Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-09-21
TAX REFORM DEPARTMENT.


EDITED N BOLTON HALL
rIhls department aims 70 gsve everybody
IDEAS about tAxAtien (nos tarf61. Write your
opinions briefly. and fhsy win - puhlished q
discussed In their Surn Address this once. q
r Q. Box g. BuffAlo. Il II
WHAT THE SINGLE TAKERS SAY.
aThe Golden Rule Of Taxation.'.
Editor of the Advance: SIR Your
article on the principles Of Taxation
last Saturday had the right ring to it
and proved that your-paper was rightly
named.
infer that there is large number
of religious people among your readers.
Surely they ought to be interested in
honest government and just taxation.
He who foresaw all things and pro
vided for all things, foresaw and pro-
vided that with the increase Of popula-
ton and the development Of industry.
the organization of human society into
states or governments would become
both expedient and necessary.
No sooner does the state arise than Il
needs revenues This need il small at
first, while population is sparse, indus
try rude, and its functions few and
simple. But with growth of popula-
ton and advance Of civilization larger
revenues are needed.
Now, He that made the world and
placed man in it, as the means whereby
man might rise to higher powers and
become more and more conscious OF the
works of his Creator, must have fore
seen this increasing need and have
made provision for it That is to say:
The increasing need for public reven-
ues with social advance, being q nat
ural, God-ordained need. there must be
a right way of raising them-some way
that must accord with the moral law,
that we can truly say is the way in
tended by God.
Hence: It must not take from indi-
viduals what rightfully belongs to indi-
viduals 1t must not give some an adj
vantage over others 1t must not con-
fuse the distinctions of right or wrong,
and weaken the sanctions Of religion
and the state by creating crimes that
are not sins, and Furnishing men for do
ing what in itself they have an un-
doubted right to do. It must not re-
press industry. It must not check COM
merce. 1t must not punish thrift. It
must offer no impediment to the largest
production and the fairest division Of
wealth.
Consider the taxes on the processes
and products of industry by which
through the civilized world public rev.
enues are collected-the octroi duties
that surround Italian cities with barri-
ers; the monstrous customs duties that
hamper intercourse between so-called
Christian states; the taxes on occupa-
tions on earnings, on investments, on
the building of houses, on the cultiva-
ton of fields, on industry and thrift in
all forms. Can these be the ways God
has intended that governments should
raise the means they need? Have any
of them the characteristics indispens-
one?
All these taxes violate the moral law.
They take by force what belongs to the
individual alone; they give to the UNI
scrupulous an advantage over the scru-
pulous; they corrupt government, they
shackle commerce.; they fine industry
and thrift; they enrich some by inn
poverishing others Yet what most
strikingly shows how opposed to Chris
tianity is this system of raising public
revenues is its influence on thought.
Christianity teaches Us that all men
are brethren; that their true interests
are harmonious, not antagonistic. II
gives us, as the golden rule Of life, that
we should do to others as we would
have others do to US.
by their fruits you shall know
them" Can anything more clearly
show that to tax the products and
processes OF industry is not the way
God intended public revenues to be
raised?
But to consider what we propoae-the
raising Of public revenues by single
tax on the value of land irrespective of
spects this does conform to the moral
law. :. The value Of land ire
spective of improvements-does not
come from any exertion of labor
or investment of capital on or in 1.-THE
values produced in this way being
values of improvement which we would
The value of land irrespective
of improvement is the value that at
taches to land by reason of increasing
and social progress. This
is the value that always goes to the
owner as owner, for II the user be
different person from the owner he
must always pay the owner for it In
rent or in purchase money.