From the PREFACE.
Becoming convinced that the single-tax was a fallacy, I sent a challenge to the president of the Massachusetts Single Tax League, Inc., to meet him or any of his fraternity in joint debate on the single-tax theory.
Although the president of that society, who is a college professor, had been giving addresses in at least a dozen different places in Massachusetts he never answered the challenge, but I did receive a letter from the secretary of the Single Tax League inquiring as to my beliefs and whether I stood for the status quo.
It is not my idea of a joint debate to tell my opponent the line of attack or defense in advance, but I wrote and told him that, while I was an independent thinker, I stood for the status quo in preference to the single tax.
I received from the secretary the following letter:
Massachusetts Single Tax League, Inc.,
Boston, Mass, April 30, 1917.
Mr. J. F. Wilber
Dear Sir - Thanks for your letter. I think we had better not attempt a debate. I am delighted to thrash out the pros and cons of the single tax with anyone who condemn the present condition of affairs and has what he thinks a better scheme to propose, whether he may call himself Socialist, Anarchist, or by any other name. But if you stand for the status quo, with all its results in Rockefellers and Astors, and East Side slums, then I assure you no member of this league could find any common ground with you on which to start a debate. All the same I shall be glad to see you if you can call some day. Yours truly, Alex. MacKendrick.
Debate, according to Worcester, is "a contention of argument; a disputation; a controversy; an altercation; a quarrel; a contest."
How can there be any "contest, or strife, or quarrel" between those who think alike?
The single-taxer believes in the public ownership of the land, and the Socialist believes in the public ownership of the land (and nearly everything else)...