let them own.
They "corner" the earth, get most of the wealth,
And rob and live rich, by legalized stealth.
SLAVES are the dupes who let master and knave
Tax all that they spend—tax all that they save—
Till tax eats their bread, and with tolls, and with rents,
Their birthright to live isn't worth twenty cents.
It's plain as the nose on the face of a man,
A master's a dodger, a lord, and a shirker.
Had we done without lords to take rent for the earth,
We'd be richer than lords, from the day of our birth.
But the dreamers who dream to slay lords with a tax—
Banish toll from the roads—throw the knaves from our backs—
And struggle to do it, without any thanks—
We FOOLS—like our masters—defame them as CRANKS.
Asher Geo. Beecher., in The Single Tax Review, May-June 1909
"Cranks" might be a reference to Louis Post's repetition of Judge Maguire's story "Seeing the Cat" (available at wealthandwant.com).
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