Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-12-27
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
TAXING LAND VALUES.
Henry George, in N. Y. Standard
CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE.
Tho sabstitution Of taxatiOn upon b

various taxes now imposed would be IN
enormous governmental and social
economy. We should save the salaries
aud perquisites and official expenses OF
the horde OF tunctionaries, national,
State and municipal, who are now en-
gagged in assessing and collecting all
these other taxes, or in doing things d.
eectly or indirectly necessitated by the
cumbrous system. We should get rid OF
them NIL. from those fee-paid local Of
Acials who in single term expect q
fortune, and those federal collectors
whose places are deemed OF moro i'm
portance than the governorship Of sover-
Oign States, down to the officials
who are busted in seeing whether cigar
boxes are stamped and peddlers are pro-
Vided with licenses, or in searching the
trunks and persons Of passengers as
they land. We should save the cost Of
crying and imprisoning offenders; we
should save, too. the cost OF all the de-
vices-some Of them very expensive
chat are resorted to for evadlng the
revenue laws, for 1t Is obvious that all
these expenses must ultimately be
borne by consumers.
The tax upon land values is OF all
taxes that which combines the maxi
mum Of certainty with the maximum OF
expense. Land lies out Of doors;" 1t can
not be hid or disguised, and its value is
easily ascertained. Any competent real
estate dealer can tell to n nicely the
value per front foot OF any lot on Broad
way. But to ascertain the value OF the
building on it, 1t will he necessary to
get an expert to make an examination;
while, IL that building be filled with
goods, 1t is impossible for any outsider
TO get ut their value. A tax upon the
value OF land can be collected to the
last cent by tax collector sitting in his
Vffice. Deducting the very small per-
centage, which would be all that would
be required to pay the expenses OF the
periodical assessment and the receipt OF
taxes, the people in their collective ca
pacity would thus get the benefit OF all
that was paid in as taxes by the people
as individuals.
But the saving that would result is by
no means to be estimated by the reduc-
ton in the cost and direct Incidents OF
collecting revenues 1t is the great
vice OF taxes that distribute themselves
in added prices that, beyond the official
tax gatherers, they create long line OF
virtual tax gatherers, and that each
man in the line not only takes the tax,
l. 10 t1a nd IN
cases is enable to take great deal more.
How strongly the whisky ring" OPP
posed the reduction of the whisky tax
and the match manufacturers the aboli-
fion OF the tax on matches Is we'll
known. And so with all indirect taxes.
The difficulty is not usually in imposing
chem, but in abolishing them. Leta bill
be introduced in Congress to abolish the
tax on any Of the long list OF things
taxed, and strightway there will appear
dn the lobby some one to protest and log
toll against it, q sure proof that some
body besides the Government is making
money from the tax-that is to say, that
the tax is taking from the people at
barge good deal more than the Govern
mentls,getting from it. That this sys-
tenn, which engages great private inter-
ests in keeping up rather than in put
cling down taxation, fosters govern
mental extravaganza and corruption is
clear.
Now, by abolishing all other taxes in
favor Of the tax upon land values we
should not only save very largely in the
ways thus pointed out, but by the great
pr simplicity that would be given to
Rovcrnment, we should save the politi-
cal Generalization which the present
system entails. 1t is ''the money in
politics" that makes our politics so cor
rupt that puts honesty and patriotism
mt q disadvantage, and gives US traders
and jobbers where we ought to have
statesmen. That there is so much
money in politics arises principally from
tho great number Of officers which our
present system of taxation necessitates,
and from the great number Of pecuniary
Interests which 1t concerns in the run.
.ing Of government. And beyond all this
IL the effect upon morals Nearly all
che taxes which we propose to abolish
become, in one way or another, taxes
upon conscience, and by setting . pre-
mlum on bribery, forgery and fraud,
foster political corruption and social de-
moralization.
Now. In view Of the great economies
which In all these various ways would
result from the substitution Of tax on
Hand values for all other taxes, is 1t not
clear that the change would be Of the
lGteate6t benefit and would conduce
largely to the general prosperity. Be-
side such civil service reform" - this,
che little picayune measure, good
enough It may DO in itself, on which
men like George William Curtis have
been spending 30 much time and talent
- - Q minnow to whale.