The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-07
UNDER SINGLE TAX.
Ex.Judge Mcguire Tells What
This City Would Pay.
A Reply to "Call" Editorial-Heavy Taxes
on Land Would Compel improve
ments or Subdivision.

On Tuesday last THE CALL edtorially
asked the following questions of the Single
Tax Society:
First-What will be the tax per acre on
land, taking the total Government expense
of last year and the total area of tillable
land in tile United States as the basis Of
estimate?
Second-Can the total expense Of govern
nent be carried more easily by direct tax
en- land than by indirect taxes, such as
taxes on the manufacture and sale OF
whisky, duties on articles of luxury pro-
duced in foreign countries and brought into
this and licenses for the privilege OF specu-
laton?
Ex-Judge Mcguire replied to the ques-
tons for the Single Tax Society last night.
To the first question he answered: IF all
taxes for the support Of the national. State.
county and municipal governments of the
United States were levied upon the tillable
land alone, and if all the expenditures OF
the several governments would not be ma
terially lessened, such taxes would pTOba-
bly, amount 10 three times the rental value
of all such land. Farming would be lmme-
diately discontinued, farms would be
promptly abandoned as ii they had been
swept by pestilence, and no man would
be found willing to pay the ruinOus taxes
dened land. But no sane single-tax man
has ever made or countenanced such a
proposition. Neither Is 1t proposed, as the
question of The CALL assumes, to level an
area tax by the acre or otherwise.
1.-The proposition is TO raise all revenues
required for all public purposes by single
tax upon land values ultimately upon the
economic rental value) irrespective of i'm
prOvementS thereon
This is a very different thing from an
area or acreage tax on tlllable land Indeed,
it is not a tax on land as such at all, but q
tax upon that value which is impressed upIn
land III particular localities regardless of its
natural fertility by the presence and indus
try Of the general population OF the locality.
g A strip OF lana under one of the Blythe
estate shanties on Market street. having a
frontage OF single foot is worth more OH
the market than an average farm Of 100
acres IN the interior, and would pay pro-
pOrtionally greater tax. 1t is, therefore.
impossible to state what would be the tax
per acre on land assessed according TO its
rental value, but we can easily estimate the
percentage Of the rental or maket value OF
all land which will be necessary to meet the
expenses OF all government.
- III this city IN 1856, the total municipal,
and proportion OF the State revenue, was
81, 123,4lS 81. The total expenditures of the
United States for that year were $40, 1885,
13S, Of which San Franchises proportion,
acculd ding 10 population, would be about
81, 30, 600, making Il total OF S5,323, 4l8 "a to
be raised here Tor all purposes Of all our
governments.
- The assessed value of land in San Fran
sisco for that year. exclusive of improve
nents, was $3.50, 1872, 500 Assuming that this
was the true value of the land. tax of
four and one-tenth per cent would yield
surplus of more than S64, 600, while o tax of
3 per cent on the actual selling yalue-for it
was assessed at less than 20 per cent of its
actual selling value-wUuld yield a surplus of
S2S7.97S 49,
10 The CALLS first query l therefore
answer that the single tax to meet ali the
needs Of our several governments would be
about 3 per cent on the actual value of land.
To the second query l answer most
certainly. The masses of the people who
now pay nearly all the indirect taxes are
also obliged TO pay to private tol-gatherers
the land rent, which under the single tax
would pay the entire expenses of the Gov
eminent. The people would also secure
cheaper ground-Tent, for a heavy tax on
land values, irrespective of improvements,
would both encourage and compel the i'm
provement, leasing and subdivision of land,
that by increasing the supply Of buildings
offered for renting without correspondent ely
increasing the demand, thus by the universal
law of supply and demand reducing rent.