The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-12-04

that body to increase the salaries of Off .ers
and carried through before anyone is pre-
pared to oppose it, by only one third of the
votes required and recorded as carried
unanimously, action by the people con-
cerned st the next election for members of
that body would be a more certain and less
expensive remedy than an action of Law.
To make this action effective We must
understand our relation to ~parties-that
they are the tools with which work. and
that We must keep them in order, and to
do this we must sometimes use a tool that
W. use for no other purpose: that tie work
We have to DO may require the use of a
number of tools. That We instinctiyely
comprehend this is shown by the language
in common use. When We speak Of a
party which a man is accustomed TO use
we call it his party, a term deno;ing own
ership: but when WI speak of a man as
holding With a party we say he belongs 10
it, a term that does not denote ownership.
a machine which can own nothing has its
belongings. 1t may sometimes be neces-
sary for the members of opposing parties
to unite to elect Legislators who will revise
the work of inscriptions leaders accord
ing to the dictates of justice.
To these exempliications of the practical
operation of the system of taxation author
lied By our State Constitution, | will add
some remarks on an ideal system proposed
by Henry George-the single tax. Its adj
vocates claim that all taxes should be on
land as being always open to observation.
The owner of it is unable to evade the tax,
but they contradict this by demanding that
it shall be levied according to land values
which are not as open to observation as
the values of much other property. A
house attracts observation more than the
land on which It stands, but it is claimed
that the owner of a lot in a city should pay
as much tax as the owner of a similar lot
on which stands a house worth fifty thou
sand dollars; that to tax the house is to
put a penalty on improvements. The
same might be said of taxing land values.
In either case it is in consequence of hav-
ing more to be protected and is more a
penalty than the tax paid to an insurance
company for its protection.
The idea of taxing land values only needs
amending to make it include all money
values. We have made progress in this
direction. Within the memory of some of
US, articles were taxed with little regard
TO value. Let a horse be worth one or one
bundled dollars, the tax was the same.
This has been changed, and the poll tax i.
pCtL%po III 9BiN O0t HUI uON UdscQ OQ
money value. This is becoming unpopular
and should be superseded by a tar on per-
sonal money value. One not able to earn
his own living should not be required to
pay a personal tax from his property, ami
one who can earn more should pay a per-
sonal tax according to bis money value.
His value would be approximately indicat-
ed by the net income he could command.
To illustrate this suppose a mar has a
house valued at twenty-five hundred dol
lars for which he could obtain one hundred
and fifty dollars a year net income, and
could obtain the same net income for the
use of his personal ability, this would in-
dictate that the money value of himself and
house are equal, in this way all would be
taxed equally according to the values of
their possession, which would not be the
case with an income tax which taxed in
comes derived from values already taxed
as much as those resulting from values
that excape taxation. 1t is not advisable
to put extreme penalties on those who
eyade the payment of any tax, to deny
them the privilege OF voting would be just
to them and bentit us more.
Our forefathers established the rule that
taxation and representation should go to-
gether, and it was a rule that worked both
ways. Prior to 1914, when our new con-
stitution was adopted, a voter as request
ed to pay a tax before voting, and we
should now require each voter to do so
unless be is exempt for dangers and priya-
tons encountered on behalf of the govern
ment. Our government includes both per-
who maintain il and those who are its
and it is the plain dictate OF CON-
mon seLse that those who maintain an in
.1s,ts- xIz-al I.r- -