New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-02-24
TlyATJOY or MORTGAGES.

The measure for repeating tne TAX OH Hoit-
cages is likely to be discussed WITHIN ne"
days in our Legislature. 1t was strongly
recommended in the Governors Message.
There would DO difficulty in finding score OF
intelligent men opposed TO the repeal in this
city. IL is equally needful for the county,
yet it has always met opposition on the part
of some of the members from rural as
tricts. Even though such members may
themselves be convinced Of the desirablllly
of repeal, they fear that their constituents
NAV not be 80 well informed, aud they hesi-
tate accordingly. Your average politician
would rather do that which is unwise than
that which is unpopular. Your average voter
is supposed to hate the capitalist who lends
money ON mortgages, and to favor taxes on
conital. We think better Of the intelligence
of the voters of the interior; but it is posi-
BILE that the urgent need there is Tor rellet
from the tax on mortgages may be mSuin'
GENTLY understood
Few conditions go further toward making
good citizens in this country than the owner
ship, by residents, of land in small parcels.
All laws fayoring this result cOnduce to the
general prosperity; all that interfere with 1t
work injury. The taxation of mortgages Is OF
the latter class. A direct result of such taxa
ton is diminution of the amount OF money
put for investment i'll mortgages; an lndlrect
result, the prevention of division OF estates
and improvement of small holdings. The total
effect is the retardatiOn of development and
prosperity throughout the community. Mort
gage investments in general offer, by reason
of their great security, attractions to capital
A., h HkplV
experienced in forecosiDg or selling them.
But Government securities offer equal safety
If mortgages are taxed and Government
bonds are not, the former become in every re-
spect the less profitable investment In the
report of the Commissioners appointed to re-
wise our State tax laws in 1870, it IS shown
that the effect of the present tax, when paid,
reduces the interest on mortgages in this city
to Al per cent; in Brooklyn to but
little over three per cent; iii Albany
to less than p, and in Rochester to small
fraction of one per cent Of course the con-
sequence is that very little money Is so lent
that is, lent so that it can be taxed. The
loans on bond and mortgage are no longer
procured largely from estates In trust and
capitalists savings banks and life insurance
companies are their principal sources, these
not being taxed and the rest come from
lenders who have found means of evading tue
law. A bill now before the Legislature, to
permit insurance companies to invest In mort
cages in other States, threatens to diminish
even this most inadequate supply.
1t is easy to see how this state of affairs in
terferes with borrowing money to improve
property; and if ever any of the farmers sup
Of tl,a 70
should seek to obtain new mortgage on
farm, q little experience of the scarcity OF
lenders and of loans might make him a sadder
if not wiser man. But the chief interference
with the development of property is where
the prospect of tax prevents its sale IN
small, mOrtgaged parcels. In the country
it prevents sales to small farmers who
would willingly buy with little cash and
"work Off q mortgage. But in cities, it
stands as an absolute barrier in the way of
cutting property into building lots, and erect
ing houses thereon for sale-as such property
is mostly sOld-to men who can only pay part
of the value at first, and expect to leave the
remainder on mortgage for few years. The
evil is aggravated in New-York and Brooklyn
by the proximity of the counties in New
Jersey where there is no such tax, that State
having repealed it to facilitate improvement
in Hudson, Union, and Essex Counties, and
in other localities easily accessible from
this city. So the New-Jersey proprietor carves
up his property and builds and sells, and
buys and carves and builds and sells again,
and towns grow up in a twelyemonth and
villages spring up in a night, and there is
prosperity on every side; while the landowner
ON the east of the Hudson waits for the low
Use of unimproved property, and sits by his
vacant lots with his hands manacled by an
injurious law.
Every man who cares in the least about bis health