St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-25
IN a BROAD SENSE

SnOuiQ Legislation NOhe-GA"
Representative Sheets Ideas.
To the Editor of the Globe.
The agitation in the interest or good
roads should at this time be kept i'll line
with genuine democracy. There should
be no faint of paternalism in the future
good roads" legislation. All writer's
on this subject agree upon one thing.
namely. that good county roads would
enhance the value of adjacent lands.
The owners of such lands, then, would
be largely benefited by improved high
ways. A little candid thought will con-
vince any one that. i'll financial sense,
no one but the land owners will receive
any benefit. The farmer can market
his products with less labor, but he will
not pay his hired man any higher
wages for hauling hundred bushels
Of wheat TO market on good road than
he would for hauling fifty bushels on
bad road. The tenant farmer will have
TO pay a higher rent to the owner OF q
farm adjacent to good road than one
not 50 advantageOusly located. The
man who buys wild land for the pur-
pose of opening up farm will have to
pay higher price for land connected
with markets by good roads than he
would for land not so favored. Fur
Their. it appears that "property' in
town connected with the surrounding
country by good roads will be OF greater
value than in towns of other equal adj
vantageS but without good road con-
nections. But the only property to
be thus enhanced in value is business
and dwelling lots. 1t is conceded
by all that good roads will make
cheaper farm products, cheaper
goods, cheaper building material,
cheaper houses. Anything that re-
duceS the cost of carrying products of
all kinds from the producer to the con-
sumner cheapens the price of such
products. No kind of property in town
or in country will have greater value by
reason OF improved roads, except lands
and lots. The farmers house and barn,
his fences, his teams, will have no
greater value than before the improve
ment of the roads. But his land will be
of greater value. This enhanced value
on his farm will be precisely the same
per acre as Oh the unimprOyed land
across the road owned by some non-resi-
dent-a foreigner, perhaps, whose foot
has never pressed American soil. The
merchant who does business in a town
enjoying the benefits of good roads sells
more goods, and sells them cheaper,
and pays a higher rent than COM
petitOr in town not so favored. The
buildings they occupy may De of equal
cost, but the one built on lot the more
favorably located will bring the higher
rent The greater rental value is in the
lot.
Now. it seems to me it would be
eminently Just, and democratic, wjthal,
to secure the revenue necessary to build
good roads by laying tax upon the one
class of property which receives all the
benefits. A simple law which would
enable the land owners along any high
way which it is proposed TO improve
to lay tax upon adjacent lands
upon petition of a certain per cent
of such land owners would solve the
whole problem of road revenue. The
tax should be the same per acre on I'M
proved and unimprOved lands OF equal
natural advantage. In order to secure
this, the assessment laws should be
changed so that the assessors books
would give the site value Of farms sep
arate from the total value, and the tax
could then be levied upon the-site value,
which alone is enhanced by the lm-
provement of the adjacent road.
1 do not claim any originality i'll pro-
posing this plan for raising road reVe-
nues. A method very similar is already
in practice in Indiana for improving
country roads, and | believe street
improvements in st. Paul are made
on this plan. Those who want state aid
and county aid as we'll as national aid
for country roads ought not to be found
outside of tine ranks Of those who think
the foreigner can be made to pay the
tariff. Why should A who owns farm
in B township, be taxed by the county
board to help build a road in q town
ship in distant part of the county? Or
why should property in Houston county
be taxed to build roads in Kittson
county? Or the people of Minnesota pay
taxes to be expended in building roads
| in Texas? The only excuse for such q
system of aid in road building is that
each locality would get as much aid
from all other localities as it pays out.
| If such be the case why not let the peo-
pie of each locality raise their own rev.
enue and eXpend it themselves? S &aa
Again, we have no need of road
commission or bureau I'D the state or ua-
| ton, nor a cabinet officer whose ardu0uS
| duty it shall be to gather statistics on
methods of road building. We do not
want to pattern after Europe, where
such eXcellentroads are built at the eX-
| penSe OF the laD0rlng class ana TOT the
| benefit of the landlords: where the
| enormous advantages OF the improved
highways are of no benefit to the
masses, except, perhaps, to enable them
to travel out of such favored countries
| and emigrate to q country noted for its
bad roads. European governments col
| lect enormous revenues by tariff duties
and other taxes upon labor and use
them in the spirit of paternalism for ex-
tensive internal improvements which
enhance the value of lands. This in
crease in land values goes into the
| pockets of the landlords III the form Of
annual rents, which the peasant ten
antry must pay for the opportunity to
cultivate the soil OF their native land.
Unless we can build up our new road
system upon more equitable principle,
we had better travel through mud
awhile longer. j. II. SHEETS.
| Hartford, MINI.