The herald., 1895-04-04

could afford to hold land out of use. No
matter how valuable land became, the
community would absorb that value.
thus no speculative value could arise,to
enrich those who withhold the use of tie
earth from their co-heirs thereto. Turn
ing to the purely moral side of the SUBJ
Ject, NJ. V. L.asks. in substance, is fright.
when one has made home on values
less piece of land and community grow
ing around that land causes it to assume
great value, is it right to tax away that
additional value, the owner not holding
to sell on speculation - and the land
will not produce another potato or
turnip, or feed another child2" NV. i.
is betrayed into fundamental error in
assum in 9 athat the me land after a COM
munlty has grown around 1T is capable OF
producing more turnips or feeding more
children. Men labor to satisfy their de-
sires. Say half century ago A inherited
$1,000 and the land upon which the Bry-
son block now stands. Had he invested
his $1,000 and exerted all his energies upon
that land at that time, he could not have
secured even the poorest kind OF living.
But let him place the same amount of
capital and labor upon that little bit OF
land today, he would be able to rear
large family in the greatest luxury, where
before he must have starved alone. is
that not in effect proc ucing more pota-
toesP Recognizing the fact that this in
due to anything that A did, but solely to
the presence and enterprise of the COM
munity. single takers hold that is still
entitled to the full result of his enterprise
and energy, the values created by A. and
the community is entitled to the values
created by the community. In fact, tax
on land values is no tax at all. 1t is only
a payment to the community for the
privilege of exclusively enjoying the use
of a certain piece OF land to which the
whole community has an equal, natural
right.
The heart of the writer under considera-
tion has been saddened and ms Cor her)
sympathies aroused by the seething m sery
that prevails where the poor are he1ded
in our great cities. That feeling does
the writer credit. Would to God that the
sense OF injustice involved in that com
dition were burned into every soul. See
ing such misery where land bears some OF
the burdens of government, one is prone,
at first thought, to conclude that these
miseries must be intensified if ali the bur
dens of government were drawn from
land values. The mistake is the same in
kind as that made by the tramp who
went to sleep on pile of stones with
single feather under his head eff one
feather is as hard as that, he unused.
what agnony must those poor people
suffer who sleep with whole pillow case
full beneath their heads" let as more
feathers make softer neadrest. SO pay
ing community expenses with commu-
nifty created values exclusively would do
away with that one evil from which near
ly all others, either directly or indirectly,
spring.
There is this difference between land
and values produced by labor: Tax
quinine for instance, and Quinine be-
comes scarcer and dearer. Tax land and
it becomes cheaper and more plentiful.
Wherever land is cheap home lis easily
acquired, and where 1t is practically free
as the single tax would make it, there
could be no crowding nor the immortality
and i'll health that arises from the con-
ditions that cause people to densely pack
th em selves into tenement huoses. Who
ever heard of overcrowding in new
community or where land is cheap?
Now as TO the other question that seems
t. puzzle the correspondent | am trying
to answer: Since only life and personal
pr roperty require protection of govern
ment, land needing no police or fire de-
partment, why should not personal prop
erty pay all the taxes and land none?
l answer, good government enhances
row we were deprived OF our police and
fire departments. life and property would
be unsafe Business could only be done
here at great risk. Fewer goods would
be produced and sent here. and fewer
people would live here and assume the in
CIeuS6Q TlSk Ol uOliS ~. lhOoO eboo Jh-
tinued to do business here would get
none of THEW labor and goods, but land
values would tend to ard zero. IT, on the
other hand, our o.,y government were TO
improve TO the very highest degree OF
efficiency, and honesty were to prevail IN
all its departments, gas. water and teie-
phone service supplied at cost, intemper-
ance and crime entirely done away with,
business would be facilitated laborers
would crowd in. profits and wages would
go down. but land values would go sky
ward Good governm ent is the practical
application of the best impulses that an,
innate the community as whole. The
benefit of such application attaches itself
to all the land that such community oe-
cupies. Now why should not the COM
munity use the funds itself has called into
being. to meet its own 1equlrementsf
Besides it must be rememb bered that q
tax on personal property can be shifted
Tax hats and hats become dearer, but
landlords already collect all the rent they
can get They always take all the traffic
will bear. No mat er how much taxes
they have to pay they could not under the
single tax take any more. As mele land
lords they produce no wealth; under the
single tax they would get none:
SAM LEVI.