The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-06-06
Answering Mayor Sargent.


Answering Mayor Sargent.
The New Haven Standard has under {
taken to answer Mayor Sargents re- {
cent message, and it declares that I,
thousands of mechanics and laboring
men throughout the state own their Int.
tie homes. with small plot OF ground
which they can call their own, and
which they have secured through thrift,
industry and strict economy. The peo-
pie. it thinks, will resist Mayor Sar-
gents proposal to release capital ana
labor from taxation, because, under the
system of the single tax, labor would
paw heaviest on the only thing it ordin-
arily acquires-the land Land,
SAYS, SIS the only thing that labor ac-
ouires in nine cases out of ten- and II
asks IF that is to be the only thing
taxed. where is the benefit to success
| ful and ambitious labor?" 1t clinches
its supposed argument with the deciar-
alton that under such system as ina.
proposed, mo one will care to own land
at all. and all will desire to be tenants
and not proprietors."
| A correspondent at Bridgeport asks
us to answer this foolish argument Tor
the benefit of some who have been de-
luded by it. 1t would seem that any
holy who had ever read a single tax (
tract might answer it for himself. In |
the first place, it is not true that land is |
the first thing that labor acquires: in |
| nine cases out of ten it is the last thing |
that labor acquires, and very few &C
ouire it at all, except enough for
grave. As to no one caring to own
land. merely for the sake of owning 1t.
what could labor ask better? Under
such circumstances any laborer want
ing to build a home would be able TO
!, take any lot that suited him, without
the payment of a purchase price, and ne
would merely pay to the government,
! from year to year, a smaller amount
than he now pays as interest on mort
gage. or as ground rent. Under such
circumstances it is probable that the
: first thing that an ambitious working
man acquired would be a home.
II is manifest to any one, who WIZ
think. that proposal to tax land values
only would reduce the taxation on me-
chanics and laboring men owning little
g homes. To say nothing of the enor-
nous relief that such men would ex-
perience through the abolition of tariff
taxes on all they consume or wear, local
taxes would be less. Every man own
q ing a small home, who will look about
? him. will find that his property is as
y sessed at higher price than other
property equally well situated, but no.
- improved. AS soon as taxes are LEVIED
D on land values, alone, his house ano
p other improvements would cease to be
oi assessed. and he would pay no more
or taxes on the plot of land he holds thar
$ his rich neighbor would pay on an,
nc similar plot that he is now holding on
e. of use for speculation. The result o
40 this would be the proportionate de
y crease of the poor mans taxes, through
nc the addition to the general fund OF tn
ne taxes that speculative holders woui
~ thus pay.-The Standard.
is THE state must raise a certain fxe
on amount for public purposes. I'M
Mt amount, it will assess upon all the ia,
,m pavers, in proportion to the value c
their property, as reported by the asses
nd sors: not in proportion to its real value
gle which the assessors, of course, are neve
he able exactly to ascertain. If, therefor
on; experience proves that assessors are alb
re- to find twenty times as much land vai'
ure in the possession of merchants as the
mt can among farmers, but only ten TIM
the as much personal property among me
ILL chants as they find among farmers
the is a plain result, as simple as the ru
ges of three, that the taxation of person
by property will end in making farme
em- nav a larger proportion of the tax
can tban they would pay, if all the tax
E OF were concentrated on land
lme - ----
the THE annual report of the New 70
are state Assessors for 1890, shows the tot
nails assessed value of realty for the who
rpin state to be So, 29s. 600, 900, and of perse
ally. al property, $685., 900, 000, the personal
part inc II Der cent of the total assessme1
can In 1867 the assessed value OF real est;
mere was s.. as7, 900, 000 the increase in
tive twenty-three years being over ss,ot
, the 600 600, or 100 per cent The assess
at it value of personally in 1867 was IA
1 in ooo. 600 as against 1886, 0O0, 900 in IL
tar. showing a decrease in twenty-th
ased years of s51, 900, 900. In 1857 real est
ages paid about "A per cent OF the &c
what taxes; personal property, 70 per ce
,pro- In 1890 real estate paid SO per cent;
by sonal property, II per cent
t UNI ,.-
lrgin Look over inc epuo. ~-I.;,,,v;
great estates growing and multiply
5 the while an increa:lns p.o 49,;
eater called free ana nu IN ,.-.1 :;
rent citizens are destitute OF all legal n
and to use the soil of their country, can
: sim work ON it, can only live on it, by
9 de- ing tribute to some other human
,Ilow ture, and he often resident OF Eu1
,ver for permission to do SO. Is It any :
rent der that faith in democratic repubii