The herald., 1894-07-10
REV. J, 5. THOMSON'S IDEAS.
He Makes an Argument For
Single Tax.
The Latest Economic Fad Discussed
in an Earnest Way.
Sons Political EconOmy-rhe Obj ec-
tions to Assessments and As
sessors-Points OF the
Argument.

The audience completely filled the
large lecture room OF Unity church last
night st the regular meeting of the sim
~-------7., o..uivr, inc speaker OF the
evening, and spoke substantially as tol-
lows:
Given set of people on an leland. the
land OF which is not all equally valua-
BILE. The people, on the other hand, are
all equally desirous of using land direct
ly. Some of those natives obtain a fine
city lot, which becomes valuable. cay
$50 900; then, who makes that value
That increase OF values by surrounding
civilization is the proper source for pub.
lie revsHue.
Who pays the land tax?
When hat dealer sells many hats he
can afford to pay the tax on the land
cannot pay the tax. Then who pays
the taxes? Why. the industrious pso-
pie pay the tax. The single tax would
be paid by all the people.
The VanderbiIts and Goulds pay but
little taxes on money, but they own real
estate under their railroads. The single
tax would reach them. but q money tax
will not reach then.
The farmer is very necessary ele-
ment. We could not live without him.
The farmer pays taxes. Who helps him
Why, the fellow who eats his potatoes.
have heard that ii the government
received 81 for every $1,000 worth of land
it would keep all our governments in
luxury. | would discharge nine out of
every 10 officers we now have in the gov
ernments, then those nine euperfuous
officers might do something useful and a
single tax would yield ample revenue.
We need government that will in
terfere with private business az little as
possible. We don't want q paternal,
grandmotherly government in America.
| am in favor of government. but |
want it simple and | want it honest.
elso want it polite. aad want it to tend
to Its business and lot me tend to mine.
When | buy a piano and pay for it
the assessor makes me pay for it again
and again and again on the inetallmsnt
plan.
knew o millionaire who was taxed
on $50, 900 who said: l can use the tax
on the rest Of my wealth to better sd.
vantage than the government can. II
could see that governments used taxes
for useful purposes, l would pay on
every cent own.
Asia Minor is the richest land in the
world, and the people are the poorest in
the world; because If man raises three
calves the government takes one. II l
raise two calves there it takes one also.
The government makes the people poor
by taxation. Even now our own gov.
ernment is trying that came plan.
Immediately after Mr.. Thomson's
eloquent address the audience enjoyed q
friendly discussion. Mr.. Clarence A.
Miller being the first to gain the floor,
said: We singls-taxers are glad to have |
so distinguished and eloquent man as |
Dr. Thomson with US. We do not agree
with the doctor on everything, but we
can shake hands with him on the single
talk philosophy.
No assessor is competent to properly
assess ell kinds of personal property.
Even if he could find it all he could not
tell what it ia worth. Taxes on
property and improvements
are, therefore, failures. But the
tsx on land values is a success because
any assessor can find the land and when
he inds it he can tell what it is worth.
In fact, land could all be assessed
right from the court house, with
out going to zee 1t at all. Any real
sstate man can tell you the value of
land per front foot anywhere in the
city, but where is the man who can SIT
in his office and tell you what every
house in town is worth. or much less
W hat is the value OF all personal prop
srty? Wo have now a land tax, an i'm
tax, personal property tax
and hundred other taxes, but our land