The founders of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation desired to establish a model community based on the land tax system theory of Henry George and the principle of Cooperative Individualism. The Fairhope Industrial Association of Des Moines, Iowa, founded Fairhope in 1894. Fairhope was selected as the location because of its beauty and climate. The Association became the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation in 1904 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1908. The founders, influenced by the reform goals of the Populist Movement of the time, believed an individual would be free to do as he chose provided the equal rights of others were not infringed upon. Their model community was to be free of private monopoly to provide equal opportunity and reward individual effort as well as cooperation in common interest goals. The founders of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation used Henry George’s theories and modified them to form the philosophy on which the Corporation is based. The term single tax refers to the George’s statement in Progress and Poverty that “the ageless and universal problem of poverty and other economic and social evils might be cured by a simple fiscal reform.” George’s cure was that government would tax away the full annual use value of land and would refrain from any other form of taxation. In George’s plan, there would be no taxes on other personal property, no income taxes, no sales tax, no excise tax. All economic rent would be taken for community purposes. The single tax doctrine is a blueprint for a free society. Henry George believed society would become more stable and wholesome under a single tax program. He believed if the plan were used internationally, fundamental causes for wars would be eliminated. The founders of Fairhope organized their colony as a landowning corporation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the single tax theory. The founders believed that everyone was entit...
