New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1894-05-19

must bny; they corrupt gOver1
ment; they make Oaths u mocker,
they shackle commerce they fir
industry and thrift; they lessc
the wealth that men might enjo,
and enrich some by impoverishin
others.
Yet what most strikingly show
how opposed to Christianity is tl,i
system of raising public revenue
is its influence on thought.
Christianity teaches us that a
men are brethren that their tru
interests arsAa<monious, not ar
tagOnistic. IL asps, as the gold
en- rule of life, We should do t
others as we wdSM have others d.
to us. But out OF the system @
taxing the products and processe
OF labor, and out of it's effects in in
creasing the price of what som
have to sell and others must buy
has grown the theory of "protec
!lon," which denies this gospel
which holds Christ ignorant of po
litical economy and proclaims law.
OfnatiOnal well-being utterly at va
rance with His teaching. Thi,
theory sanctifies national hatreds
it inculcates q universal war of hos
tile tariffs; it teaches peoples tina
their prosperity lies in imposing on
the productions of other peoples
restrictions they do not wish i'm
posed on their own; and instead O
the Christian doctrine of man,
brotherhood it makes injury of for
eigners a civic virtue.
"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 propose
1.-The raising of public revenues by
n single tax on the value of land
irrespective of improyements-is to
see that In all respects this does
conform to the moral law.
Let me ask your Holiness to keep
in mind that the value we propose
to tax, the value of land irrespec-
tive of improvements, does not come
from any exertion of labor or invest.
ment of capital on or in 1.-THE val.
ucs produced in this way being
values of improvement which we
wNnld exempt. The value Of land
irrespective of Improvement is the
value that attaches to land 10y rca-
son Of increasing population and
social progress. This is u value
that always goes to the owner as
owner, and never does and never
can 60 to the user; for if the user
be different person from the owner
he must always pay the owner for
t in rent or in purchase money ;
while If the user be also the owner,
t is as owner, not as user, that he
receives it, and by selling or rent
ng the land he can, as owner, con-
inue to receive it after he ceases
o be user.
Thus, taxes on land irrespective
If Improvement cannot lessen the
'ewards of industry, nor add to
,rices, nor in any way take from
he individual what belongs to the
Individual. They can only take the
'alue that attaches to land by the
growth Of the community, and
which therefore belongs to the COM
nunity as q whole.
To take land Values for the state,
lbOlishing all taxes on the products
# labor, would therefore leave to
he laborer the full produce Of Ia.
'or to the individual all that right
ully belongs to the individual. 1t
gould impose no burden on indus
~, no check on commerce, no pun.
on thrift; it would secure
he largest production and the fair.
st distribution of wealth, by lcav-
ne men free to produce and to ex.
hange as they please, without any
rtificial enhancement Of prices;
nd Ly taking for public purposes
value that cannot be carried Oft,
hat cannot be hidden, that of all
alues il most easily ascertained
MI most certainly and cheaply
it would enormously les
en- the number Of officials, dispense
18th oaths, do away with tempta.
ions to bribery and evasion, and
b0lish man made crimes in them.
plves innocent"
Extract from the Pope's letter
"The law, therefore, should favor
and it's policy should be
, induce as many of the people as
ossible to become owners. Many
xcellcnt results will follow from
,is; and first Of all, property will
srtainly become more equitably
ivided. For the effect of civil
hange and revolution has been to
wide society into two widely diff
ring castles. On the one side,
,ere Is the party which holds the
Dwer becauae it holds the wealth /; |
hich has 10 it's grasp all labor and
I trade, which manipulates for its
w6 benellt and its own purposes
1 ne sources Of supply, and which