El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-08
THE NEW TAX LAW
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to the public welfare.

menace to the public welfare.
Land, or the soil, light, air, water,
electricity and Kindred elements are
| the basis of all values. None of these
have values in themselves; neither has
q tree nor a flower, an animal nor q
fish, stone nor a metal. Without pop
ulatioE and without labor these are
| without utility and without value.
This unearned increment is also
without rightfuI ownership, past, pres
ent or future, as against the demands
of the state. Like the Sabbath day, it
was made for man and not men.
By the bestowment of labor men be-
come entitled to the fruits thereof; but.
as no man may divert a stream from its
unto his own fields to the injury OF
those below him, SO no man may claim
a monopoly in these elements, or shut
off pOsterity from an equal claim and
opportunity therein.
AS population increases, so do its
wants multiply, and as these enlarge,
so does the right of occupancy and
place of labor on a given acre or frac-
tion thereof, become sought for and he
who would possess for a time, and bring
forth the product Of his lsbors for
his own profit AMI the uses of mankind,
or enjoy the place of his abode for
season should share with the
rest through taxation and other
wise the unearned values arising from
the opportunities named. He may
claim as his own the products of his
labor and his genius, but he should
share with all the rental value of the
location he occupies, and to which the
community, by its numbers and It's
needs, have so greatly contributed
He has no exclusive right in fee: he is
q tenant at will; the commuuityis land
lord with right to fix the terms of the
rental, and this he ia in duty bound to
pay or give place to another.
AS populs tion increases SO does the
numbe of opportunities become limited
and the right or occupancy more valu-
able and the production thereof be-
longing to the community is greater.
IL becomes then the interest and the
right of community to have every
natural advantage and opportunity of
right of occupancy utilized. Every
vacant acre aud every lot, every i'm
provement made and every acre occu-
pied that Is not utilized to full rental
value of the ground occupied is q loss,
aud, in sense. burden tocommunity.
Every landlord whether in city or
country, whether of improvements
made, of acreage poorly titled, and,
above all, every speculator as such.
whether in lots, acreage or right that
menace in varying degree to the pub
lie veal.
Every occupier for himself who
pays rent to community by way of
taxes and otherwise is per Sc public
benefactor, and all efforu for his en-
couragement, and for the increase of
his mum bers, both in town and coun-
try, are to be commended. The greater
the number of subdivisions the greater
the mum Der of those whose feet have
right on the soil, the greater the
wealth and the happiness of the peo-
pie.
Rights from God, rather than man,
bring contentment and virtue.
Texas fenced in as one great pasture
would have value, it is true. but how
little would it be compared to
that which would obtain were every
five acres in possession of a tenant to
community and his family and every
vacant lot likewiseoccupied or made
potato patch.
The bill submitted is, we fear, dis
tinctly inimical to the interests named
in the question in important respects.
1t would burden industry rather than
rather than accumulation. l. would
add to the acreage and the hous es of
the speculator and the landlord rather
than encourage the purchase and the
building of homes by the people.
By materially reducing the taxes on
real estate, as the bill proposes. aud
increasing those on business and oc-
cupation, it would operate injury in
this:
The soil for new homes being now
largely in the hands of thu speculator
and the well-to-do, as it is now held
for a rise, whould be increasingly held
therefor as it is free from taxation,
The common people would never catch
up with these shrewd citizens, resident
and nonresident, and who would DE
still further holding for a rise."
On the other hand, increasing the
burden on business and on occupations
would dampen enterprise, d !minish the
ability to procure homes, and greatly
m ultiply both landlords and tenants,
thus increasing the evils it is sought
to remove.
Tax vacant lands and lots as such,
so that it is Improbable to hold them,
aud instead of people pursuing specu-
lators and never able to catch up with
them, we shall have speculators hunt
ing for purchasers who desire to i'm
prove, and who will make it an object
for them to buy, rather than as now,
being an object not to sell.
The bill might well be entitled: A
bill to discourage home building, and
to encourage landlordism, with Incl
dental discrimination against all forms
of enterprise by the poor man.
The bill appeared to regard the free
circulation of money and the competi-
tion of bidders seeking for investm ents
as an evil to be suppressed at all haz-
ards.
The degree of improvement of the
soil, and on the soil, determines to q
large degree all the conditions of the
people OF the state. Not One-fiftieth
of the city lots in. this state have any
improvements thereon whatever.
Hundreds of miles of public streets are
maintained at public expense in front