Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-01-16


IL not be still wiser to make the exemp-
ton permanent instead of for term of
years? And. IL ii be wise to exempt
cotton factories would it not be wiser
still to exempt all sorts of factories, all
forms of capital all kinds of wealth
houses and goods, horses and cattle, rail-
roads and telegrd phs? Is not the State the
richest that has the most of these things?
Why, then, sh build the State tax them?
Is not tho stupid system that does tax
them too absurd for any rational de-
Tense? The pc ople of New York want
cheaper house rents. Is 1t not stupid,
then. to put taxes on buildings, which
necessarily will diminish the erection
of buildings. and, unlike the tax en-
land values, must inevitably be collect
ed from tenants in higher rents?
But the direct obstacles to production,
which this system imposes, are not the
worst. All tho indirect taxes which
pass from hand 10 hand, increasing tho
cost of commodities, are taxes against
production, which increase as they 60.
This barbarous tariff of ours, that raises
an artificial ba Nrier around our coasts
is more difficult for commerce to sur
mount than wd uld be the Andes or tho
Ilimalayas, takes from the people much
moro than is received by the Govern
ment, and, by its action and reaction on
prices, hampers every exertion of indus
try, from tho building of railroad to
the shingling of a woodshed or the max
ing OF shirt.
Now it is clea r that to abolish all the
taxes that thus hamper industry, would
be to vastly ST mulate production and
increase the general wealth But this
is only one side of it. To put taxation
on the value of land would also be to re-
move obstacles TO production. For the
speculative value, which now attaches
to land as soon hs it becomes probable
that it will be needed for use Is direct
check to production. To get the vacant
lot on which to put up house, even on
the outskirts of any one of our large cities
costs as much as or more than ordinarily
does the house. Before he can strike a
plowshare into virgin SOIL the farmer,
unless he will 80 far beyond where his
labor can be exc rted to most advantage,
is obliged to pay down large part of
his capital, to e n barrass himself with a
mortgage, or to agree to give up large
share OF his produce as rent. Tho re-
suit is to fill thd land with tramps; to
crowd our centets oven in the best of
times with me who are willing to
work, anxious 10 work, but unable to
find opportunity to work-and thus to
produce an unnatural competition,
which in all occupations tends to forco
wages down to the minimum on which
men can live, and which worlSingmen
are driven to resist by what President
Glacl1in, in his address to the Anti-Pov-
erty Society on last Sunday night,
styled tho resort to brute force. The
result is to crowd people together too
closely in the cities, to scatter them too
far apart in the country. To say moth
ing of the moral, social and intellectual
disadvantages which result from this
unnatural distribution of population,
there is great obstacle put in the way
of Improvement, a manifest waste OF
productive forcds
The measure we propose, which would
utterly destroy the speculative value OF
land, and would reduce the selling value
of land to but b nominal figure, would
remove this obstacle and prevent this
waste. No one would care to take ur
land that he could not use, or to hold
land unless it was put to its most valu.
liable use. Thb homes of our farmers
would be closer together, the poorer
classes of our cities would no longer be
compelled to h hrd in tenement houses
and the capitalist who proposed to erect
a factory would no longer have to pay
out so much of his capital for site. In
stead of that, be would pay the annua
rental value oil tho land in taxes, but
this would be in lieu of all other taxa
ton. Thus tho effect OF this measure
would be to throw open to labor and cap
ital tho means of production while re
lieving production from taxation. Ant
the result of thus opening to labor the
natural opport mites for the employ
ment of labor would be to set to worl
every man willing to work; to do ava,
with that unnatural competition which
comes from glutted labor market. /
would be to create demand for com
modities that would set every wheel o
industry in motion, and stimulate tn,
forces of production to their utmost.
Clearly this would be greatly to pro
mote the general prosperity and great.
to add to the &c neral wealth.
TO IIE CONTINUED.