Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-01-21
Two Single Tax Criticisms Criticized

Two Single Tax Criticisms Criticized.
Taking first the argument that the
theory derives all its vitality from the
principal of confiscation." it must be
plain to everyone who will stop a mo-
ment to consider, that the tax levy
against any persons possessing inn
provements and personal property, or
either of these, of equal values to their
land holdings. would not be increased
tenn. as the adjustment of taxation on
one-half their property would conpen-
safe them for the increase rate on the
other half. since all forms of property
are at present taxed at the same ad
valorem rate. Admitting however, that
those who had recently purchased more
land than they could adequately i'm
prove might not find the increase of
business actively due to the absence of
taxation on products sufficient to en-
able them to dispose of their land
holdings at cost, plus the additional
tax levy. the system might be said to
involve confiscation. But it is useless
to think of effecting any reform with
exact Justice to all. We are, strictly
speaking, never called upon to choose
between absolute justice and injustice,
but between a greater and less in
justice.
The hardship the Inauguration OF the
single tax in the manner suggested
might bring about to the class named
could certainly be no greater, if nearly
as severe. as every change in our i'm
port tariff schedule, whether wise or
unwise, and every prohibitory game or
fishery law.
1t has been further objected that the
single tax could not be adjusted equit-
ably, as there are some improvements
which become so Incorporated with the
soil that it is impossible to estimate
their value separately, and they would
be taxed as part of the land value.
But what real improvements are there
that do not add to the value OF the land
and thus become indirectly taxed.
Have not railroads and canals alone add
ed more to the land value of the United
States than all the cultivation, fertil-
izers or other UNREASONABLE improve
ment that the soil has received since its
discovery? Do not commercial and IN
dustrial centers outlive even their out
ward form, and their past regulations
become the guarantee of new and even
more prosperous life, though the build
ings and wharves and railroads have
been ruined by fire or flood? Under the
present system the reckonab BILE improve
ments are taxed twice, frs. through
the additional value they give the land
1.-THE land tax always being paid ulti-
- ~, ~ nd
again in a specific tax on the things
themselves The benefits to be derived
from the proposed measure lie in the
fact that the improvements on any
piece of property could be increased
indefinitely without any such in
crease in the owners share of
the tax levy as follows their Gre
alton at present; for although the
increase of improvements would add to
the accessible land value it would aug
ment not alone that of the land on
which they were situated, but all lands
in proportion to their public useful
ness A justly eminent social and po-
litical critic, Mr.. Edward Atkinson,
has attempted to demonstrate that the
colt of land rent in the United States
is so small per capita that it can not
have any serious effect against the
prosperity of the working classes
Were the charges collected in equal
proportion from each individual, the
figures he gives might not seem exor-
bitant, provided any adequate benefit
accrued from the payment 1t is a very
different matter, however, when. as is
actually the case, this charge is orig
inally mainly levied. as he himself has
demonstrated. at industrial or CONNER
cial centers. In other words, it is toll
collected on the interchange of COM
modities, paid only by those who
are Industrious and capable enough to
have anything to exchange. The more
idle or incapable man is. the less he
shares in the tax; and the high cost of
marketing wares, acting as a restraint
on business accounts for the compare
lively low cost per capita of the entire
population. If it be true that the ma
jority of the middle men are Shy
locks, why do not outsiders step in and
share in their gains, and by the compe-
tition thus created reduce the rates OF
commission, retail profits, etc Is 1t
not because when others seek to DO
this, they find the enormous pronss
vanish il land costs?
This is q moral as well as social
question. and the favoring by the state
of speculative shrewdness rather than
productive lahor must tell on the char
acser of its iuhabitants--E- +. Hudson