Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-08-06
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
a REPUBLICAN, DIRECT TAxER.

The Daily Press OF Paterson, is the
republican organ of Passaic county. but
its advocacy of the tariff does not close
its eyes to the evils of levying local
taxes on the products of labor. The
following editorial article, in the issue
OF the Press of June 10, nearly took the
breath away from the local single tax
men:
One reason which commends the
single tax idea to a great many people
is its simplicity. Another is its GER
tainty of collection. Under the present
system the taxing of personal property
is of necessity a humbug. Such prop
erty assumes a thousand shapes. 1t is
intangible, elusive. deceptive, much of
1T non-valuable, except by an expert.
and it is q fruitful source of fraud,
cheating and lying, and, therefore. a
corrupter of the public morals The
thing to be aimed at is to make every
taxpayer, somehow, bear his fair share
of the burden of supporting the state
and locality where he lives. That this
is not done now is notorious. And it is
equally certain that, if it We're done,
the burden of all honest taxpayers
u,
ables would be enormously increased.
1t is really immaterial to the individual
what form taxing takes SO long as it is
effectual and impartial. One of the
chief absurdities of the prevailing sys-
tenn is the taxing of provements'
by householders. These should never
be taxed unless they are source of in
creased income to proprietor. 1t is
preposterous to make a man pay the
state bonus for doing something which
costs him money, benefits every per-
son employed in the improvement, adds
to the attractiveness of his neigh bor-
hood, and increases the value of all adj
jacent property. 1t would be more
sensible for the state to pay bonus to
a man who would improve the property
where he lives, and which does not
bring him any revenue, for in so doing
he is rendering a public service. tax
upon land alone would avoid all these
complications and injustices. Land re-
mains the same no matter what I'M
provements" it holds, and is, in fact, in
all financial transactions concerning
the property-with the exception of
taxing-regarded as the basis of secur-
ity. And there is another absurdity in
the present tax system which is tend
ing to make many thoughtful people
favor the single land tax" and that is
the comparative exemption which a
landowner who does not choose to put
buildings on his land enjoys. The
tendency of this is to encourage the
holding of large tracts of land unim-
proved, while they increase in selling
not, mark you, in taxing value. If
land was regarded as the element of
chief value for taxing purposes, and it's
improvements were not taxed the
moment they were put upon it, it is
clear that there would be many more
houses erected than there now are, to
the benefit of the building trades and
those having to rent dwellings.
But we are going farther afeld
than we intended on this subject.
Our idea was simply to refer to
the evils that attend the attempts to
tax personal property, and to point out
the fact that there is n rapidly growing
sentiment against it, outside of those
who number themselves with the fol-
lowers of Henry George. There has
been movement started in
New York IN favor OF making
real estate the main basis of
taxation, which has among its leaders
such large capitalists and property
owners as ex-Mayor Ely, f. B. Thurber,
William Steinway and other prominent
citizens, whose interests are considera-
bly, involved in any change of the meth
cd of taxation. The opinion of these
gentlemen is that ''mortgages and cap
ital engaged in production or trade
should be exempt from taxation, be-
cause taxes on such capital tend to drive
it away, to put a premium on dishon-
esty and to discourage industry. Real
estate should bear the main burden of
taxation, because such taxes can be
most easily, cheaply and certainly col
lected.'' This is one OF the signs of the
times that should not be ignored. If
the actual wealth of Paterson could be
reached and taxed to-day. we should
not be worried about making munici,s
pal ends meet, and everybody who does
not try to evade a just share of taxation
would have smaller taxes to pay. But
the personal property is simply as
sessed by guess work. No other result
is possible so long as that class of prop
erty enters into the tax levy at all