Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-12-20

| lOWer Iueul. III I'LL OUT Cibiob oh0
through all the country, there is much
land which Is not used. or not put to its
best use, because IL Is held ut high
prices by men who do not want to or
who can not use 1t themselves, but who
arc holding it in expectation of profiting
by tho increased value which the growth
OF population will give to 1t in
future. Now, the effect Of tho
taxation OF land values would
be to compel these mon to seek
tenants or purchasers. Land upon which
there is no taxation even q poor man
can easily hold for higher prices, for
land eats nothing. But put heavy taxa
ton upon it, and even rich man will
be driven to seek purchasers or tenants,
and to get them be will have to put
down the price he Asks, instead Of put
ing it up; for 1t is by asking less, not
by asking more, that those who have any
thing they are forced to dispose Of must
seek customers. Rather than continue
to pay heavy taxes upon land yielding
him nothing, and from the future in.
crease in value, Of which he could have
no expectation or profit, since increase
in value would mean increased taxes, he
would be glad to give it away or to let
1t revert to the State. Thus the dogs in
the manger, who all over the country
are Withholding land that they can not
use themselves from those who would
be glad to use it, would be forced to let
go their grasp. To tax land values up
to anywhere near their full amount
would be to utterly destroy speculative
values, and to diminish all rents into
which this speculative element enters.
And, how groundless is it to think that
landlords who have tenants could shift
tax on land values upon their tenants.
can be readily seen from the effect upon
landlords who have no tenants. 1t Is
when tenants seek for land, not when
landlords seek for tenants, that rent goes
up.
To put the matter in form in which
it can be easily understood let US take
two cases. The one, country where
the available land is all in use and the
competition OF tenants has carried rents
to point at which the tenant pays the
landlord all he can possibly earn save
just enough to barely live. The other.
country where all the available land
is not in use and the rent that the land
lord can get from the tenant is limited
by the terms on which the tenant can
get access to unused land. How, in
either case, II a tax were imposed upon
land values Tor remit could the landlord
compel the tenant to pay it?
1t may be we'll to call attention to the
fact that tax on land values is not
tax on land. They are very different
things. and the difference should DO
noted because confusion OF thought as
to them may lead to the assumption that
o tax on land values would fall on the
user. A tax upon land-that is to say,
tax on all land Of so much per acre or
so much per foot-would fall on the
user, barring such effect as 1t might
have on speculation. For such tax,
falling equally on all land-on the poor
est and least advantageously situated as
fully as on the richest and best situated
land, would become condition imposed
on the use Of any land, from which there
could be no escape, and thus the owners
Of rentable land could add it to their
rents. Its operation would be analogous
to that Of tax on o producible commod"
ity, and it would in effect reduce the
supply Of lapd that could be used,
since no land could then be used
that would not yield sufficient to
pay the tax. But q tax on economic
rent or land values would not fall on all
land; 1t would fall only on valuable
land, and on that in proportion to itS
value. 1t would thus not have to be
paid upon the poorest land in use
(which always determines rent), and 30
would not become condition Of use, or
restrict the amount of land that could
be protitably used, and 30 the land own
ers on whom it fell could not shift 1t ON
the users Of land. This distinction, 40
to nature and effects, between q tax on
land and tax on land values, it Is nec.
essay to bear in mind.
1t is also necessary to bear in mind
that the value OF land is something to.
tally distinct from the value Of improve
ments. 1t is value which arises not
from the exertion Of any particular in
dividual, but from the growth and pro-
gress Of the community. A tax on land
values, therefore, never lessons the re-
ward of exertion or accumulation. II
simply takes for the whole community
that value which the whole community
creates.
While It is not true that . tax on land
values or rent falls on the user. and thus
distributes itself through increased
prices, it is true that the greater num-
Der of taxes by which our public reve-
nues are raised do. Thus, speaking
generally, taxes upon capital fall, not
upon the owners Of capital, but upon the
users Of capital, and are by them trans