The record-union., 1898-10-24
HOW IT WOULD WORK.
THE SINGLE TAX AS TT WOULD
APPLY TO SACRAMENTO.
The Reductions of Theoretical Rea-
soning to a Practical
Absurdity.

The following communication in re-
gard to Judge Maguire's single-tax
theory will be read with interest by
Sacramento taxpayers:
Eds. Record Union: Since you
printed my communication regarding
single-tax fallacies Gin issue of Octo-
Der l1st) I have been drawing some
vital conclusions from figures at hand
relative to assessed values in Sacra-
mento County If you will indulge
me little further / shall call the at
tention of your readers to some of
the effects that might be expected from
MAGNETISM, If it ever becomes law
here.
find that State and county taxes to
be collected in Sacramento County this
year, including poll taxes, amount to
$570, 681. "a. This sum is to be coll
lected, according to the figures pub
lished from Controller Colgan's report,
in the Record Union Of October
Goth, on a total property valuation Of
$50, 796, $50.
If the single-tax theory were to come
in vogue a primary effect would be
that the more than half million of
taxes now collected on the more than
levied on land values alone-that is,
on $18,674, 200. We should then see
taxes of all kinds knocked off from
improvements aggregating $500. 800,
from personal property assessed at
So, 635, $50, from railroad values of
81, LIT 400, and from all moneys and
solvent credits in the county.
In Sacramento City alone the lands
70 xyol,,ad e. Q1Q 600 on6 tho i'm
provements at $3.50, 12O. On this lat
ter value there would be no tax levies,
for the sums now paid by the owners
of improvements, would be collected
from owners Of the town lots. A man
owning a small cottage would escape
the small tax he now pays on it only
to pay a greatly increased tax CD his
land (his LOTT, while the owner Of pi-
amos, fast horses, palatial residences,
would go scot free" The personal
property now assessed at 81, S15, $50 in
Sacramento City, and the money and
solvent credits, S737,3O0, would also go
free. Let us foot up a moment! The
three items that would be freed Of
xes-improvements, personal prop
erty, money and solvent credits-aggre-
gate a value of S9,162,97O Add to
IlllS the value VI Tic IScl SStolC Ia
the city (S7, 94S, $40, heretofore named),
and you have $17111,7 100 as the sum on
which State and county taxes are now
levied. 1t requires only schoolboy
ability to figure that if, under Mcguire,
you are hereafter to raise the same
taxes on a little less than eight mill
ions than you now raise on little
more than seventeen, the tax rate will
L a1I vJo0
land. But it does not end here.
All Federal taxes, all sums now
raised by tariffs, all sums raised by
fees and licenses Of every kind, must
be added to the sum to be levied from
land. If you leave out all these for
the moment, however, and simply
double the present rate in this county,
what is the result? The present county
rate is S16O for each hundred dollars
in value; so that man owning land
valued at $1,000 would have to dig up
S64 a year taxes, as against So now;
but when the Federal imports (Which
would be trebled by abolishing tariffs
were levied, and when other fees were
put to the land tax, the owner of a
home would be in luck to get free with
tax less than 10 per cent of the
value Of the land annually.
DR.. William T. Harris, United States
Commissioner Of Education. shows In
a book called 1.-THE Right Of Property
and the Ownership of Land that
taxation of land sufficient to produce
the present revenue would be ~ per
cent. of it's present valuation, and this
alone would be sufficient to crush farm
ers completely. The removal Of taxa
| ton from Improvements on land-from
all productions Of art and skill, from
all money and personal property
would of course remove the bulk Of
taxes from the wealthy, at least from
| the wealth that they use for comfort
and luxury.
Let me ask what class of people own
the great improvements on land, such
as elegant houses? The rich. Who
own the treasures Of art, the stocks in
corporations? The rich. Who own the
diamonds, jewels, Libraries, pictures.
| fine equipages? The rich. Over all
that these wealthy ones own Mcguire
would pour the blessings of single tax.
| The doctrine is the reduction of the
| oretical reasoning to a practical alb
surdity However we'll his meaning,
however good his intentions, his plan
is so harsh that it would crush the
masses. STUDENT RANCHER-