The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-12-31
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
TAXING LAND VALUES.
fHenry George, in N. Y. Standard
[coNTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE. I

Sdenry george, IN N. I. standard
CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE.
The substitution of taxation upon the
single item of land values for all the
various taxes now imposed would be an
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 fee-paid local Of
ficials who in a single term expect a
fortune, and those federal collectors
whose places are deemed Of more i'm
portance than the goyernorship of sover-
eign States, down to the officials
who arc busted in seeing whether cigar
boxes are stamped and peddlers 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 the de-
vices-some of them very expensive
that are resortcd to for evadlng tho
revenue laws, for it is obvious that all
these expenses must ultimately be
borne by consumers.
The tax upon land values is of all
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 its value is
easily ascertained. Any competent real
estate dealer can tell to a nicety the
value per front foot OF any lot on Broad
way. But. to ascertain the value Of the
building on it, it will he 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 the
last cent by tax collector sitting in his
office. Deducting tho very small per-
centage, 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 in as taxes by tho people
as individuals.
But the saving that would result is by
no means to be estimated by the reduc-
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 gatherers, they create a long line OF
virtual tax gatherers, and that each
man in tho line not only takes the tax,
but his profit on the tax, and in many
cases is enable to take a great deal more,
How strongly tho whisky ring" op
| posed the reduction of the whisky tax
| and the match manufacturers the aboli
ton of the tax on matches is vel
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 abolish the
tax on any OF tho long list of things
taxed, and strightway there will appeal
| in the lobby some one to protest log
roll against it, sure proof that some
body besides the Government is making
money from the tax-that is to say, tina
the tax is taking from the people a
large good deal more than the Govern
mcnt is getting from it. That this sys
tenn, which engages great private inter
ests in keeping up rather than in put
ting down taxation, fosters govern
mental extravaganza and corruption
clear.
| Now, by abolishing all other taxes Il
favor of the tax upon land values W
should not only save very largely in tn
ways thus pointed out but by the great
er simplicity that would be given t
government, we should save the politi
cal decentralization which the preson
system entails. It is 1.-The money il
politics" that makes our politics SO cor
rupt. that puts honesty and patriotism
at a disadvantage, and gives us trader
and jobbers where we ought to hav
statesmen. That there is so nue.
money in politics arises principally fror
the great number of officers which on
present system OF taxation necessitates
and from the great number of pecuniar
interests which it concerns in the ruI
ing of government. And beyond all thi
is the effect upon morals. Nearly al
the taxes which we propose to abolis
become. in one way or another, take
upon conscience, and by setting pre-
MUM on bribery, forgery and fraud
foster political corruption and social d.
mOraliZation.
Now, in view q the great economic
which III all these various ways woSl
result from the substitution of tax o
land values for all other taxes, is it nj
clear that the change would be Of I'll
greatest benefit, and would condue
LARGELY to the general prosperity. d
side such civil service reform" as thi
the little picayune measure, GOO
though it may be in itself, on whic
men like George William Curtis ha,
been spending SO much time and talen
is as a minnow to whale.
: The pr esent system, which taxes bull
, ings ara improvements, capital in a
> its forms, and in most of our States
a all its shadows, is system OF dire
: Encouragement to production, a syste
which fines the man who creates veal
> just in proportion as he creates wealt
| Instead of acting on the principle tn
: the man who makes two blades Of era
q grow where one grew before is a pub
n benefactor, our system Of taxation trea
him as public enemy. If a man clot
, a barren waste with grain and fr,
trees, if he drain a swamp or oper
n mine, if he put up house where no