Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-04-21
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
Single Tax Investigation in Wash
ington.
TcoNTINT.Ep FROM LAST ISSUE

out the country as one Oh Tue pHySlcidnS
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
missioners would approve the bill, and
that it would go into effect.
When DIR. Rayburn sat down another
property owner was ready. He was
Thomas II. 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 a doorway,
his eyes swapping and his whole man.
ner breathing defiance. He wanted to
know who the bill was going to bene-
fit Did it 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: 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 81. 1000, 900
instead of two and half or three mill
lions. It would make a difference to
the Washington Loan and Trust Co.,
and so it would to the man who owns
property next to it. but it would equal
ize 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 commits
sioners, and he made ringing single
tax speech. saying 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. Hen
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,
tax to his rent.
This brought John Dewitt Warner to
| his feet. 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, as we do have, a large
| number of lots that have houses upon
| them, and a large number of lots which
| do not have houses upon them, then the
| system of taxation which fines or taxes
| the man who puts a house upon 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: ut seems to me that the
poor man who has to pay the rent will
be taxed.
Mr. Warner: $50 far as 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,
add that they were as a unit for the bill.
The last oblector to the bill was NJ. /.
Weller, prominent real estate agent,
and member of the East Washington
associa ton, landowners organization.
Curiously enough, Mr.. Weller was one
of the experts whom Mr.. johnson had
called in to help him determine the real
value of the land of Washington. Mr..
Weller had come to scott and stayed to
pray''-that is, he learned SO very much
before he got up to speak, and from in
terruptions during his speaking, that he
seemed perpleXed and confused, and
afterwards admitted that he half be-
lieved the other side had the best of the
argument. Among other things he
said that there was now three thousand
vacant houses in Washington. where
upon Charles New burg got up and poured
in half dozen questions that went
to prove that there were a great many
houses in Washington containing two,
three. and four families each, and that
if it was proposed to give everybody
separate house there wouldn't be enough
houses to go around.
Everybody laughed, and Mr.. Weller
Joined, but he made no attempt to ans
vcr. He merely remarked that if
houses got SO cheap people with money
wouldn't invest. at which voice said:
But wouldn't the mechanic build? Yes,
he would
D,Je c,iI lr, .II oil