The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-08-06
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
The Michigan Labor Report.

The Michigan Labor Report.
To Michigan belongs the honor, and
to Henry A. Robinson, her couimis-
sioner of labor, the credit, of having
first statistically Investigated the rela-
lions of labor to the land. The ninth |
annual report of the Michigan bureau
of labor, while model in all the dc. !
partments that constitute the ordinary |
reports of such bureaus, includes a
totally new department., in which this !
subject is illustrated with statistics. |
Part w of the report, entitled Land
Values"-the department in question
contains tables showing the value OF
bare lands; the value of improvements;
the value of personal property: the as
sessed value of real estate in sixty-two
cities. including the value of bare land
in Detroit, the only city in which land
values could be automatically obtained;
the growth of the state in sections, and
its unoccupied territory; its growth OF
separate industries, and their compara-
tive growth; the phenomenal growth OF
real estate values by sections; and prof
| it's by separate industries, with their
| influence upon concentration of wealth
and the corresponding decline in farm
industry These tables are very vol
luminous, and to bring their data more
forcibly to the mind of the reader, the
bureau has with great. care prepared
| circular diagrams, il which the degrees
| of the circle are used in exact proper
ton with the figures of the tables.
The first of these diagrams shows
that the farming population is more
than half of the whole. From the sec
ond it appears that the tax assessments
of real and personal vnlues among
farmers and in cities is each about one
third of the whole assessment, and In
villages about one-sixth, while the real
estate assessment of mines Is only about
one-twelfth. In the next diagram these
assessment values are apportioDed ac-
cording to area, the farming values ap-
pearing to cover more than one-quarter
of the area, village values considerably
less than one-eighth and city values
only about one-sixtieth. Another dia-
CT am shows that in 1890 the proportion
of farm profits to mine profits was about
as one to two, though the proportion of
mines to area was only about one
sixtieth, and the proportion of mine
owners to farming population less than
one-one hundred and twentieth. This
condition is compared in the next dia-
gram with the condition in 1880, when
the proportion of farm profits to mine
profits was more than two to one. while
the area of mines, and the proportion OF
mine owners to farmers, was about the
same as in 1890. The sixth diagram
shows that the proportion OF farm
values to city real estate values is near
ly equal, farm values being little the
larger, and the two together somewhat
more that one-half of the whole. The
remaining values are about one-sixth OF
the whole in villages, about one-sixth OF
, the whole in timber, and about one
twelfth in mines
The most important diagrams are two
showing how few people, in proportion
. to the whole population, own all the
wealth, and how this condition comes
about. From the first of these it ap
pears that about one-fortieth OF the
, | population own all the timber lands
{ | mineral lands, railroad lands, city
, mortgages, manufacturers, railroad and
, farm mortgages; and from the other
= that farm profits are considerably les:
than an eighth, while city profits are
nearly quarter, mining profits about
quarter, timber profits almost half
and village profits about the same as
farming.
ct, hat n
. Michigan's share of national taxation
u the farms pay more than half and cite
abaSt three-tenths, villages paying tn
remainder; while under system tina
;, substituted real estate for the presen
= form of taxation, cities would pay some
what less than before, farms very mucl
less-only little more than quarter
villages slightly more than before, ant
mining and timber land their re
mainder.
Referring to the tables and diagram
the commissioner says: 'Itappears tina
the preponderance of land values is i
cities and towns, mining and forest re
gions; and that the agricultural popu
lation is comparatively poor in respec
of these values. A tax, therefore, ley
led directly upon real estate, and espet
tally that portion of it which consist
of the land irrespective of improvement
i. C., bare land values, would fall wit
comparative lightness upon the agricu
tural classes, and the burden of tn
same would in the main be transferre
y to the classes who own the very valu;
a. BILE lands of cities, the great CONNIE
q, cial centers, and the owners of III
10 bounties of nature in the form of valu;
BILE forests and the rich mineral depo
g it's"
~ In summarizing, the labor commi
" sioner says that land and labor are tt
source of all wealth, and that ''thel