The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-10-03

does relative fertility.
Some of the most fertile lands in Mary
land are comparatively valueless because
of bad roads. How a railroad develops n
country is known to every one. Roads are
the avenues of trade, and no class of pro-
duction is complete without trade. A
farmer may raise only wheat and corn, but
he trades his product for clothing, grocer
les and other necessaries. Through the
medium of trade he raises tea in China,
coffee In Brazil, sugar in Cuba, oranges in
Florida; and by the same medium he man.
ufactures carpets in Philadelphia, ferti-
lizers in Baltimore, clothing in New York,
linen in Ireland and cotton goods in New
England. All this he docs while simply
raising wheat and corn.
1t will be seen at once that these ex-
changes require means of communication,
or roads, and it is the primary function of
government to provide good roads With
out roads there could be no exchanges, NO
administration of justice and no public
schools. It is this function that contains
all the rest, and when we speak of advan.
tagcs of location we mean that the system
of roads forms reader communication at
one point than another. Farms located
near navigable rivers or railroads are more
'otiudoiC Ohtlii lttIIiS TeIuOU6ly IOCdUeu.
The expense of hauling the articles OF
trade not only to and from the railroad,
but also on the railroad, to and from the
market is the principal expense of produc
tion. That great division of employment
trade and transportation" is properly
named, for trade is inseparable from roads.
The few services of county government are
thus road services, and, like street services,
their vplnQ 10 the valna of ha Twill 70
use them, and attaches to the land contig-
uous to them. The relative value of farms
Is determined by their relative capacity to
produce wealth, and rs "trade and trans
portation" is part of production it fol
lows that whatever will economize the
labor of the former in the line of trade and
transportation is an item of value that
measures the difference between the land
80 affected and land that does not possess
this advantage. The value is added to the
land, whether of good or poor fertility
that Is at all capable of yielding a return
to labor, and is distinctly separate from
any value due to private improvements or
relative fertility.
To arrive at this value, which expresses
all of the value of the product of taxes or
services OF government returned to the
owner of land. it is necessary to assess the
land irrespective of private improvements,
whether on the land in the shape of build
ings, fences, bitches or private roads, or
even in the land, in that improvement
which the owner has added by his labor
upon the soil.
To do this it is simply necessary to as
sess all the land contiguous to section of
road at value not greater than the value
of the poorest portion in use, and that por-
tion as though without any private i'm
provements whatever Thus, If certain
section contain ten farms of 200 acres each,
aggregating 1900 acres of land of various
quality of fertility, on which the value of
the poorest land in use was only $40 per
acre, or TO cents rental, this value would
express the exact difference between that
land as affected by the system of roads and
land of the same quality remote from
roads. 1t would therefore express the ex-
act value of the services Of government re-
turned to every acre of the 1000, for any
additional value attaching to any other
portion of the land must be because of rela-
tive fertility or private improvement, both
of which are separate and distinct from
the services of government and bear no re.
latiOn to them.
AS individual improvement and fertiliza.
tion are inextricably combined with nat
ural fertility it is simply just that the
owner retain all of this value, and only
that value which is added to his land by
the increased capacity afforded it by the
roads be taxed enough to pay his proper
tion of the cost of extending and maintain
ing the roads and their accompanying ser.
vices, justice and public schools. The ju-
dicial boundaries of a county are not the
limita nf trade On1 cO
vide the cost of maintaining system of
roads.
The value of the services of such a sys.
tenn is concentrated at the center, for that
point is in readiest communication with
every other point in the system. Every
extension of the system adds to the value
of the land at the CENTER which thus be.
comes center of exchanges. The city of
Baltimore Is the center of the road system
of Maryland. Every road, every wharf,
every bridge and every tunnel is a part of
great system of roads that makes Balti-
more one of the great centers of exchange
or trade in the state and country. 1t is
true that the system of roads extends be-
yond state lines, but for comprehension
OF the relations of our local governments
within the state we must limit our view to
that field.
Consider the great arteries of trade that
lead to and from the heart of this COM
monwealthl From the more regular par
alleled streets, that cut the land into
thousands of rectangular blocks, the turn
pixies branch out and join this network
of streets, to the irregular and devious
roads that cut the land into thousands of
multiformed areas or sections
And all the roads lead to Baltimore
The iron roads, the hard surface pixies, the
ordinary dirt roads, good, bad and indif-
ferent, all lead to and from the great CEN
ter of exchanges, and there, more than
elsewhere, is concentrated the value of
these services of government. No matter
who pays for them, the owners of land in
and around Baltimore and other minor
centers receive value which they do not
pay for under the present laws.
Every extension of roads in this county
is borne by the citizens of this county
alone; and if you were to bond the county
and macadamize every road, the entire cost
under the present laws would be borne by
the county, but the value of the product
of your taxes would not all be yours. Such
an improvement, if adopted generally
throughout the state, would enrich the
land of Baltimore more than any county
In the state. The tremendous economy in
transportation would bring the circum-
ference nearer to the centre, and there the
advantage would be most largely seen.
This brings us to the point that any law
That aims to tax the people justly must be
accompanied by provision that will re-
auire every person, whether owning land
IN the country, or in city or town, to pay