The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1857-07-11


In Ill works ofpublic improvements labor
has far deeper interests than property.
though property holders, or tax nayers, talk
- il they were the only parties who had the
right to decide If they should be made OF
not. The largest portion of the community
have nearly all their capital in their heads
and hands /; u small portion, who have not
much Of the former kind-have. a good deal
IN houses and lots. These latter kind OF
capitalists think they hold tho only substan-
tial interests in the community, and that they
ought to govern ituor az least decide all
questions Of taxation; as If property had in
herent values, and Was not wholly dependent
upon the labor, the skill, and enterprise
around it to give it any worth-or in fact 10
make it property at all. 1t is the capital in
and buildings (; and yet in all financial ar
rangemenss, the inanim capital, in earth.
bricks and mortar, donin over its more
important, invisible rival. undeveiopcd in
Che brains and hands of labor. A railroad
that would give to intelligence and industry
100000 annually is to be sacrificed because
1t will tax fixed property 5000 per annum.
One who has gained $4,000 CT $4,000, by
the increased value which labor has given to
Q hundred vacant lots-tbe value of whichis
still solely sustained by tho labor around
them-is vociferous at the corners Of the
streets in complaints Of the ruin OF the city,
because his lots-a property created without
any labor Of his OWNS to be taxed an extra
$40 or $50 to build an Improvement that
would give an increased income to every Ia
boring man around him, Of $50 or 500 per
year. 1t is iniquitous, in his view, to tax
property solely for the benefit of labor. though
that labor has given, and still gives property
all it, real valuc. >s.t-..5i.i {
Property has talked 80 loud and long about
bearing the burthens Of the community. that,
the false impression has become current; and
labor;ng men themselves have become de-
ssived by It. A man who has little proper
~ valued at five hundred or one thousand
dollars, and who by his labor earns an equal
sum every year, rebels against tax Of five
dollars on his property to make public i'm
provement that would increase the price Of
his labor ore hundred dollars. He will per-
nit tho value of his labor to be deprecated
20 per cent to save tax Of half of one per
cent on his property. Forgetting that his
chief capital is in his skill and ability TO la
Dor, and not in his iittle house, he joins the
man who is living upon tho increased value
that labor gives to property, is denouncing
taxes levied for the benefit of labor. We
have got Council elected by labcring men
representing the laboring interests OF the
eommunity-a majority of whom are men
whose chief reliance Is on their own labor or
skill, but who are so under the influences of
the motion that fixed property is the principal
interest ofthe city, that they arc afraid to levy
Ajax of u per cent for schools and public i'm
prevsments to promote the vital interests Of
their own class. 1t is quite time that labor
Yights-learn their own interest, and resolve
70 maintain them. Laborng men create
more every year than all the fixed property
In the community. They give all value to
existing property, and it Is but right that
property should contribute to promote the
benefit of labor. The question in building
srsilrosd should not be solely what are tht
returns it will make to the capital invested il
it, but what returns it will make to the labor
Of the community for whose benefit it wa.
built. II . road can be had az cost to pepper.
~ Of 100000 which will give labor an annu
oil increase of 500, Oo0-or even $50 ,o0o-i
should be considered good investment, al
though every cent Of tho original capital >
sunk. 1t wise expenditure not only 70
labor, but the indirec: returns through labo
upon the fixed capital, will richly remuncras
the latter for the sacrifice, if We extend on
calculations beyond immediate results.