Single Tax vs. the Saloon: A Seattle Debate on Land, Liquor, and Power

A large-sized audience, including many of the followers of Henry George and a goodly number of Prohibitionists, gathered at Freed's hall, corner of Ninth and Pine streets, last Saturday evening to hear the debate on 'Single Tax vs. Prohibition,' between Rev. Clark Davis, on the Prohibition side, and Mr. D. Benson, in the interest of the single taxers. They were in one sense not arrayed against each other, for the reason that both are single tax advocates, and for the further reason that Mr. Benson, instead of opposing prohibition, endeavored to show in the course of his remarks that the two parties, if they came together—that is, if the Prohibitionists would assist the Single Tax party in the fight to have the tax on whisky done away with—could bring about the wiping out of the great whisky trust, and the Prohibition party would then be in a better position to conduct its present hopeless fight.

Mr. Benson, who spoke first, pointed out the long and unavailing battle with the saloon upon the old lines of temperance work. The liquor question, he said, is little nearer solution at the present time than it was a quarter of a century ago, while the political power of the saloon has grown in proportion to the tax levied upon it. It is stronger now, he said, than ever before. The saloon system supports and is in turn supported by every other monopoly interest in the country. This should teach the reformers to unite their forces and attack all abuses at once. Our government gets its revenues by selling licenses to do evil. Among the worst of these is the saloon license system, but chief and back of all is the power given to corporations and individuals to monopolize the earth itself.

Speculation, the speaker claimed, while legal, is immoral and unjust. Our land system periodically paralyzes all industry, and is even a vast legal obstruction between man and the earth from which he must procure all wealth. Ground rent is clearly a creature of the community, and grows as the community grows. It is governed by a natural law, and is sufficient in amount for all public uses. The government has given this over to individuals and corporations, and then in turn levies a tax upon vice and crime for its support.

Even total sobriety, the speaker contended, or even total national prohibition, would not tend to raise wages. On the contrary, there would be more sober and industrious men bidding against each other for positions, and wages would go lower. 'We cannot,' said the speaker, 'license saloons and have sober men. Neither can we permit private ownership to exclude our people from the lands of their country and have men to be free. Men must have land upon which to live.'

Mr. Davis, in answering Mr. Benson, said that the battle against strong drink had neither been long nor unavailing. The real temperance reform which crystallized into so many societies, with many thousands of members, was a little over twenty-five years old. There are more total abstainers in America than ever. The political power of the saloon in nation, state and municipality is broken, the business has been shown to be disreputable, and the highest courts of the land have sustained temperance legislation.

'I do not defend nor attempt to excuse the licensing of the saloon,' said the speaker, 'but the idea that it is our duty to attack all organized evil at once is unreasonable. Step by step is the way to make a journey. First we secured national independence. The next great step forward was the abolition of slavery. Today the fight is between the American saloon and the American home. The liquor traffic injures all, without any exception. I am not averse to the single tax idea. That it has some very commendable features I admit; but that it is a panacea for all the ills of humanity, as many of its advocates seem to think, I deny.

'The money question of itself is an issue; so is the tariff; so is emigration; so is the saloon; so is suffrage. You cannot blanket them all over with the single tax, prohibition or any other one idea. The saloon does lower wages. It robs the men of hard-earned money to the extent of over $500,000,000 a year, and sends them into the labor market penniless, and, worst of all, debauched, to underbid the sober man. Whisky has swallowed up the wealth of the laborers; it has prevented intelligent and reasonable united action for redress and resistance to the greed of corporations and speculators; it has corrupted the voter; it has been and is the mildew of death upon our civilization and their efforts at advancement and progress.'