led to a “fair hope” for the future.The Single Tax Corporation founders believed justification for the single tax theory was based on natural law and rooted in adverse economic consequences that result from private profit of economic rent. They believed rent belonged to the community because it is a product of community demand for land. The supply of land was fixed by nature so there was no basis for any private claim to its income. On the other hand, taxation of individual capital or labor would be robbery. The single tax theory advocates believed land speculation was evil and served no useful purpose other than causing land monopoly of prime real estate. They argued that wages and interest would be higher in any community using the single tax and the economy would be less vulnerable to cycles of booms and depressions. Three men stand out as being most influential in the development of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation: Ernest B. Gaston, James Bellangee, and Joseph Fels. Bellangee and Gaston organized the Fairhope Plan and submitted it to their fellow single taxers at the first meeting on January 4, 1894, in Gaston’s office in Des Moines, Iowa. At the second meeting a constitution was adopted and officers were elected. Although Fairhope was set up as a Single Tax Colony, it was different in some ways from Henry George’s ideas. The Fairhope Industrial Association set up a colony where the corporation itself instead of individuals owned land. Henry George proposed a single land tax, but he did not specifically advocate community ownership of land. He stated that one single tax on the land itself would result in optimal use of the land because landowners could not afford to let heavily taxed land lay unused. After the adoption of the constitution, a corporation charter was obtained and each member was required to pay a $200 membership fee to provide the funds purchase land and pay expenses. The corporation chose ...
