The record-union., 1898-11-02
That Single Tax.

Eds. Record Union: L nave just
finished reading the Bees pretended
replv to nv two articles against the
single-tax theory and l nave lookeo
In vain for an answer to my vital ac-
cusation against the theory-that 1t
would excuse the wealthy owners OF
palaces. equipages, diamonds, gold II
self, and put all taxes on land; tnat
the present Federal, State, county ana
municipal taxes, necessarily increased
by the abolition of tariffs (Which is
part Of the single-taX theory Would
amount, according to the estimate OF
DR. w T. Harris United States COM
missioner of Education, TO from i12
to 10 per cent of the value OF real
estate, a sum sufficient to crush the
farming class entirely.
l fail to see any reply to this; neither
has the Bee" attempted to show me
what l am to do to raise the taxes
on my fifty-acre farm under single tax.
At present make a living there put IL
worries me to pay the taxes. Wnat
am 1 to do when you take the purden
from all the banks and personal prop
erty, including houses, and put 1t on
the land? My house will then cease
to be a home; it will become burden
Under the present system L can hold
it, but under any such system as Ma
guire proposes only wealthler man
than I could afford to keep 1t.
Again, Mr. Bee" where is your at
tempt to reply to my point about the
shifting of the tax from the land 10 It's
products. l used an illustration about
hogs then. Let US try wheat now L
assert that if a wheat farmer who pays
y &c
pay 500 under the Mcguire system
every poor man from San Francisco
to Boston must pay more for bread
Why? Because you can't plaster the
tax down to the land. There is no
secret by which you can prevent the
market price at which things are sold
from increasing exactly as fast as the
cost of production increases.
Edward Atkinson has shown that the
work of seven men for one year (aver-
aged from a vast quantity of producD
will deliver LOCO barrels Of Dakota
flour in Boston, including the sowing
and reaping, the milling, barreling and
freighting, and every process in the
labor from the day of planting until
the discharge of the freight. The work
of one and one-haf men for another
year makes this flour into bread, de-
livers it to bakers stores, and from
there to customers houses. Railway
charges are but a fraction of the cost
of a scent loaf of bread. The retail
price is built upon the first cost of the
wheat, every sort of labor that touches
it being added in the march from the
grain field to the poor mans table.
The first cost of the wheat is the ag-
gregate of everything from taxes to
insurance from plowing to the cost Of
machinery. VIII you tell me how the
loaf of bread can escape the single tax?
One of your fallacies l must answer.
You say: Land values would recede
under single tax; again, land values
being lower, it would be easier for a
poor man to acquire a house of his
own
In the name of fair play, how could
land avoid taxes by becoming cheap?
If the value of land should sink to
5 per cent. of its present value, and
if you started out, like Mcguire, to
raise all your taxes on the land, the
Government would simply be obliged to
raise the rate of taxation to twenty
times the present assessment, and thus
make it pay every year $50 per cent. of
it's total value, in order to get the
revenues requisite to carry on govern
ment
What value would lands be to the
poor man, if taxes were so high as to
amount to a confiscation of the crops
each year? or when the annual taxes
on a lot would be far greater than its
value?
Suppose you start out to raise a
million dollars on $100,00O000 real
estate? Can the owner of the real
estate escape if his land goes down
to a tenth of its value? No; for the
rate of taxation must be raised as
fast as the land value sinks. Think
this over.
You may call me Illogical until you
wear out your types, but that is no
reply to my objections. Omit calling
names and put on your thinking cap.
STUDENT RANCHER.