Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-12-25
whole State: But If this be wise, wcIld

| it not be still wiser to make the exemp-
ton permanent instead of for a term OF
years? And, If it be wise to eXemp;
cotton factories, would it not be wiser
still to exempt all sorts of factories, all
forms of capital, all kinds of wealth
houses and goods, horses and cattle, rail-
roads and telegraphs? Is not the State the
richest that has the most of these things?
Why, then, should the State tax them?
is not the stupid system that does tax
them too absurd for any rational de-
Tense? The people of New York want
cheaper house rents. Is it not stupid.
then. to put taxes on buildings, which
necessarily will diminish the erection
of buildings. and, unlike the tax on
land values, must inevitably be collect
ed from tenants in higher rents?
But the direct obstacles to production.
which this system imposes, are not the
worst All the Indirect taxes which
pass from hand to hand, increa9ing the
cost of commodities, are taxes against
production, which increase as they go.
This barbarous tariff of ours that raises
an artificial barrier around our coasts
is more difficult for commerce to sur
mount than would be the Andes or the
Himalayas, takes from the people much
moro than is received by the Govern
ment and, by.ss action and reaction on
prices, hampers every eXertion of indus.
try, from the building of railroad to
the shingling of woodshed or the max.
ing of a shirt.
Now, it is clear tina, TO abolish all the
taxes that thus hamper industry, would
be to vastly stimulate production and
increase the general wealth. But this
is only one side of it. To put taxation
on the value of land would also be to re-
move obstacles to production. For the
speculative value which now attaches
to land as soon as it becomes proba BILE
that it will be needed for use is direct
check to production. To get the vacant
lot on which to put up a house, even on
the outskirts of any one of our large cities
costs as much as or more than ordinarily
does the house. Before he can strike
plowshare into virgin soil, the farmer,
unless he will go far beyond where his
labor can be exerted to most advantage,
is obliged to pay down a large part of
his capital, to EN- barrass himself with a
mortgage, or to agree to give up largo
share of his produce as rent. The re-
suit is to fill the land with tramps; to
crowd our centers even in the hes. of
times with men who are willing to
work, anxious to work, but unable to
find opportunity to work-and thus to
produce an unnatural competition,
which in all occupations tends to force
wages down to the minimum on which
men can live, and which workingmen
are driven to resist by what President
Glackin, in his address to the Anti-Pov-
arty Society on last Sunday night,
styled the resort to brute force. The
result is to crowd people together too
closely in the cities, to scatter them too
far apart in the country. To say moth
ing of the moral, social and intellectual
disadvantages which result from this
unnatural distribution of population,
there is a great obstacle put in the way
of Improvement, manifest waste of
productive forces.
The measure we propose, which would
utterly destroy the speculative value of
land, and would reduce the selling value
of land to but nominal figure, would
remove this obstacle and prevent this
waste. No one would care to take up
land that he could not use, or to hold
land unless it was put to its most valu-
liable use. The homes of our farmers
would be closer together, the poorer
classes of our cities would no longer be
compelled to herd in tenement houses,
and the capitalist who proposed to erect
a factory would no longer have to pay
out SO much of ais capital for site. In
stead of that, he would pay the annual
rental value of the land in taxes, but
this would be in lieu of all other taxa
ton. Thus the effect Of this measure
would be to throw open to labor and cap
ital the means of production while re-
lieving production from taxation. And
the result of thus opening to labor the
natural opportunities for the employ
ment of labor would be to set to work
every man willing to work; to do away
with that unnatural competition which
comes from a glutted labor market 1t
would be to create demand for COM
modities that would set every wheel OF
industry in motion, and stimulate the
forces of production to their utmost.
Clearly this would be greatly to pro-
mote the general prosperity and greatly
to add to the general wealth.
TO BE CONTINUED.