Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-08-01
4 Single Tax Congressman.

article Tor the statesman on HOW Will
the Single Tax Affect the Farm"
said:
st is proposed to assess all lands at
their unimproved value, and not other
WISE That amounts to this: that all
improved lands are to be relieved some-
what of present taxation, and all unim-
proved lands are to be some what moro
heavily taxed; that all more improved
lands are to be less taxed in COMPARE
son with all less improved lands-gep-
orally speaking that all extensive en-
tates the worth of whose broad acres,
irrespective of their improvements. u
greater in comparison with such inn
provements, will pay more, and small
farms, a greater part of whose worth Is
made up of buildings and improvements,
will pay less. Which are the more
numerous? Which would the single
tax tend to make more and more nulner.
Gus? Which is it good policy for tho
government most to encourage? 10
ask these questions is to answer them,
and to demonstrate that in it's compare
tive incidence upon improved and un-
improved rural property respectively.
the single tax is at once more just and
polite than our present system. ~
But any general system OF taxation
involves questions of general as well as
local proportion. What share Of taxes
| would rural communities. as n whole.
| pay under the single tax. as compared
with what they now pay, or as COM
pared with that paid by urban commu-
mites? Let us see. twill be admitte!
that 'unearned commandments
! in the value of land, due not to im-
| provemcnt of the land itself, but to i'm
| of lands a tS1t if--lS the
case of city lots, is more important
| factor in the city than in the country.
! 1t will be admitted that in Il state
where there are no cities or villages,
no cause for uncarncd increment in
| special localities, it will be perfectly
! fair to assess all lands at their present
value for use equally except as present
| productiveness or availability of each
tract may differ Now as the state, rs
whole. increases in productivcness
and wealth it's lands become more and
| more valuable for use in two general
ways-tirst by actual improvement of
! the land itself and the buildings placed
| thereon: second by increased available
! ity for use of certain parcels in or near
! villages and cities-which will aggre-
! gate themselves about ecrtli in natural
or artificial vantage points This in
| crease in availability, this so-called
'unearncd increment" is SO intensified
in cities, and so 1ninilniZed in strictly
rural districts that it may be considered
{, factor of land values in cities and viii
! lagos alone, and when it is consid-
cred that the worthof a city lot-unlilse
even half cultivated lands scarcely
! affected by whether it is fenced or
ditchcd, cultivated or not: and how
enormously out of all proportion to the
value of farm land is the value of city
! land as such, without reference to any
| improvements whatever on the particu-
| lar parcel, it will be seen how hard it is
! even to imagine a village. much less n
| city, where the value of land, without
reference to the improvements, does not
| bear greater proportion tK'the value
| of all real estate there, including inn
provcmcnts. than does the land i'll any
rural district, considered as wild or I'M
| improved land. bear to the actual value
| of the real estate of such rural district,
including all buildings. fences, bitches
and improvements of every kind that
have made it more fertile and more val
liable. And it is impossible to imagine
a state, including growing cities. where
| the com parison in question will not be
more conclusive in the same direction
as the proportion of urban to rural de-
velopment increases.
ITO sum up: Not merely is the single
tax. as compared with our present sys-
ten of taxation, the more just and po-
| litic as between the several members of
a rural community; hut, if put into
J operat ton. it would decrease the proper
| ton of taxes which the farming COM
munity would have to pay as compared
with our cities; and would increase,
faster than would our present system,
the proportion of taxes which the cities
would have to pay"