The herald., 1895-11-01
TAXATION AND VACANT LOTS

A few weeks ago the New York World
editorially advocated and urged with all
the vigor peculiar to that great journal,
the assessment ant taxing of vacant lots
IN that metropolis at their full value.
The article called forth simultaneously
the strongest possible commentator and
the bitterest opposition. Since then the
World has received flood of communica-
tons, many OF which 1t has published.
Despite the denunciations of wealthy
land spectators and monopoists, that
paper, instead OF modifying its demand
Tor vacant lot taxation, reiterates it IN
frequent editorials which are producing
CONSERVATION in the ranks OF those who
grow rich from the enterprise OF others
instead of 10y their own efforts. The
World discloses and comments upon the
fac. that there are vacant lots within
the corporate limits of New York num-
bering up into thousands, which are i'm
mensely valuable but which are assessed
yearly at a valuation shamefully dIspro-
portionate TO the prices at which the
owners offer them for SALE if indeed they
ara for sale at all. Strange as it may
seem the taxing powers in New York, az
clScNucIt, Setll " oNSIloOh tho
able fact that whatever value attaches to
Il CITY lot comes to it by the growth and
enterprise of the community; that with
out population and Improvements and
business and desirable social conditions,
land would have no value. And vet in
New FORK vacant land is never assessed
at more than 40 per cent OF its actual
value. 1t is well known that while sew
eral hundred thousand human beings are
crowded like Gagged animals into tene
ment houses of New York, amid sur
roundings productive of physical and
moral disease, one half the area of that
metropolis is yet unim proved and is held
out OF use for speculative purposes.
Many OF the vast fortunes possessed by
New York aristocrlts, notably tile Astors,
have come either wholly or in part from
land values which the com munitv DIS a
whole produced, with no assistance from
the present generation OF pampere1
drones themselves. The tax laws of New
York direct that all property shall be as
sessed at its actual cash value: vet it is
common thing for an assessment to be
made on vacant land at not more than
% per cent of the price asked oy the
owner. The fact that vacant ground,
however valuable it may De, yields no
revenue to its owner is liable to make an
assessors heart tender and his conscience
elastic, especially when the owner is rich
and liberal.
recent article in the Worlt urging
the taxation of vacant lots the same as
improved lots equally valuable as to loCa'
ton. states fact which probably Is no t
generally known in this country. 1t re-
fers to the industrial condition of Japan.
In that EN- pire land speculation is I'M
known. No person is there permitted to
hold land out OF u.s.. The owner must
use it or re.inquish his claim to some
one who Will. 1t is SAID that there is not
an unemployed workman in Japan who
is willing to work and needs employ
ment; also That grinding and degrading
poverty. such as dsGraaes Europe and
America, is unknown on japanese soil.
The World is pushing its proposed tax
reform measure all the harder becaus. OF
the opposition arrayed against it and the
abuse heaped upon the paper from GER
tain quarters. There has become "a ii cree
fight netween the World on one side and
the flesh and the DEVIL on the other.
New YORK, however, is not alone in the
matter of overcrowded tenements stand
ing in strange proximity to vacant
ground held at fabulous prices Similar
conditions exist in every other large city,
and similar results necessarily follow.
The fact that in many of our great cities
the honest wealth producers and taxray-
els are rapidly awakening to the inj1s-
tice OF existing taxation methods is Il
hopeful sign. Everybody should be sat
listed with even.handed justice for all
and none should he content with less.