Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-01-03


merchants, manufacturers, etc.-and
that by increasing the net productive.
ness OF capital 1t would benefit those
whose incomes arc drawn from capital
alone.
Take now the case of those to whom
the opponents OF the single tax are SO
fond of referring-the farmers who till
their own acres, the men who own their
homesteads In which they live. 1t L.
true that the change we propose would
diminish the selling value Of their land
(but merely Of the bare land, not Of the
buildings or mprovements), and II fully
carried out would virtually destroy It
But 1t would in no wise diminish the
usefulness of their land; II would In no
wise diminish. but would In fact in
crease, their incomes. They would pay
under this system less taxes than they
pay now. The clerk or mechanic or
business or professional man who owns
house and lot in which he lives might
pay more taxes on his lot than now, but
in return for this he would escape the
taxes now levied on his house and its
contents, and, through the medium Of
indirect taxation, upon every thing that
his family consumes. And so with the
farmer. Our present system Of taxation
falls with peculiar severity upon the
farming class. Notonly is improved land
all over the United States taxed higher
than unimproved land of the same quail.
ity, but the taxes which so largely raise
the prices Of all the farmer has to buy do
not and can not, so long rs we are ex-
porters Of agricultural produce, raise the
prices OF what the farmer has to sell.
And, further than this, to put taxation
solely upon land values would shift the
weight OF taxation from the sparsely
settled agricultural districts to those
populous centers where land has real
and high value. As 1t would destroy
the speculative value Of land. the result
would be that many farmers would have
no taxes at all to pay. for, no matter
what might be the value of his improve
ments, no farmer would have more taxes
to pay than could be collected from UNI
improved land equal to his in quality
and situation. Manifestly It would be
very greatly to the relief Of the farmer
to abolish all the taxes which now fall
upon his improvements and his con.
sumption, and substitute for them tax
upon the value Of bare land, which is
always higher in populous centers than
in agricultural districts, and in sparsely
settled agricultural districts hardly ex-
lists at all, except as the result OF specu-
lation. And from the effects upon the
diffusion Of population the farmer would
greatly gain. just as the city popula-
ton would gain from the destruc-
tion Of the system which now builds
tenement houses and vacant lots, so
would the agricultural communities
gain in productive power and in social
enjoyment when settlement should be.
come closer, from the fact that there
would no longer be any inducement for
any one to take up or hold more land
than he could use.
Further than this, 1t must be remem.
bered that, although the selling price OF
land would diminish this, since it would
affect all land, would not affect the ex.
change value of the homestead lots or
farms It would be, to the man who
wants for himself and his family the SO.
curity Of o home in which to live. or
land to cultivate, . purely nominal and
intangible loss. to Offset which there
would DO great and actual gains; and, as
his children grew up. IL would be very
much easier for them to get homesteads
or farms Of their own.
To put all taxes on land values would
be to remove all burdens from capital
and labor; to free industry, and energy,
and thrift from restriction or hne; to
take away the Incentives to speculation
In land, and to throw open natural OPP
portunities to those who would use
them, without as now. compelling them
to pay q heavy premium to some nom
user. From the freedom Of operation
which would thus be given to productive
forces would result an enormous In
crease in the production Of wealth. The
fund from which all incomes must be
drawn would be vastly augmented. And
at the same time would come great
in distribution; for that
freedom of operation which Is essential
to the largest production Of wealth IL
also essential to its fairest distribution.
To one who has never thought over
the matter it may seem preposterous tc
say that in simple change in the meth
DDS Of taxation lies the fundamental
cure for pauperism and low wages and
all the social difficulties which sfiict
modern society. Yet to AL who viii
think over It this win appear.
When It Is considered what IL really In
volved in the simple change, such great
effects do not seem disproportionate to
the cause. For, to remove taxation from
the production and accumulation Of