The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-02-11

And whether it. were not better for him
to have it laid directly, where it will at
last settle, than to let il come to him
by the sinking of his rents, which when
they are once fallen every one knows
are not easily raised again, let him con-
slider.
The farmers Of New England might
well ponder those lines. They might
find in abandoned fields, lowered farm
values a striking confirmation OF their
truth.
In 1892 the real estate tax, or land tax
including the improvements, was re-im-
posed, probably in measure as a result
of the teachings OF Locke. It was as
sessed at four shillings on the pound
valuation. This tax, though it fell
some years to only a shilling on the
pound, remained in force until the time
of Pitt, who in 1898 made it perpetual
and redeemablc at four shillings on the
pound at the valuation Of 1892. This
tax remains to this day; and. though
originally it was placed upon land and
improvements, it has in the course Of
time resolved itself into a tax on econo-
mic, or ground rent only, and the only
direct tax which that rent now bears in
England. According to the same Dugald
Stewart in 1895 Mr.. John Asgill, in
treatise entitled, Several assertions
proved in order to create another spe-
cies of money than gold and silver" ad.
vocates the same opinion with respect
to territorial tax. This treatise was
in advocacy of a land bank proposed
to the House of Commons in 1893 by a
DR.. Hugh Chamberlayne. will make
but brief quotations:
Man deals in nothing but earth. The
merchants are the factors of the world
to exchange one part of the earth for
another. The King himself is fed by
the labors of the OK; and the clothing Of
the army and the victualing of the navy
must all be paid for to the owners of the
soil as the ultimate receivers.
Stewart also quotes Jacob Wander
bits pamphlet, Essay to make money
plentiful, published in 1874
If all taxes were taken off goods, and
levied on lands and houses only, the gen.
tlemen would have more net rent left
out of their estates than they have now,
when taxes are almost wholly levied on
goods. That land gives all we have
would be self-evident, if we did not inn
port many goods which are the produce
| of other nations. But this makes no
alteration in the case, since the quantity
of foreign goods which we import can
not continually be of greater value than
the goods we export; because this in
the end must exhaust our cash, and SO
put an end to that excess. Therefore,
the goods we import stand only instead
of those we export; and, consequently,
the land gives not only all we have OF
our own produce, but virtually all we
receive from other nations.
That the land must pay all taxes in what
manner soever they may be levied; a
proposition which might perhaps be as
sumed as virtually implied in self-evi.
dent truth, that what gives ALI must
pay all.
I, Mr.. Vanderbilt goes on to elaborate
his views regarding taxation ut length.
Thus, commencing with Locke, we have
really the crude presentation Of the sim
gle tax upon land stated in the language
of that day. But there was soon t.,
arise in France school of economists,
the physiocrats, characterized by great
! scholarship and wonderful intellectual
ability, unsurpassed in unselfish devo
ton to humanity, which should bring
, economics into scientific form, and
should urge with great earnestness and
$ power the ''import unique" or single
tax.-James Middleton, New Orleans
: La, in The Standard.