Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-02-13
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
TAXATION AND THE LAND VAL.
UE TAX.

import I'D Il nation as is the question of
taxation. it is important that it should
be investigated and weighed not only in
its present aspects. but also in it's his
torical features.
Il therefore propose to present a few
gleaninss from history that may be of
especial interest to those who look upon
tie land value tax Gs the ideal tax.
space forbids giving more than :, brief
glance at the subject: but it may serve
as a guide to those who wish to go more
fully into the matter
The historical study OF the subject of
taxation is attended with some diff
cNlty. as most historians. while recolyl-
ing battles and court intrigues. have
paid too little attention to the economic
side Of history.
The idea that the earth is the COM
mon heritage OF man. is as old as hui
man intelligence. and the contributing
OF individuals of wealth and services to
the common good as old,as society. But,
SO far as can discover the idea of maxi
ing every min contribute. not in pro-
portion to his wealth. but in proportion
to the value of natural or economic op-
portun'ties he controls. is a matter of
modern history. Take. for instance,
the Jews. They had "a system of land
tenure to which the lords of England
could give hearty assent: for the land
OF Il family, even if it passed from pos
session, reverted back each fifty years.
They had a system of taxation. but it
was tSnth Of the actual product: not
| OF the potential product
The Greeks and Romans also had
highly developed systems of taxation of
property. occupations and individuals.
In renting OF the ager publicus, or pub
lie lands. like the Jews they had some
thing akin to land value tax. In Rome
the tenant of the ager publicus gave q
tenth OF the agricultural product to the
government called decumon. The oc-
cupicrs OF pasture lands paid IL tax on
their tiocks called scsipton. though the
rate is not known. The salt mines were
rented out and the rent or tax was called
salmon. The other mines were also
rented out by the government.
But in passing. as we may naturally
from Rome over to England. we find
that while the primitive England that
succeeded Roman domination had no sci
entitic idea of a land tax, yet they had
something that was akin. though it also
was based not upon control of natural
opportunities, used or unused. but upon
actual production. The ship tax. which
=, might be AN exception, was proportion
ed to population. The Danegeld was
proportional to the cultivation. When,
after Norman conquest. the feudal sys-
TEN began to develop, the Danegeld OF
hidage disappeared and the carncate
was employed. a Norman term of sim
liar import. Both the hidage and earn
cate, from which the tax looks it's name,
We're a crude measure OF land. The
carncate was determined by what eight
pair of oxen and Il plow could cultivate
i'll one season, and was probably equa
to about one hundred acres.
Then came the scutagc or shield tax
which the knights. who We're also land
lords, paid in communication of those OBJ
legations to the crown. This was also
direct tax upon his whole property. A:
the English became more and more al
industrial people, Il large proportion o:
the taxes very gradually shifted upo1
the different forms of industry. Though
in 1899. a ''bad year. the Landlords
paid the whole tax"
AS the land owners were also the rul-
ing classes it is easy to see how it was
they gradually transferred the burdens
upon industry. where it largely remains
to this day.
In Cromwells time (l656) taxing act
was passed (see Stephen Dowel's His
tory of Taxation, vol. ILL.,. pages 16 and
~. which provides that
The tenants of houses and lands rated
to the tax are required to pay the whole
tax rate to use such houses and lands:
and power is given them to deduct on
payment of their rent so much tax as,
in respect of rent. the landlord ought to
bear This deduction all landlords, me-
date OF immediate, according to their
respective interests. are required to al
low, upon receipt of residue of rent. In
short, a payment Of the tax is consid-
cred pro tanto a payment of rent to the
landlord. Power is given to the diyis-
ional commission to settle differences
between landlords and tenants
The word rent, though, in this act is
used, not in the strict economic sense of
ground rent, but in the popular sense.
According to J. Thorold Rogers
('sEconomic Interpretation of History
p. $50, Cromwell's heavy direct tax was
thrown off as intolerable after the re-
storation.
In 1891 the ss77oat English philosopher
Dr. John Locke, published pamphlet
entitled Considerations on the lower
ing of interest and raising the value of
money.
This contains, according to Dugald
| Stewart. an eminent lecturer ON political
economy ting first part of this century,
the first written advocacy of a territor-
i;.l tax, which was afterward developed
scientifically by the great French school
of pnysiocrats. OF which Qnesney was
the founder.
The following extracts will show its
tenor:
A tax laid upon land seems hard I'D
the land owner, because it is so much
money going visibly out of his pocket;
and therefore, as an case to himself the
landlord is always forward to lay it on