The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-03-13
FALL IN LAND VALUES.

FALL IN LAND VALUES.
Money Circulation Determines Every
thing-HOmes Hurt No One-A Sem
sible Letter.
To the Editor.
Mr.. Henry George says Protection or
Free Trade, Chap y: 'While all sorts of
products steadily fall in value, the value
of land steadily rises" This is an amazing
statement to make-notceable even among
a mass of similar postula tes-in view Of
the notorious fact that for many years
land has been steadily falling in price,
with exceptions here and there where
values have been in a measure sustained
by costly improvements and large incomes
but these exceptions do not make the rule
in the case of land values, no more than
exceptions do in other cases.
The fall in the prices of farming lands
has been estimated at an average of more
than per cent per year for the last 20
years, equal to an average loss of more
than so per cent to their owners. Farms
by the thousand, in all parts of the United
States be bought at prices ranging from
more than the value of improvements, and
frequently for less than the cost of the
buildings. Nor has the depreciation in
Land values been confined to the farms
Go into almost any town or village and
the market is burdened with a mass of
residence and other improved lands which
are for sale at prices which are but a.
slight advance over the value of the i'm
provements, and often, as in the case of
the farms, for less than the cost of the
buildings. And even in the large cities,
where money -congests during periods of
money contraction, like the present, and
tends to maintain 'land values by the
erection OF expensive buildings prices for
large classes of property have been for
many years steadily tending downward.
and the choice locations of income paving
business properties have, as a rule, hardly
maintained former values. Where values
nave been sustained it has been accom-
pllshed through extensive and costly i'm
provements and not because of any in
creased call for the land AS general
rule the money values or price of land has
peen Ialllng quite as steadily as the price
OF products, but possibly not in the same
ratio And yet, in the face of this notori-
GUS TACT, we are told that while all sorts
of land steadily risesr' If exceptional
cases make a rule, then Mr.. George NAV
be right, but if the general condition of
land values throughout the United States
make it. then he is wrong
but Mr.. George does not or will not see
that all values or prices are dependent
In a great degree upon the amount of
money in circulation. Prices are money
values and the factor money the creator
Oh money values, is ignored by him. The
money circulation is not the sole factor in
determining values or prices, but it is
1ne predomlhatlng and controlling factor
Generally speaking, it may be said that if
fxeS and controls prices or values. nrices
rising as the money circula ton is increa 6
ed, ana falling as it is contracted This
fact is too impregnably established TO he
at this late day in the consideration of tho
SUBJECT successfully disputed or even ig-
nored.
There is no other way by which Gland
values or any other values or prices NAV
De expressed except in the terms of the
money of account. Our mint of such money
being the dollar, it follows, as a matter of
controls and determines general prices or
values as expressed by that money.
Lana values thus determined having
oeen steaolly railing, as a rule, for many
preached by the Single Tax advocate ~ =
land values are due to the growth of non
ulatlon?' 1t is certain that population has
been constantly increasing and equally Ger
tain that land values as rule have been
steadily falling
tlnued there will soon be no executions To
the general rule of great depreciation If
land values" Even the choice locations in
the great cities. which serve as the exam
pies OF SO much of the Single Tax argu-
ment will yield their values to the crush.
ing force Of money contraction
Land values may be confiscated unite &c
surely by money contraction as by the Sin
gle Tax. 1t takes more time to do the work
but the operation is equally effective In &C.
result. Possibly this fact is the rea con n,h,
Mr. George and large past of his follow.
eIs oppose monetary reform and regard
importance" 0
Money contraction carried to it's ultimate
would obliterate land values" and all
other values as expressed in money There
peing no money in circulation a money
value could not be fixed or exist because
a price payable in dollars could not be maid
Lana values being a creature of the money
eilculatlon ana OF money expended for i'm
provements labor. interest, taxes, assess
ments, ETC., would have practically vanished
with other money values
While money contraction continues. in
proportion to population, land values"
general prices and the wages of labor will
values will go on increasingly even though
the population may meantime increase ten
fold.
Inc Single Tax theory was apparently
formulated from the standpoint of the great
city with its high-valued land, costly struc-
lures, paved streets and stone sidewalks.
and calculated solely for use in the metrop-
Oils. II 1t had been gotten up in settlers
cabin out in the open, on a Western prairie.
1t would probably have been adapted to
use on the farms and in the homes of the
people, and would doubtless have sung a
very different tune.
The fact that the farmer or mechanic
may own the land on which his house rests
cannot in any manner tend to the impov
erlshment of mankind, as Mr., George
would have us believe. The tendency of
home ownership is exactly the converse of
what he teaches.
Let us have free homes. held by an inyio-
liable title, exempted by law for a certain
area and valuation from all taxes and from
nd oil