The Opelousas courier., 1895-04-20
SINGLE TAKERS BILL.
a.eady for the LegisIature---Henry Georre
lays 1t Is Good as a Starter,

IVA s"S SIN tEFe-.~ t1enrv GHOrRe
Says 1t Is Good as a Starter,
A large audience gathered in Chick.
erlng hall last night to hear the report
or n committee appointed by the Sin
gle lax mass meeting to draw I'D a
oil to provide relief for the tenement
house population of the city. The re.
port, which was in the form of a bill
to be presented to the legislature. was
read by DIR. Leverson.
The bill purports to be an act to en-
courage the building Of improved
dwellings, in cities of the first class.
IL has for its first provision that at the
first election there shall be submitted
to the people the question of exempt
ing buildings and other improvements
on land from taxation.
In each city where a majority of the
votes cast shall be in the affirmative, all
levy and collection of taxes upon real
estate shall, On and after the first Mon
day in January, 1896, be on the value
OF land irrespective of dwellings on
the land. Nothing in the act is to be
construed SO as to diminish the proper
$500 NJ ~ 1oSS VA WIN any QUILL
city may be required to pay.
In his speech upon the merits of the
bill, Henry George said, in part:
II do not believe in quacks. who
would cure a broken leg with a dose of
soothing sirup. Mr.. elders plan for
tenement house reform does not go to
the root of the evil.
"If you want to give these poor peo-
pie the relief sought for, you must
make room rent cheaper. These rene
dial measures proposed by the Tene-
ment House commission have the d.
rect effect of increasing rents. They
also increase the amount of the tax
levy, which falls not upon the owners
but upon the users of the houses
zone does not need to be a philoso-
pher to see the effect of allowing peo-
pie to hold land idle. From the top Of
the Century building can be seen in
Union Square three of the most valu-
able pieces of land in the city lying
idle. / am told that $40. 900 a year, for
a limited term, has been offered for
II of these pieces of property on
which to build, yet the owner purposes
to hold it idle until more than $40 900
is offered for it. We do not propose
this measure as a panaeea, but rather
as a practical remedy that will do
something at once. AS soon as passed.
building would be stimulated, and the
holder of vacant land would begin to
think it time to improve his property.
It is not a complete remedy, and it is
not the single-tax remedy. New peo-
pie would flock to the city, demand for
accommodations would increase, and
the price of land would increase.
1--WE make no quarrel with the tene-
ment house commission that they have
not proposed to abolish poverty, but
because they have carefully kept out
of sight everything that tends to abol-
ish poverty. These little milk-and-
water remedies, that make a pretense
to help the poor, while doing nothing
to hurt the rich, can accomplish moth
ing at all.
AT the Cooper Union meeting much
said about what had been done in
the line of tenement house reform in
London and Naples and other European
read in the cable dispatch in
The Sun this morning of the terrible
condition Of the poor in Liverpool, and
Liverpool was one of the cities men
toned. Why, when the socialists
opened a soup kitchen there the men
and women trampled over n another
to get food.
What is going on here went on in
Rome, only as much fasteras our meth
DDS Of locomotion are faster than were
those of ancient times. 1t is not mere
" that government is breaking down
IN New York, but in Philadelphia, in
Boston, in Chicago and everywhere in
America. In this bill is the beginning
Of the only remedy that will save it.
N. Y. Sun, February Is.