The Ralston–Nolan Bill (1919–1924)
The single-tax movement's federal high-water mark: a bill for a 1% federal excise on land holdings over $10,000, introduced 1919 and reintroduced as H.R. 5733 in 1924 — and, per Gaffney, the campaign that Ely's industry-funded land-economics institute was mobilized to defeat.
Overview
The Ralston–Nolan Bill was the closest the American single-tax movement came to federal legislation: a 1% federal excise tax on land holdings above $10,000, introduced in 1919 (reintroduced as H.R. 5733, 1924), sponsored by the Manufacturers and Merchants Federal Tax League.[1] Its significance on this wiki is double: as the movement's post-Progressive-Era peak, and as the campaign Gaffney documents Richard T. Ely's railroad- and real-estate-funded Institute for Research in Land Economics attacking (1919–24) — the concrete episode behind the corruption thesis's claim that organized money met the land tax in the political arena.[1] (Gaffney's interpretation; the bill and the institute's opposition are the documented record.) [VERIFY: sponsors' names and the bill's committee history on direct congressional-record read.]
See Also
- Richard T. Ely — whose institute campaigned against it
- The Corruption of Economics (book)
- Narrative: The Single Tax
Sources
- Mason Gaffney & Fred Harrison, The Corruption of Economics (1994), Stratagem §1 and Gaffney essay Ch. 5 — used for the bill's terms, dates, sponsor league, and the institute's opposition campaign (A-claims with book locators; interpretation attributed). Book page