The Ralston–Nolan Bill (1919–1924)
The single-tax movement's federal high-water mark: H.R. 12397, a bill for a 1% federal tax on the privilege of holding land valued over $10,000 (irrespective of improvements), drafted by Jackson H. Ralston and sponsored in the House by Rep. John I. Nolan — and, per Gaffney, the campaign that Ely's i
Overview
The Ralston–Nolan Bill was the closest the American single-tax movement came to federal legislation: a 1% federal tax on the privilege of holding land (urban, agricultural, coal, oil, mineral, timber, water-power, etc.) valued, irrespective of improvements, above $10,000 — introduced in the House as H.R. 12397 during the 66th Congress.[1][2] Contemporary Congressional Record entries refer to it as the "Nolan bill, H. R. 12397" and record its referral to the Committee on Ways and Means.[2] The bill took its double name from Jackson H. Ralston, the single-tax attorney who drafted and championed it, and its House sponsor Rep. John I. Nolan (R–California, 5th district, San Francisco); it was promoted by the Chicago-based Committee of Manufacturers and Merchants on Federal Taxation.[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.)
Gaffney reports the bill was reintroduced as H.R. 5733 in 1924;[1] this reintroduction number was not independently confirmable on a direct Congressional-Record read (the searchable 1924 record surfaces the unrelated Revenue Act of 1924, H.R. 6715), so it is carried here on Gaffney's authority rather than as verified. [BLOCKED: H.R. 5733 (1924) reintroduction unverified on direct congressional-record read; Nolan himself died Nov. 1922.]
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 significance, the Ely-institute opposition campaign, and the H.R. 5733 (1924) reintroduction claim (A-claims with book locators; interpretation attributed; the 1924 reintroduction number is unverified on direct record — see body). Book page
- Primary sources (direct read). Bill terms and promoter: Sane Taxation: The Ralston-Nolan Bill (H.R. 12397), Committee of Manufacturers and Merchants on Federal Taxation (Chicago, 1920), front cover — verbatim: a "FEDERAL TAX OF ONE PER CENT ON THE PRIVILEGE OF HOLDING LAND … VALUED (IRRESPECTIVE OF IMPROVEMENTS) OVER $10,000." Public-domain, Google-digitized: HathiTrust
wu.89100388719. Committee history: Congressional Record, 66th Cong., 2d sess. (1920) — petitions "protesting against the passage of the Nolan bill, H. R. 12397; to the Committee on Ways and Means" (GPO-CRECB-1920-pt7-v59-18-1; pt8-v59-2, May 26 1920, via govinfo/congress.gov). Sponsor identities: U.S. House "History, Art & Archives" (John Ignatius Nolan, R-CA, d. Nov. 18 1922); James Echols, "Jackson Ralston and the Last Single Tax Campaign," California History 58:3 (1979) — for Ralston as the bill's drafter. Scholarly: S. H. Patterson, "The Ralston-Nolan Bill," Annals of the American Academy 95 (1921): 188–193 (not read in full; paywalled).