Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-01-09


are Withholding lana that they can not
use themselves from those who would
be glad to use it. would be forced to let
go their grasp. To tax land values ur
TO anywhere near their full amount
would be to utterly destroy speculative
values, and to diminish all rents into
which this speculative element enters.
And, how groundless is it to think that
landlords who have tenants could shift
tax on land values upon their tenants.
can be readily seen from the effect upon
landlords who have no tenants. 1t is
when tenants seek for land, not when
landlords seek for tenants, that rent goes
up.
To put the matter in form in which
it can be easily understood let Us take
two cases. The one. country where
the available land is all in use and the
competition of tenants has carried rents
to point at which the tenant pays the
landlord all he can possibly earn save
just enough to barely live. The other,
a country whore all the, available land
is not in use and the rent that the land,
lord can get from the tenant is limited
by the terms on which the tenant car
get access to unused land. How. il
either case, If a tax were imposed upoi
land values Tor remit could tne landlorl
compel the tenant to pay it?
1t may be we'll to call attention to the
fact that tax on land values is not
tax on land. They are very difreren'
things, and the difference should b,
| 81
to them may lead TO the assumption thai
a tax on land values would fall on the
user. A tax upon land-that is to say,
a tax on all land of so much per acre or
| so much per foot-would fall on the
user, barring such effect as it might
have on speculation. For such q tax,
falling equally on all land-on the poor
est and least advantageously situated as
fully as on the richest and best situated
land, would become condition imposed
on the use of any land, from which there
could be no escape, and thus the owners
of rentable land could add it to their
rents Its operation would be analogous
to that of a tax on a producible commod-
ity, and it would in effect reduce tho
supply of land that could be used,
since no land could then be used
that would not yield sufficient to
pay tho tax. But tax on economic
rent or land values would not fall on all
land; it would fall only on valuable
land, and on that in proportion to its
value. 1t would thus not have to be
paid upon the poorest land in use
(Which always determines remit, and so
would not bpcomo n condition If uco or
restrict the amount of land that could
be probably used, and SO the land own
ers on whom it fell could not shift it on
the users of land. This distinction, as
to nature and effects, between tax on
land and n tax on land values, it is nec-
essay to bear in mind.
1T is also necessary to bear in mind
that the value of land is something to.
tally distinct from the value of improve
ments 1t is value which arises not
from the exertion of any particular in
dividual, but from the growth and pro-
gross of the community. A tax on land
values, therefore, never lessons the re-
ward of exertion or accumulation. II
simply takes for the whole community
that value which the whole community
creates
While it is not true that tax on land
values or rent falls on the user, and thus
distributes itself through increased
prices, it is true that the greater num-
Der of taxes by which our public reve-
nues are raised do Thus, speaking
generally, taxes upon capital fall, not
upon the owners of capital, but upon the
users of capital and are by them trans
ferrod to the consumers of whatever the
capital is used TO produce; taxes upon
buildings or building materials must
ultimately be paid in increased build
ing rents or prices by the occupiers OF
buildings; imposts upon production or
duties apon imports must finally fall
upon the consumers of the commodities.
This fact is far from being popularity
appreciated, for if it were, the masses
would never consent to tho system by
which tho greater part Of our revenues
are raised But. nevertheless it is the
vague apprehension of this that leads
by confusion of ideas TO the notion that
n tax on land values must add to rents
This notion will disappear if it be con.
sidered how it is that any tax given
to the person first called on to pay it the
power of shifting it upon others by ar
increase of price. The general principle
is this: tax upon ass thing or upon
the methods or means of produc.
ton of any thing, the price o.
which is kept down by the ability t.
produce increased supplies, will, by IN
creasing the cost of production, checl
the supply and thus add to the price o
the thing, and ultimately fall ON tn,
consumer But tax upon any thing
upon which the supply is fixed or mo
nopolzed ana of which the cost of pro
duction is not therefore IA determining
element, since has no effect in checking
supply, does not increase prices, and
falls entirely on the owner.
TO he CONTINUED.
SHORT TALK FOR FARMERS.
Taxes That Can Kill Dogs Can XIII Men
Pa Chase in st. Louis Farmer and Breeder.
Farmers are taxed to death"