The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-06-25
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT..
Single Tax Investigation in WASH
ington.

Single Tax Investigation in WASH
ington.
CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE.
DR.. Robert Rayburn, famous through
,ut the country as one of the physicians
attending Garfield at his assassination.
quietly arose and declared himself
strongly In favor of the bill. He be-
lieved land values should bear the bur
den of taxation, and gave number OF
striking instances of the way the inn
proven was punished and the way the
land holder, simply as holder, was re-
warded. He earnestly hoped the COM
p,issioners would approve the bill, and
that 1t would go into effect.
When DR.. Rayburn sat down another
property owner was ready. He was
Thomas H. Smith, owner of valuable
land, improved and unimproved, and,
indeed, of the very building in which
the hearing was then going ON. He had
come in late and stood in doorway,
his eyes swapping and his whole man
ner breathing defiance. He wanted to
know who the bill was 'going to bene-
Ht." Did II propose to exempt the own
er Of the big Washington Loan and
Trust office building?
Commissioner Douglass answered and
showed that he had obtained a clear idea
of the bill. He said: 1.-THE bill operates
without regard to individual interest,
the individual being merged in the
whole. The argument is that the as
sessment of land at its true value, as
the figures show, would raise a, 000, 900
instead of two and half or three mill
lions 1t would make difference to
the Washington Loan and Trust Co.,
and 30 1t would to the man who owns
property next to IL, but It would equal
lie the thing, and would induce people
who own land to improve it. At the
same time the district should get more
revenue"
Paul T. Bowen, representing District
Assembly Sc, of the Knights of Labor,
which had, after exhaustive discussion,
endorsed the bill by unanimous vote,
was the next to address the comfnis-
sioners, and he made q ringing single
tax speech, suying that his organization
supported the bill because they believed
it would bring about three great re-
suits: Firstly, increase employment and
raise wages; secondly, lower rents; and
thirdly, give relief from taxation.
After Mr.. Bowen came George C. Hem
ming, president Of the Traders national
bank, of Washington. He stated that
eight years ago he suggested, through
the columns Of the Washington Post, the
plan which now appears in the bill
under consideration, without knowing
that he had been anticipated by anoth-
er-Henry George-in regard to this
matter of the taxing the value Of land.
He said that this method of taxation
would raise the revenue necessary for
the local government with the least ex-
pense and the least possible hardship to
the people.
BY this time Mrs. Briggs had got to-
gether again, and ventured to remark
that the bill could not help the renter,
because the landlord would add his land
tax to his rent.
This brought John Dewitt Warner to
his feet. 1.-The extent Of the rent" said
he, ''that the landlord can exact from
the tenant must depend upon the sup
ply Of houses. If we have in the city of
Washington, IA we do have, a large
number of lots that have houses upon
them, and large number Of lots which
do not have houses upon them, then the
system of taxation which fines or taxes
the man who puts house upon q lot,
reduces the number of houses which are
offered to tenants, and thereby enables
the landlord to charge higher rent to
the man who wants to rent. While, on
the other hand, . system of taxation
which will relieve the man who is pub
lie benefactor by building more houses,
from any part Of the taxes on those inn
provements, and will offer inducements
for building more houses, the number of
houses in proportion to the number of
tenants will be increased"
Mrs. Briggs: 1T seems to me that the
poor man who has to pay the rent will
be taxed.
Mr. Warner: $50 far rs my experience
goes, it is not the poor man who can
afford to hold lots which are unim-
proved and which have no houses upon
them. 1t is the people who can afford
to pay taxes and who do not have to
pay rent, but own their own houses, and
who can afford to hold vacant lots. So
far as the poor man owns any land, it is
that on which his little house is located,
and under the present system it is taxed
more than it would be under the plan
proposed"
e. w. Oyster, of the Federation of
Labor, was the next supporter of the
bill, and spoke in much the same strain
as Mr.. Bowen. He and Mr.. Bowen, he
said, represented nine-tenths of all the
mechanics in the District of Columbia,
and that they were as q unit for the bill.
The last objector to the bill was M. l..
Weller, a prominent real estate agent,
and member of the East Washington
association, landowners organization
Curiously enough, Mr.. Weller was one