Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-26
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
TAXING LAND VALUES.
Henry George, in N. Y. Standard. i
[coNr1NuED FROM LAST ISSUE


enormous governmental and social
economy We should save the salaries
and perquisites and official expenses OF
the horde of functionaries, national,
State and municipal, who are now en-
gagged in assessing and collecting all
these other taxes, or in doing things di.
rectly or indirectly necessitated by the
cumbrous system. We should get rid OF
them all, from those tce-paid local of.
ficials who in q single term expect a
fortune, and those federal collectors
whose places are deemed of more i'm.
portance than the governorship of sover.
eign States, down to the officials
who arc busted in seeing whether cigar
boxes urc stamped and pcddlers are pro-
Vided with licenses or in searching the
trunks and persons of passengers as
they land. We should save the cost OF
trying and imprisoning offenders; we
should save, too. the cost of all tho de-
vices--some of them very expensive
that are resorted to for evadlng the
revenue laws, for it is obvious that all
these expenses must ultimately be
borne by consumers.
|
taxes that which combines the maxi
mum Of certainty with the maximum OF
| expense. Land lies out of doors;'' it can
not be hid or disguised, and it's value is
easily asccrtained Any competent real
estate dealer can tell to nicely the
value per front foot Of any lot on Broad
way. But, to ascertain the value of the
| building on it, it will be necessary to
get an expert TO make an examination;
| while. if that building be filled with
goods, it is impossible for any outsider
to get at their value. A tax upon the
value of land can be collected to tho
last cent by a tax collector sitting in his
office Deducting the very small per-
centagc, which would be all that would
be required to pay the expenses of tho
periodical assessment and the receipt of
taxes, the people in their collective ca
pacity would thus get the benefit of all
that was paid i'll as taxes by the people
as individuals.
But the saving that would result is by
no means to be estimated by the reduce
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 gathercrs, they create a long line OF
virtual tax ga1herers. and that each
man in the line not only takes the tax,
but his profit on the tax, and in many
cases is enable to take greatdeal more.
How strongly the whisky ring" OPP
posed the reduction of the whisky tax
and the match manufacturers the aboli-
ton Of the tax on matches is we'll
known. And SO with all indirect taxes.
The difficulty is not usually in imposing
them, but in abolishing them. Leta bill
be introduced in Congress to abolishlShe
tax on any OF the long list of thi1lgs
taxed, and strightway there will apr Jar
in the lobby some one to protestant log-
roll against it. sure proof thar'a3Sne-
body besides the Government is mailing
money from the tax-that is to say, that
the tax is taking from the people at
large good deal more than the Govern
ment is getting from it. That this sys-
TEN, which engages great private inter-
ests in keeping up rather than i'll put
ting 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 tho great
or simplicity that would be given to
government, we should save the politi-
cal decentralization which the present
system entails. 1t is 1.-THE money in
| politics. that makes our politics so cor
rupt, that puts honesty and patriotism
at a 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 necessi ties,
and from the great number of pecuniary
interests which il concerns in the run
ing of government. And beyond all this
is the effect upon morals. Nearly all
the taxes which we propose to abolish
become, in one way or another, taxes
upon conscience, and by setting a pre-
MUM on bribery, forgery and fraud,
foster political corruption and social de-
moralization.
Now, in view of the great economics
"A1Sli III az u11Coo FdIlOuS ways WOuItt
result from the substitution of tax on
land values for all other taxes, is it not
clear that the change would be of the
greatest benefit, and would conduce
largely to tho general prosperity. Be
side such civil service reform" as this,
the little picayune measure, good
though it may be in itself, on which
men like George William Curtis have
been spending so much time and talent,
is as a minnow to whale.
The present system, which taxes build
ings and improvements. capital in all
its forms, and in most of our States in
all its shadows. is a system OF direct
Encouragement to production, system
which fines the man who creates wealth
just in proportion as he creates wealth.
Instead of acting on the principle that
the man who makes two blades of grass
grow where one grew before is n public
bcnesactor, our system Of taxation treats
him as public enemy If man clothe
Il barren waste with grain and fruit
trees, if he drain swamp or open a
mine. if he put up q house where none