The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-05-23

--~ ~ RI @N1S SS>SS SNSoNSO
he is lazy and you are Industrious?
Would you like to put premium upon
shiftlessness and fine a man for being
industrious? Do you think that because
he won't make good use Of an oppertu-
nifty, he ought to pay less for the
opportunity?
"But let US 60 back to the main
question, and see il our plan Of taxation
would not lower the farmers taxes.
"Your farm of hundred acres you
would not sell for cent less than
ninety dollars an acre, or nine thousand
dollars in all. That is good price ;
but it is improved property-good
buildings, good house, good fences,
wells, orchard and 80 on. And you
pay on this farm about sixty-fve dollars
taxes.
''Now, what are improvement values
on a nine thousand dollar farm?
you have about four miles of fences,
or ,280 rods, worth, on the average,
say, Sl.30 rod. The first item to be
subtracted from the total value OF the
farm is, therefore, ST., 1894.
"There is good house, little old
fashioned, perhaps, but roomy, cheerful
and comfortable. Improvements have
made it conform more nearly to modern
requirements, and it looks from cellar
to garrett. inside and out, home. 1t
is, at all events. equal to the average
house of $50 an acre farm, and is
worth at least ST. 800. The two wells,
with stone Innings, curbs, good pumps,
are worth $175. The FIVE acre orchard
of good fruit bearing trees adds $500.
Great barn, horse barns, COW stable
under great barn, sheep barns, pens
and sheds, all add to the improvement
value of this farm at least 81 300 more.
The cost Of pulling stumps, draining,
picking stone, etc., have also to be de-
Quoted, as we'll as the value of the land
used for highway purposes and for all
this we may fairly allow $25 an acre
more.
adding these items we find the
value of the improvements on our
1000 farm to be s. 1899, or, in round
numbers, $1,000, leaving the land
value of the farm $1,000, and on this
latter sum the George system proposes
to tax the farmer up to its full rental
value. You would pay, therefore, on
your farm land value tax of four per
cent on $1,000, or S4s in all. You
now pay sixty, five.
Allowing for local variations the
farmer will pay about from FIVE to thirty
per cent less tax than be does now. If
that is expressing the farmer, you can
tyrannize over him by the bushel and
he will grow fat under it,
"Well, that seems to be so," replied
Mr.. Gray, with an increasing respect
for his sons logic "but how about the
holders of really valuable vacant lots in
the villages and cities? 1t seems to
me they could not afford to keep them"
"Unimproved, no! But when they
did improve them they would not pay a
cent more for their enterprise. They
would be compelled to use them or
allow others to take them who would.
In that case labor would be employed
to improve, and the great army of IN
employed labor set to work. At the
same time that still greater army Of
men who work only part of the time
on short hours, or portion of the
year-would find the increased demand
for their products giving them work to
do all the time, and they would be able
to buy more and more of the farmers
produce, thus extending his market"
"But Wouldn't there be lot OF
over productoD?' said Jem.
"There is no such thing as over
production, but there is, and should not
be, an inequality of distribution, which
this system of taxation will remedy.
For by exemptipg improvements you
leave to each all his labor produces,
and by taxing land up to its full rental
value you give to all what is the result
of the growth, the labor and capital Of
the community. Put the unemployed
men on the idle land, father, and they
will produce and consume, and then
their poverty will CEASE
Johns father sat long after breakfast
that morning over his pipe and news
paper; but he did not read much. He
was thinking of what John had said
about the idle lot and the idle men,
and wondering if putting the two to-