The independent., 1903-05-14
A Tax Upon Land Values
BY Louis r. Post.

chicago, and Pr0f. JOnn ID. CLARK, OF
Columbia university, debated the sin
gle tax at Cooper Union, New York,
on the goth of February, last. The
question was: "Resolyed, That all
revenues FOR government federal,
state, and local-should be derived
from tax upon land values. Taxation
for police purposes shall not be dis
cussed, and the value OF public fran
chases shall be regarded as chiefly
consisting of land value"
Mr.. Post, of course, had the af-
firmative and in his opening speech
said (omitting the first complimentary
sentences):
Now, Mr.. Chairman, ladies and gen.
tlemen, reduced to its simplest form.
this resolution that have just quoted
asserts that all public revenues should
be derived from tax upon land val
ues. But what does that mean?
What are we to understand by tax
upon land values?
Strictly speaking, you can't tax land
values, for there is no such object
as land values; there is no such OBJ
ject as value of any kind. Value is
not a concrete thing. Value is not an
entity. 1t is nothing but a device for
comparison, mode Of measurement
AS we compare differences of guam
tity in terms of inches or ounces or
quarts, SO we compare differences in
exchangeability in terms of value. To
say that thing is valuable, is only
to say that it is tradable. To say
that it has certain value Is only to
say that it has certain degree Of
tradability.
What the human race lives upon is
not values, put food, drink, clothing,
shelter, luxuries, the artificial imple !.
ments that aid in their production,
and old Mother Earth, the source of
them all. Values measure the ex-
changeahility Of those things, but are
no substitute for them. All business
has reference to those things, in the
last analysis, and rests upon them.
1t can't rest upon value, for value is
only an abstraction. No one pro-
poses, therefore, to tax land values,
in rigidly literal sense of those
words
Neither is it proposed to tax land
itself. Though we often speak loose
ly Of taxing property, Just as we do
of oxing property values, that is not
what is meant literally. What we tax
is neither property nor the values Of
property, but men. Yet, when the
amount of taxes imposed upon men is
determined by the quantity or the
value of the property they own, it is
proper enough to speak of taxing
property. And in this way we may
speak of taxing land, or taxing land
values. The resolution before us is
not to be criticised for using the lat
ter term. | am not criticising it. But
we must be careful to see that this
convenient but indefinite phrase does
not confuse our thought
Now, there are two ways of levying
property taxes. One way is to tax
men according to the quantity of their
property, according to it's measure
ment in feet or inches, in ounces or
gallons or acres. This is called a
specific tax. The other way is to
tax them ac ;ording to its value, ac-
cording to its measurement in dollars.
This is called an ad valorem tax.
Both methods are used in the GUS
tom houses, and are known there by
those names, specific and ad valorem.
When you put a tariff of cents a
pound on maple sugar, or As cents a
gross on lead pencils, you impose a
specific tax; when you put tariff OF
Is per cent of their value upon books,
you impose an ad vaiorem tax. The
two methods of taxation-specific and
ad valorem-may be applied to any
Kind of property, or all kinds, and
whether the tax is imposed at the fed
eral custom house or at the local as
SCISSORS office. If you tax a man, for
instance, in proportion to the number
of acres of land he owns, that is a
specific land tax; but Ii you tax him
in proportion to it's value, that Is an
ad valorem land tax.
The resolution that we are discuss
ing proposes an ad valorem land tax.
1t is commonly known as the single
tax, which is associated with the name
and memory of Henry George. Under
the operation of this tax all improve
ments upon land would be exempt. So
would every other kind of property
that is drawn from land and shaped by
human labor to satisfy human wants.
Men would be taxed in proportion to