John Farrell, The Philosophy of the Single Tax, Part III: The New Doctrine

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW: 1883-1930)  Sat 2 Nov 1889  Page 5 

The Philosophy of the Single Tax
By J. FARRELL

No. III. THE NEW DOCTRINE.

It should be evident that the first essential to any philosophical inquiry into social conditions and the causes inducing them is an accurate definition of the meanings of all the terms to be employed in the course of it. The want of strict and arbitrary definitions of certain words whose use enters largely into any consideration of politico-economic questions has been prolific of confusion in the past, and has led astray many of the keenest minds that have engaged in such investigations. The names of certain elements or conditions of the problem to be dealt with have conveyed different meanings to different ears — sometimes different meanings to the same ears. It has happened over and over again that writers held in very high repute as authorities in this field of research have at the beginning of a chapter attached a signification to some such term as "wealth," "capital," or "wages" which is not maintained to the end. Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that political economy has been rather barren of reliable guidance. Nor is it surprising that its study has only been pursued in a half-hearted sort of way, and by comparatively few students, when the accepted teachers had so little to offer in the way of firm demonstration or of future promise of results beneficial to mankind. Henry George recognized that the work which lay immediately before him was to remove the indistinctness of terminology and vague application of words which had impeded the progress or vitiated the conclusions of those who preceded him, and his first care was to analyze the materials, so to speak, of which political economy is compounded. Before his time not one economist seems to have subjected all the parts of the science he strove to advance to a close examination, independent of the verdicts of others. I need not refer to instances where, in the light of the new knowledge we possess, this is made most evident. I cannot in the space of these articles deal, save in passing and where necessary for the sake of illustration, with the old economy, which in some important respects differed so widely from that taught in "Progress and Poverty," but will here proceed to state the new.

Land, in the mouths of those who advocate the single tax, means matter, as apart from the force which molds it into human usefulness. It includes not only the surface of the earth and the water, but all that is above or under that surface in the way of raw materials and natural opportunities. As has been well said "it includes the whole material universe outside of man himself." Labor means force as apart from matter. It is the power which changes and modifies matter into forms exactly fitted to minister to the needs of mankind. The meaning of the word must not be limited to physical toil, for any effort of the mind in the domain of literature, art or science which is directed towards increasing knowledge or enjoyment is truly labor, and he who in any way ministers to the satisfaction of human desires, even though he may never have soiled his hands, is truly a laborer. Wealth is the general name given to all things which are directly