The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-11-19
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT
An Outright Single Tax Town.

respects local taxation. 1t has no Ii
cense tax, last January it abolished the
personal property tax, and on Thursday
last the town board of commissioners
passed resolution exempting improve
ments from taxation and laying the
sole burden of taxation on the value of
land
Hyattsville is pretty little town of
thousand inhabitants Just outside the
boundary line of the. District of Column
bia. 1t is practically suburb of WhAh-
ington, many of its inhabitants daily
doing their business in the capitol, and
is on what is known as the "Metropoli-
tan Branch" of the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad. 1t has neither the, very rich
uor the ,ye-y poor among it's inhabi-
tants, the great part being in moderate
circumstances, and three in five of its
families owning the homes they oc-
cupy.
Jackson II. Ralston, whose name has
appeared many times in The Standard,
and who is prominent member of the
Washington bar. has long been resi-
dent at Hyattsville; and has also for a
number of years been thorough sin
gle taxer, and his great object has been
to make Hyattsville the first munich
patty in the United States to adopt the
single tax. 1t often happens that there
is more politics in a small town than in
a considerable city, and this was the
case with Hyattsville. At the outset
Mr.. Ralston found himself not only
alone in his idea respecting the ques-
ton of taxation, but regarded with sus-
picion whenever he ventured to raise
the subject. But he nevertheless per-
sisted, seizing every favorable oppor-
tunity to point a moral. He made no
effort to get into place of political
prominence, however, but put forward
others through whom he could work,
and whenever he found it necessary to
enter public discussion he always as
sumed the most careful and conserva-
tive of aspects. To those who knew,
his hand might be seen in the local
election, in the work of the local as
SCISSORS, in the growth of the sentiment
against tax on personality, culminat-
ing in the repeal of that law, and finally
in the passage through the Legislature
of an act empowering the town COM
missioners with political view for
the government and benefit of the COM
munity to exempt improvements from
taxation"
Having reached this point, Mr.. Rails
ton concluded to go into open politics,
and he stood for election as one of the
five town commissioners, quietly max
ing sure that at least two Others should
be nominated who shared his ideas on
the taxation question. These two were
George S. Britt and Charles II. Long.
The other two candidates were Thos.
H. Latimer and J. Andrew Aman. BY
this time Mr.. Ralston had won for him.
! self reputation fer marked ability
and careful and conservative ways and
he and the other four nominees were
elected without opposition.
At its first meeting the board of COM
missioners chose a president, and that
official was Jackson Ralston. Soon af.
terward the inevitable taxation ques-
ton came up and Ralston got n commit
tee of two appointed to inquire and re-
port, and on that committee had Mr..
Britt and himself appointed. While
this committee was at work by a truly
remarkable coincidence the town treas
urer. VIM. II. Richardson, who is chief
of the board of assessors, began to tall,
pretty emphatically about the outrage
of taxing improvements, the fruits OF
industry, and placing only a light tas
on land values, accruing from tho
growth of the community. BY SINH
larly strange coincidence, first, Hon
Tom l.. Johnston, member of congress
from Ohio, and afterward, Hon. Johr
Dewitt Warner, member of congress
from New York, visited Mr.. Ralston al
Hyattsville, and met a. number of the
most important people of the town, ant
made addresses and answered questions
on the taxation question. And third
strange coincidence occurred when Mr.
Ralston sent through the mails a copy
of the report of the johnson. District o.
Columbia tax assessment investigating
committee to every voter in the town.
At length came the final act of the
drama. Mr.. Ralston wrote the repor
of the inquiring committee, he and Mr.
Britt signed it, and on Thursday even
ing last, at the regular meeting of the
board of commissioners, Mr.. Britt pre-
scented it The report is too long to giv'
here in full, but some extracts viii
show its character. After a few lines t.
the effect that the inquiry had beer
made at the suggestion of many citizens
of the town and with the view of posi-
BILE action of the board, the repor
briefly reviews the progress of the tow
in matters of taxation.
When, in the 1885, We were granted charter
by its terms our annual levy of not TO exceed
fifteen cents on the hundred dollars was re
quired to be placed upon the personal property
LARD and improvements In the town as show
by the existing assessment roll for state ant
county purposes Under this charter we levie'
taxes upon lin round numbcrs) $500 in per
soeal property, sl05, 900 in land values SOL, 90
in improvements The inequality and injustice
o. this state and county assessment were 81
manifest that in 1890 the then board OF com