A Suggestion for Propaganda Promoting the Single Tax

Donald Bradford

[Reprinted from the Single Tax Review, November-December 1915]

Editor Single Tax Review: The writer has submitted a plan of propaganda to the Spokane Single Tax Club which it is believed will prove, when put into action, a powerful factor in the establishing of equality of opportunity, which is the ultimate of Single Tax.

During the last twelve months I have had occasion to personally interview probably one thousand men and women in this city. All the usual sects, political parties and nationalities, were represented. I found much poverty in its various stages, and with it the varieties of prejudice usually met with in the average population. But no matter how strong the political ties or religious superstitions, when I advanced the proposition that Society, which is all of us, owed to each of us the Equality of Opportunity to make a living, every person enthusiastically acquiesced, and when asked if he would join a league to be called "The Opportunity to Make a Living League," the object of which would be to secure the enactment of a constitutional amendment providing this opportunity by making possible the use of lands now unused, the response was in every instance favorable.

So I do not entertain the slightest doubt of the success of such a movement. The mass understands what is meant by "the opportunity to make a living." It is the ambition of every man to get a steady job. The mere thought of steady employment brings to him and his wife a picture of peace and plenty free from anxiety about food, clothing and shelter for the morrow. So why should not this promise of surcease from want command his hearty support? This arousing of the mass which sooner or later must be brought into the movement, is just as feasible now as it ever will be. The fundamental thought in Single Tax is now complete and is just as sure a panacea now as it can ever be. Bring it, therefore, into the field of actuality. Gather the mass to its support new. While at present it seems to be the policy to appeal to the intellectual I would reinforce this work by approaching the millions on a basis understandable by them. A weekly publication devoted exclusively to this organization, and its work, will be the most important feature.

The school district should be the unit which could be subdivided for personal house to house work, that would be irresistable. The subscription price of the paper should be high enough to meet all expenses of the organization. Perhaps one of the papers now in circulation could be utilized, but the ablest writers should be arranged for in any event.