The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-22

State.
AS the one to whom the Examiner gave
credit editorially with carrying Australian
ballot reform in the Assembly, I have
believed. and still believe, that the the
orv and intent of the law was not only
+o maintain the existence of but to en-
| courage the formation of political par
ties, so that all political opinions might
! be expressed and protected on paIiot
| printed at public expense. That so long
as any number of persons We're deslrous
! of voting a party ticket as such, they
should have the right so to do. where
such party had polled 3 per cent, the per-
| centage required, of the entire vote at
| the last preceding election. 1t would have
| taken only five weeks from and after the
| decision of the court for the people 10
| have decided on their ballots whether or
not the party had the necessary per
| cent to entitle it to remain in existence
| under the operation of the law ltselI-
| To show the partys complete annlhlla-
/ ton IT is only necessary to suggest that
! two wears from now it will be Impossible
/ in view of fusion for any certhcate TO De
! filed with the necessary afhdaVlt attdCheu
! that the party as such polled per cent
| of the vote at the preceding election. Inc
! court stated that that point Wouid De oe-
| termined when properly an issue peloIe {
| it. The rule that perjury consists OF
/
know to be true, as well as that which
| one knows to be untrue, will prevent any
| such certificate being filed in behalf or
! the Peoples party.
! With the party manipulated ana traced
| and finally adjudged out of existence eA-
| cept on a fusion basis, as heretofore eX-
| planned, the question arises as TO the DUTY
| of the individual voters of the Peoples
! party. If they vote the fusion ucket
! they will be voting with a party Whlch'
! when in full national power, did nothing
! for a postal telegraph system, nothing IN
| the line of governmental ownership ana
operation of railroads, nothing 10 reform
! the currency, in fact nothing IN the Hhe
| of Peoples party principles. Reasoning
| by analogy, If the postoffico system OF To-
| day were in the hands Of a private cor
! poration ii would remain there forever so
| far as either the Democratic or Repub-
! lican party is concerned. vote for
| fusion is a vote for Democracy and the
! complete extinction of the principles of
! the Peoples party; vote against fusion
will constitute a rebuke to the fusionists
| who bargained away the life of the party
! that sprang into existence in opposition
to the two old parties alike.
The candidacy of Mr.. Mcguire is in di-
| rect opposition TO the fundamental prin-
| ciples of the Peoples party. In a speech
| in the House of Representatives, Febru-
airy IS, 1898, he said:
! Socialists Populists and charty-mongers the
people who would apply little remedies for a
great evil, all barking up the wrong tree.
The upas OF our civilization is our treatment
| OF land. 1t is that which is converting even
the march Of invention into blight There
| is but cure for business depression; there
| is no other; that is the single tax.
What is the meaning of single tax as
! the words are used?
Iar /
ues to the exclusion of all other taxes not
only for local and State purposes, but for
| national purposes as well, this last being
evidenced by Maguire's motion to strike
| out the income tax feature of the Wilson
! bill and insert in lieu thereof the tax on
| land values Every single-taxer is a
| free-trader, and on principle opposed to
any tariff, license or any tax except on
land values. Henry George, of whom Mr..
| Mcguire Is a disciple, supported Cleve-
! land by reason of the latter's opposition
| to the tariff. Let see what the single
| tax would mean for this State. The re-
| port of the State Board of Equalization
for 1894 (the latest 1 have been able to
obtain shows that the total assessed
value of real estate in this State for the
year 1894, after deducting value of i'm
| provements, to be; Country realty, 1891,
$50 ,2l0; city and town lots. S13S, 5S9, 597; to-
tai value of all realty less improvements
$40, 569, S07. From the last named figures
| there would probably be exempted from
| taxation under the single tax, as that tax
is aimed at the equity of ownership, the
value of mortgages thereon, amounting
to S21S, IA 706; leaving actual value OF
owners to be assessed. $251 ,S55, 101.
The valuation of all property in the
State for assessment purposes in the
year 1894 was 81 204 ,976 ,952, upon which the
State tax levy was $0.493 on the 800. The
amount collected therefrom, less costs
and delinquerts under the rate levied was
S5,511 634. Taking the valuation of that
year on realty alone, after deduction OF
the value of improvements and mortgages
the rate of taxation required to produce
the sum raised in taxes of s., 511 ,6S4 would
! have been almost Sis instead of 50. 493 on
the 500 valuation. Thus there would
have been imposed more than four times
the burden on land owners for State
taxes on land as a whole proposition
than they paid that year.
But that is not all. The valuation OF
property for county purposes, being the
same as the valuation of property for
State purposes of assessment, any in
crease or diminution of property assessed
taking the counties of the State as a
whole, affects the county rate and levy
in exactly the same proportion as the
State rate and levy would be affected.
|
| county rates and levies of taxation for
the same year $3.50 we find the average
rate and levy for county purposes was
SLIPS on the $780, Assuming that the
counties would have stood in the same
need of money for public purposes under
the single tax system as waS then the
case, the rate and levy for county pur-
poses, being confined solely to land values
of owners, would have been. taking an
average of all the counties, over four
times the rate then levied on all property
that is $499 instead of SLIPS on the s10C
of the valuation of the land of the
State.
A State rate and levy of s219 and q
county rate and levy of S499 (droppins
minute fractions). making the rate all
told of T.1S on the 500 valuation of land
under the single tax, as against the State
rate and levy of $0.493 and the ayera ZIG
rate and levy for county purposes OF
SLIPS, making total Of $1.61S, the State
and average county rate levied in 1894
Or S1S, the rate that would have beer
required under single tax, against 81. 61s