New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-02-10
WHAT 1T WOULD ACCOMPLISH.

Another important accession t
the support of the single tax metho,
of raising public revenues is th
Louisville Commercial, the leadin.
republican paper of Kentucky. TIL
intelligence and force which TIN
Commercial brings to th~cause o
fiscal reform in the single tax di
rection may be seen by referenc,
to one of its leading editorials whicl
we here reproduce:
Alderman Stratton. in the cours,
of his remarks before the Com
mercial club last evening, strucl
the keynote of equitable taxation
when he declared for a single tax
a tax on land exclusively The
general adoption of the single ia,
throughout the United States wonlC
make the American people the en-
We'd nation of the world, the hap
piest people constituting a division
of society anywhere on earth. The
adoption of the single tax by the
state of Kentucky would put this
commonwealth in most favored
position by comparison with the in.
dustrial and social status of any
other state in the uniorC) We be-
lieve that the city of Louisville, de-
irving all of its revenues from the
taxation of land alone within it's
limits, would witness the easy So
luton of the difficult and complex
problems that now confront its
general Council, its organized pub
lie bodies, ,and it's taxpaying masses.
We believe that under this ration
al and simple system of taxation,
Louisville would promptly feel the
pulsations of more vigorous mu-
nicipal existence than has ever fall
EN- to it's lot before or that can pos
sibly come to it under any other
system of taxation whatever.
The whole question of encourage
ment of manufactures and the pro-
motion of industry and the develop
ment of commerce here would be
solved, for there would be no taxes
to pay on the wealth created either
by the labor of the hand or the
brain. No man who made wag-
on, or bolt of cloth, or a barrel
of -four, or threshing machine, or
who built house, or painted a pic
ture, or collected a library, would
have to pay penalty for having
industry or genius or philanthro=
py. Everybody from everywhere,
possessed Of enterprise or Of su-
perior intelligence, or of exception
al talent, or Of large purposes af
fecting the development of human
ity, would seek out, among all the
great cities of the United States,
the single city where these quail
ties were assured of unlimited
scope, the municipality that shall
be wise enough to tax privilege and
let the builders and producers pile
up human comforts and satisfac-
tions, triumphs of skill and genius,
monuments of industry and perse-
verance, without imposing upon
the labor of a single hour a tax to
discourage and defeat it. But il
neither state nor city is ready to ac-
cept the doctrine of the single tax
and to enter at once into the posses
sion of the rewards that would flow
from it, the next best thing is the
amendment to the constitution
which the Commercial club pro-
poses and advocates, and under the
operation of which the various mu-
inequalities in Kentucky would have
the privilege of raising the reve-
nues for their own purposes in
their own way. Clearly this is
asking no favor. 1t is simple
appeal for justice now as it was in
1897, when, to the amazement of
students of taxation everywhere, a
similar proposition was rejected by
the electorate of the state. We
believe the resolution adopted last
night will appeal powerfully to Gov.
Taylor, and that he will indorse it
in a message to the legislature.
From there it ought to go to the
people aud be overwhelmingly
sustained. The principle involved
is one of the essentials to Ken
tucky's satisfactory commercial
nroUrasS and industrial wealth.