The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-03-07
"gxCLusIVE OF INPROVEMBNTs.n


A reader of the Journal in Richmond
has been reading the statement of the
principles of the believers in the single
tax theory recently published, and calls
attention to the fourth declaration, which
is as follows:
A tax on rental value of land. exclusive
of improvements, is indirect. equitable and
certain, etc.
AS a practical man, he takes exception
to the idea which Henry George, Repre-
sentative Il. l.. johnson, of Ohio. and
other brilliant but elusive refOrmers
have enunciated, as follows:
Can you inform your readers what is
meant by the words "exclusive of improve
ments." SO that it will have plain. definite
and easily understood meaniDgf know OF
that is inherent in land or upon which
taxes can be assessed and collected, except
that which is the result of the improve
ment" caused by labor on the land devel-
means to pay taxes and support life.
The difficulty with the writer of the
foregoing is that he is devoid of that
exuberant imagination which is SO
gorgeously developed in few people
that facts and experience can have no
consideration. He doubtless has seen q
man take up quarter section of wild
land in Indiana and bring it under cul-
tivatiOn by years of hard labor. He has
seen man with little capital take bit
of land beside stream, clear, gra de it,
build mill upon it, put in engines and
$hn,, .,1,rakrxx xrh,nh hoo
brought population and given value to
land. AS practical man, without glow
ing theories, he holds that the quarter
section of wild land had no "rental
value" and. indeed. no available value
until the brain and muscle of the farmer
made it to bear crops. In the case
of the mill, he knows that the bit of
swamp had no "rental value" and that
all the "rental value" the land about
had In subsequent years was due to the
mill, and that if the mill were burned
or abandoned the land about would
lose its "rental value" He knows.
and every practical man knows, that all
the rental value" that land has comes
from improvements, direct or indirect
that before land can have real rental
value" it must be improved, and that
its "rental value" will vary with the
extent of the improvements and the in
dustries and business which improve
ments bring to any portion of land. For
instance, a railroad is built through an
agricultural country or to a village,
whereupOn farms have rented for three
times as much as before the road was
built, and improved lots have COM
manded much larger returns. Would it
be just to tax the land thus enhanced in
value by improvements the same as
wild landsP If not, then this beautiful
theory of the single-tax apostles becomes
nonsense. In the center of Richmond
there are quarter acres that are worth
rs much as three or four acres in the
outskirts of the city, but under the sin
gle-tax theory of "a rental value exclu-
sive of improvements" land in the
heart and in the outskirts of the town
must be taxed the same. Nor can it be
said that the more favorable location
and tho greater use of certain lands
over others give them higher "rental
value" since moro favorable location
with reference to railroads and indus
tries are improvements. Thus, with
hard headed, sensible men. the single
land tax must be relegated to the list of
heresies and absurdities to which fiat
paper money, perpetual motion and the
| flying machine belong.