Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1889-01-18

classes, IS Is. shown IL many states. The
poorer DISTRICTS, the agricultural dis
tricts, pay propertlonateiy the most
taxes. In the CITY large amt unts OF per
sonal property entirety escape the as.
SCISSOR. There arc some NTH, indeed,
who CT ms forward and tell the assessor
what they have, but they are very few
anu very poor. There are 30 many ways
of evasion. They have a conyen,ent way
of moving out of town INTO some suburb,
where they heve an accommodating as
SCISSOR. B%rookhne, a little place out OF
Boston, Is such q place where they have
an accommodating assessor. This theory
of taxing personal property is @ most
ridiculous farce all over the United
States. These rich men pay just what
they want to and no more. This system
puts the weight Of taxation on the PEG.
pie least able to bear it, and the people
in the outskirts. See how our tariff
taxes the settlers ont on the frontiers.
And right here is one great cause of this
unequal distribution OF wealth, which is
bringing up the millionaire on one side
and the tramp on the other These are
taxes on the conscience. They promote
fraud. These frauds are going on IN the
custom houseand O custom house Cfff-
GERS oath is o by word. And there is the
corruption in other waye, such
as the lobbying to get such laws
passed. But the land is oil
IN plain sight. There it is lying out OF
doors and the assessor can't miss it, lis
value may be easily ascertained. The
tax on land values can be collected more
fairly with. less fraud than any other tax.
In all these regards 1t 10 much wiser
that VS. abolish texes on production, and
put one tax on lard values. The result
of taxing any commodity is to decrease
the production. But land is o fixed
quantity, a tax will not diminish it.
Ownership of land produces nothing, 1t
is the use of land that reduces wealth.
By removing taxes that hamper pfodac-
ton you stimulate production. The fact
shat ns a man improves his property he
must pay for the privilege IS the reason
why there are people all oyer this coun
try without work. You will find the
notion all over the country that there is
not work enough to do. We have ouly
to come down to first principles 20 sea
how preposterous this is. just 30 long
as there are wants there will be demand,
and in the same proportion. In New
York the great mass OF people are
crowded so closely together that healthy
uuo OEh ~ hLO 1ulpOhSAOics INOH why
should this be SO. One-half OF the area
OF New York 10 day is not built on. There
is an enormous demand for houses. Why
are they not erected? It is the case of
the dog in the Manager that crowds
the people OF New York go close
ly. There is no natural reason
why there should not be work
for all except that speculation is shut
ting up the natural opportunities for
work. Instead of finIng men, therefore,
Tor going into productive enterprises,
put the tag on land values and see how
quickly the dog in the mango would
let 90 his hold. How those unused coal
veins would be opened up. All over the
country the same syRtem presails. A
man is taxed, not only according TO his
improvements, but ia made to pay o
q higher tax on his land. Now, this
change would open up all the avenue of
labor and would create in the labor
market shch a demand that all the
| wheels of industry would be set 10
motion. In ali our growing 5own. men
ere turned back from productive en-
ployment and capital is turned away in
this cut-throat competition. This simple
measure would prevent this. Now we
are sticklers for the rights Of property.
We believe that it is the basis of civiliza-
ton, and we charge the existing state of
things with interfering with that.
What o man gets that ia his alone. Yet.
II a man builds q house you take away
from him every year IN account OF that.
Now, this is not only unwise; it is
wrong. We onght to take for the use
OF the community what belongs to that
community. No one man makes the
value of the land, but the whole COM
munity. Give, then, to the community
what belongs to ~.