William Lewis Ross (1859-1923) SINGLE TAX REFORMER

 

As a young man, Will Ross (1859-1923) worked in the iron trade with his father, John Ross (1833-1890), and both were members of trade unions. Sometime in the 1880’s John joined a “Henry George Club” after hearing George speak in Cincinnati. He was a convert to Free Trade and the Single Tax and was an early and devoted reader of The Standard, the weekly newspaper started by Henry George.

 We can assume that Will joined his father because in 1892 he is a member of the Philadelphia Single Tax club, where he spent much time in studying and learning to speak in public. Henry George’s philosophy is explained in a letter Will wrote to the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger newspaper, published 14 Feb 1917:

Land value is the only part of real estate that we propose to tax; not houses and other improvements. Personal property may be thine or it may be mine. But it is not ours. The land is neither mine nor thine; it is ours. According to justice, according to nature and nature’s laws, it is a free gift of the Creator, just as truly as the air, the sunshine and the ocean are of His bounty. We can establish our equal right to the earth by taking the rental value of land for public expenses. This would not burden agriculture, because there would be no tax on improvements. The single tax would lighten the burden on farmers who farm their farms, but would increase the burden on speculators who farm the farmers. He spent his adult life fighting for a Constitutional Amendment supporting the Single Tax. He was even jailed for 20 days in Dover, Delaware in 1896, along with 19 others, for violating town ordinances. After his release he spoke outside City Hall in Philadelphia: Let us place a square, honest tax on land valuation and let all other forms of taxation go. In the end it will be not only to the advantage of the workingman, but also to that of the man he works for. In 1919 he left his job as Superintendent of Public Baths for Philadelphia and moved with his wife, Anna, to California to take charge of the “Great Adventure Movement” as the Single Tax movement was called there. His wife was an active participant in the movement and often spoke at gatherings. He never lost faith in the “ultimate emancipation of the race” through Henry George’s remedy: The Single Tax. To him it was a religion. He was not successful in California and the movement splintered. His death in 1923 at age 64 was attributed to “acute nervous prostration” over the disappointments suffered in California. He died at his brother’s home in Camden, New Jersey. Hundreds attended his memorial in Arden, Delaware (a Single Tax community.) One of the Single Tax leaders said of William L. Ross that he was a martyr to the cause and spoke in glowing terms of Will’s faithfulness in anything he did.

[William Lewis Ross is my great-great uncle]