The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-01
UNEARNED INCREMENT.

This is the pet phrase which Henry
George applies to land rent 1t refers to
the increased value of land TO one who OBJ
tains possession of it and holds on to it
until surrounded by others who want it
and are willing to pay for the use of it.
Mr.. George holds that the increment is I'M
earned in cases where the possessor has
done nothing 10 improve the productive
ness or condition of the land. He takes
no account of the privations which are in
many cases endured III order to obtain
possession, nor of the self-denial, and in
many cases the suffering. attendant upon
holding on to it.
But III wider sense there is an unearned
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT directly by the bene-
ficiaries-which forms an interesting
study. 1t is an increment which accrues
to sections of country partly from the pos
session of natural advantages and the
multiplication of the value of those ad-
vantages in proportion as people in in
creased numbers seek to enjoy them, and
partly TO waste or deterioration of adyan-
tages in other sections.
In these respects Western Washington is
enjoying and accommodating an unearned
increment of fabulous proportions. Puget
Sound, as an indestructible and match
less natural highway of travel and
traffic, though no larger, no deeper
than it was fifty or one hum
dred years ago, is intellectually more
valuable. Its increase of value almost IL
limitably exceeds the increase of popula-
ton upon its borders. Every thousand of
added population, with its added promise
of future greatness for the section, has
added millions to the value of the Sound
as highway to and from the Orient and
the world at large. Each new conner
shares this increment, whether ne is to be
producer, business man, a common
laborer, or whatever his walk in life
The climate, the most equable in the
world, with never an extreme of heat or
cold, and never a blizzard or cyclone, is
just what it was in the wilderness days,
but the possession of it is an essential
factor in attracting capital and enterprise,
in piling up wealth and in the assurance it
conveys of future imperial greatness for
the section. 1t would be moderate to est-
mate that increase of population and con-
sequent improvement of future prospects
have increased the value of the Puget
Sound climate in fully the proportion of a
million dollars TO the thousand of popula-
ton. Here again every new conner shares
this vast increment which he has earned
only by the coming.
And as to our regal heritage of timber,
coal and iron, the choppers in the woods
of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin,
and the delivers in the mines of Penn
sylvania, West Virginia and other states,
in reducing their supplies, are constantly
and vastly adding to the value of our inn
mense reserves in those lines. From these
sources Western Washington is realizing
steady and enormous increment of
wealth which is shared by every new
conner, to earn which he contributes only
by coming.
Thus it is made apparent that beyond
any other equal area in the world this Sec
ton offers the advantages of rapidly ac-
cumulating unearned increment, and the
doors are wide open and a hearty welcome
offered to all who will come and share and
enioy it.