Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-05

For instance, the use OF Mr.. Stewart 8
movable property on his Broadway lot
not only gives great value to that, but also
gives q value of hundreds OF thousands of
dollars to bis residence up town, by re son
of the fact it is sufficiently near and conven.
lent for it to be in demand for him to live
there and transact his business daily at his
store--all of which, however, is attributable
to the employment of moVesble property
on bis Broadway /; ere. The Thrift or
profit which imm5veable property offers to
Inovea BILE property helps to regulate its
value. For instance, man owns two
pieces Of property alike, say In different
towns, rented out to merchants of equal
cspital-one of them is ems bled to make 7
per cent per annum on his capital
only, for the reason he has to paw
3 per cent tax on his capital, snd
the other makes 10 rer cent net ana pays
no tax; the property paying the 10 per cent
will be The most valuable, for 1t will pay the
largest rent, because there will be more
applicants for it than the Z per cent; and
the law of supply and demand gov
erniDg, 1t must rent for more.
1t is, however, impossible, as a genera
thing, for these two merchants to remain
of equal capital. The 10 per cent. man will
soon have more capital from his extra
thrift, and the7 per cent. man seeing his
prosperity, is apt TO pull up stakes and quit
his town and move to the 10 per cent.
town, and other merchants will perhaps do
the same thing, until by competition in
creasiDg In the one town by otrer mer-
chants coming in, and decreasing In the
other by their going out, may make profits
the same. This, however, is not apt to
make profits the same in q country like
ours, Tor there is generally new trade to be
looked up to keep pace with the new
corners. so the result would be, new com-
ers would continue to 60 to the 10 per cent.
town from the per cent town and other
places till the one becomes large snd pros
porous city, and the other a dilapidated,
laDguishipg town. 1t will be easy then to
say which store.h 0use is the most valuable.
l hold that of oil men, the real estate OF
fixed property man is fhost interested in
the rule or motto l have adopted. To
illustrate nearer home, 1 win say that there
Is an acre of ground in Memphis, Tenn,
say in front Of the Pesbody Hotel, Overton
Block, that is worth at the rate of $500, 900
per acre, whilst the writer has an acre of
ground six miles below the city, quite as
good naturally and even better than the Over
ton Block acre, because it will produce NOR
corn, cotton, pumpkins, peas, potatoes
cabbage, ETC., ETC., than the Overton acre,
will or ever would, and my acre is not
worth one hundred collars per acre. Now,
why is it that the Overton acre is worth
100000 per acre and mine not worth
500? The reason is that there is employed
on the Overton acre proftably, two, three,
four or Ave hundred Thousand dollars of
movable property, whilst upon mine there
is employed the sixteenth part Of & negro,
ssiiie sixt .enth part 81 4 mule ,plow, hoe, etc.
VOW, If you will manage in any way, either
by taxation or otherwise, TO drive from this
Overton acre the two, three, four or five
hundred thousand dollars, and render the
Overton acre 30 this capital or any part of it
cannot be employed on II with a profit, it
viii not be worth more than my acre, In fact
not as much, for there is nothing SO value
less as ground covered with houses when
there is no demand for said houses. And,
further, if you do anything to make the
two, three, four or Eve hundred thousand
dcllsrs pay less profit, you will damage the
ground or lessen its value more rapidly than
you will decrease the profits-not in the
same ratio, but more rapidly. 5uppose for
instance the profit has been 10 per cent.
nett on the capital employed and the prop
erty is paying rental on 100000. If you
reduce the profits permanently in any way
to 5 per cent. nett, the property wouldn't
pay rental on $50, 000-in fact it wouldn't
hardly pay any rent at all, for 3
per cent. would be too small to
induce a business at all in this country.
Movable property always seeks and To-
Gates ON imnovable property where it
thrives and multiplies most "a pidly. 4 spot
of ground, city, country, state; or even
a nation, that offers the greatest Thrift will
be sought and located upon by the greatest
quantity of it, and the greater the quantity
the more value and thrift will the land
have. (This statement is on the presump-
ton that such country is not at Wsr aud
there are laws for its prot;ction.) Any tax
levied upon it lessons its thrift, and conse-
quenlly is in violation of the correct princi-
pie; though it may no. De enough 70 per-
ceptbly fleet it, yet it will have some Ell
feet, Though 1t may not drive any away,
yett wi ], to some extent, keep other NOV
able property from coming, 1t is said that
it wss the last feather hat broke the cameI's
back, whilst the first had as much to do with
it as the last. An oppressive tax, such as
exists IN some parts Of our State, drives off
q good deal of movable properly, and abso-
lutely forbids any more mig to such
parts, unless it comes relying upon dodging
or evading the law, which large capt.
tai never does. Men of small amounts
Of money, goods, &c, ETC., such as one can
hide, may come; but men Of large amounts
of money to 60 into open banking, or mer-
chandisiDg, on a scale that cannbt be hidden
or evade the law, will not come;
OF course all mankind, where they have
lived for time, form local and social ties,
and will submit to some oppression, though |
thier property be all movable, before they get |
their coDsent to move away; but with the |
millions o. dollars of movable property we |
desire to attract to us no such ties exists, |
and, if we do not offer quite as much thrift |
as other localities, and even none when tie |
property may be already located, we need |
not ex 1ect to attract it to us; but it is just |
as certain as that the law of gravity will |
cause the apple to fall toward the earth |
v hen it leaves the tree, instead of toward |
the sky, or as thai water will run down an |
inc inc, if we in Tennessee do offer greater |
than other localities we will at |
tract it toward US, and the rapidly and |
quantity with which it will come can and |
will be measured by the amount of thrift |
we offer. 1t is about as important to induce |
q man with a given amount of capital to |
come to Us as to retain one we already have |
in our midst with the same amount. We |
cannot expect to develop our State or build |
up large cities rapidly from our present |
population and their natural increase, bat |
we must invite others with their capital to |
come and settle among US. -sr
As l have said, any tax levied upon |
properly lessons its thrift and tends |
to drive and keep it away, consequently is
incorrect in pine pie, whilst a heavy |
and oppressive tax is absolutely prohibitive |
and suicidal. Embraced in the rule have |
presented in the beginning, reVer to tax
anything that would be of value to your
State that could and would run ava or
that could and would come to you are two |
Or three kinds of movable property which
regard as most important and which l |
will mention, to-wit: Money, merchandise |
and capital to be used in manufacturing. |
These pertain to cities mostly. There are |
mary other kiuds of property which per-
hsps would come under the rule, but for |
The present, will speak of these three |
because through them great wealth generally
enters the State.
And here desire to call your attention