Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-26
public policy? Do wo notall want more
wealth? Why, then. should we tax and
fine the production of wealth?

public policy? Do VIC not all want more
wealth? Why, then, should we tax and
line the production of wealth?
| Some of the Southern States have re-
Gently passed laws exempting cotton
manufactures from taxation for term
OF years, and the result has been the
erection of a number of cotton factories,
for tho capitalists who thus invest their
money can calculate on dividing as
profits what otherwise they would have
had to pay as taxes. Are not these
States wise in this? DO not these cotton
| factories create new industries add to
the wealth of the neighborhoods in
which they are erected. and enrich the
whole State? But if this be wise, would
it not be still wiser to make the exemp.
years? And, if it be wise to exempt
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? Isnot the State the
richest that has the most of these things?
| Why, then, should the State tax them:
Is not the stupid system that docs 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 collec:-
cd from tenants in higher rents?
But tho direct obstacles to production,
which this system imposes, are not the
worst. All the indirect taxes which
pass from hand to hand, increasing the
cost of commodities, are taxes against
production, which increase as they 60.
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
more than is received by the Govern
ment, and, by it's action and reaction on
prices, hampers every eXertion of indus
try, from the building of railroad to
the shingling of woodshed or the maxi
ing of shirt.
Now, it is clear that to abolish all the
taxes that thus hamper industry, would
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 probable
that it will be needed for use is direct
check to production. TO get the vacant
lot on which to put up house, even on
the outskirts of any one of our large cities
costs as much as or moro than ordinarily
does the house. Before he can strike q
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 embarrass himself with a
mortgage, or to agree to give up a large
share of his produce as rent. The re-
suit is to fill the land with tramps; to
crowd our centers even in the best 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-
erty 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
n n mr. ,,y1;n (,
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 a 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, tho 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 mis- 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
tion. Thus the effect of this measure
would be to throw open to labor and cap
ital the means OF production while re.
Loving 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 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 tho general prosperity and greatly
to add to the general wealth.
TO BE CONTINUED.
CERTAIN services for society require
an agent for their performance. TO
meet the expense of these things, funds
have to be raised. TO raise them by
taxation of land values rather than by