The Single-Tax Candidate Takes the Stage
J. Ercanbrack Jones details his vision for municipal reform, advocating for the taxation of land values over labor and improvements in his bid for Seattle mayor.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
To the People's Tax League: I accept the nomination as candidate for mayor on the ticket named by the single-taxers of the city of Seattle. Like the immortal Washington, I support neither men nor parties—but principles. These principles are pure democracy, and are scientifically combined in the Omaha platform, covering the three great questions of land, transportation, and finance. The greatest and most important of these three is the land. The underlying cause of all our earthly woes is the monopolization of natural opportunities. That is, land values irrespective of improvements—the values created by the community, and which the community have the paramount right to. The People's party of King county in convention assembled last year echoed this land plank by resolving that we demand the passage of a law exempting from taxation all improvements on lands. Democracy, if it means anything, means freedom—personal freedom, freedom in place, freedom in motion, and freedom in trade. This is my democracy: free transportation, free money, and free land. I ask my friends to go over my public career during the past two years, and upon the records preserved in the city hall turn the calcium light of the closest scrutiny. It has been my effort to simply aid that great movement which will at some future day change the condition of the laborer. Where now he seeks employment at that minimum of wages on which he can barely subsist, then will the employment seek him at a remuneration equivalent to the amount of his production.
“Wealth belongs to him who creates it. Every dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery.”
Jones' 1894 platform—arguing that land value taxes could replace taxes on labor—prefigures the ongoing Seattle debates about land use, speculation, and the city's tax structure. His campaign focus on the 'monopolization of natural opportunities' echoes contemporary concerns about housing affordability and corporate land ownership in the region.
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