The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-07-16
A Plea for a Single Land Tax.

A Plea for Single Land Tax.
It is said that certain ruler of Egypt
imposed tax upon date trees for the
purpose of raising revenue to meet his
large household expenses and, incident-
ally, a few expenses of state. This wise
man reasoned that since dates were
profitable crop in the valley CT the Nile
he could calculate upon date trees as
permanent source of revenue. BESIDES,
his minions could go about ahi count
the producers trees and easily Tx their
tax rates, and easily collect them, too,
for no light penalty was to be visited
upon the delinquent.
Shortly after harvest, however. when
the worthy ruler set his governmental
machinery to work to grind the taxes
out of his date growers, he learned WITH
dismay that they were cutting down
their date trees and unless he counter
manded his orders quickly there would
be few date trees left in Egypt so the
good man countermanded his orders,
but too late, however. to turn off the
heavy blow that fell upon his country.
1t seems to me that our system of tax
alton is not very much unlike the
Egyptian rulers, though not SO notice
ably disastrous. His was positive
check on personal enterprise in regard
to date tree culture; ours is preventive
check on personal enterprise in regard
to improvements of nearly every kind.
Now. there is one commodity only
that community can tax without ham,
pering production, and that commonly
is land. Taxation ON land will never
make any less land, but taxation on I'M
provements tends to curtail them.
The taxation of land only would be
both Just and economical just be-
cause incomparably more than In any
thing else does society create value IN
land. One need oaly to look about him
to see piece of land, originally unim-
proved meadow, where the owners
have acquired great wealth through nc
efforts of their own, but simply by the
value which growing community has
given to it. Society, therefore, has
right to tax this value it creates: but II
manifestly has not an equal right tt
tax improvements, which are the pro
. ducts of individual efforts only.
. A single tax on land would also bt
economical. for the concentration o.
taxes ON land would discourage thu
: holding of it in idlcness, as at present
for speculative or other selfish purposes
| When the concentration became com
, plete men could not afford to monopo
t lie several times so much land as the.
: would be able or willing to utilize, thu
e opening up a chance for the disinherite'
Q millions to secure sites for future homes
| And as improvements would not
s taxed, as at present, capitalists woul
t be encouraged to vie with one anothe
G in tie beauty and grandeur of tn
d structures they would erect. 1t woul
j then become possible for the industriou
h ones among the tenants in the larg
n cities to secure homes in the country c
: in the suburbs, thus relieving our cite
F. of that congestion SO destructive to on
n peoples health and morals.
r Those who work the land, while b
@ ing discouraged from holding MOI
e land than they could profitably mai
s are. would be encouraged in cultivatiu
v and improving that which they coul
r utilize. by reason of the great an
& permanent stimulus that would
r. given to production, the Industrious
h inclined among the unemployed cou
S, easily find employment, or they cou
0. become landed proprietors theinselve
v And, as this easy access to land not
ID use by others would serve as safe
tx valve in relieving the severe pressu
n of competition for employment amor
m wage earners, the question OF hours
j. labor and of wages would happily a
at Just themselves.
ne In short, instead of nation of Ian
lords, spectators and sharpers, wi
ne their victims-tenants and tramps-'
at should become nation of homes whe
ny the greatest possible incentive won
of be given to the production of wealth
b. every kind; where the food and r
r. uhent of one man need not depend
or the nod of another; where the need
ne honest labor might fall upon soil tt
on would not produce the tares of wa
ut slavery, of poverty, of hopelessness
an spring up and choke IT'D. j. Hayes,
an Boston Globe.
'Or Propress in Iowa.