El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-05-05

erlv exercises. 1t would divert to the
publ treasury that immense fund, the
annual rental value of land. which o.
itself would be sufficient for all ex.
panse5 of government. 1t would re-
! store to government those monopolies.
the railroads, the telegraph lines, the
express system, and TO municipalities,
the providing of water, gas, electric
l ght and street car service. These
| functions being monOpDlieS, and not
open 10 competition, are essentially
proper functions of government. 1t is
| these mOnopo les that have given the
| INNER fortunes to every one of our
| ab1ormally wealthy men; it is thes1
mOnopolies thai being held in private
owners hip are the source of pra 'tical-
lv all the corruption in our politics.
Now let Us see what the sing Tux
would do for Ell Paso. Iu the first
place let it be clearly und rstood that
the single tax is not a tax upon land but
upon the value of land upon the 10 "a
ton which is occupied. Al users of
ordinary land, such as our houses are
"uilt upon. would have far less taxes TO
pay under the single tax system than
a, present, for all buildings, improve
ment-. and pc sOnal property, in short
everyth NC other than the value of
land when is now taxed, would then
be exempted. The new revenue would
be collected mostly from holders of
valuabl land in the centre of pOpula-
ton, aud from holders of.unjmprov I'd
land vacant lots) all over the city The
SINGLE tax would immed ately tax
away from these vacant lots all
speculative value. The spectators
who now hold them out OF ule would,
therefore, be obliged to build upon
them at once. or surrender them to
others who would build upon th@m.
II we had The single tax it would |
First LOWER RENT: for, with vacant |
lots taxed up to their full rental value |
they would then have only nominal
selling price. consequently the $4,000 |
to $1,000 90 or more which a build ng |
lot now costs would be saved. and rent |
would be computed on ust that much |
less value. Furthermore. there would |
be so much building done by those who |
would be compelled to either build or
to surrender their land that rents |
would be still further lowered. Again,
the cost of blildiDg would be lesssned |
by the abolition of tariff taxes which
now are levied upon building material.
Second RAISE WAGES: b cause nat
ural opportunities all over the country
being thrown open to use, there would
be an enormously increased demand for
all classes of labor. Monopoly of land
being broken, labor would always be
able 10 get a living from the land when
not satisfied with the wages offered.
The Pingree potato patch experiment
at Detroit has demonstrated what la
Dor can do when land is free. There
S plenty of land to be had now, it is
rue, but this available land is either
50 barren, or so far away from the
markets, as to render its cultiva,i lion
lnprnti table. Monopoly now holds the
Key to all desirable farming land not in
lse and this fact largely accounts for the
apparent OvercrOwdiug of our country
yhen we actually have room to sustain
wenty times our pres ent population.
Third-REDUCE THE COST OF LIV-
Nc. both by the abolition of tariff
axes, and in consequence of the opera
ion of railroads by government on an
honest basis. The annual rental value
# land furnishes a fund so far in excess
If pr sent expenditures thai in Ell Paso
free public library. free water, music
n the plaza and other benefits could
as ly be pad for out Of il. while the
influence of those whose interest it is
0 keep the city in debt would be ban
shed from loo al politics, and we could
'aaut fly and make use of our city park
instead OF giving it away, Ike a mess of
cottage, to a private club. II
BENRY WARE ALLEN.