The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-03-16

Editor Independent: Our system of
Taxation is VIGOROUSLY an unjust one
because it is based on the fundamental
idea that taxes should be levied on
the economic earning power of man
rather than on the economic earning
power of land. In consequence OF that
fundamental error the taxes are not
and can not be justly distributed.
| The burden of taxation lays on the
working classes, while those who hold
the private ownership Of the land itself
largely escape taxation altogether or
are able to shift it from themselves by
adding the cost of their own taxation
on to those who must pay them for the
privilege of using the land and it's
resources.
When, for instance, you pay rent,
you pay the land tax Of the lord who
controls that lot through his private
ownership of the land-the landlord.
When you rent farm the cost OF the
taxation is paid by you as tenant.
The power OF the Standard OH Co.
lays partly in its private control of the
greater part of the land undertake with
fuel oil and partly in its arrangements
with the railways, whereby it shares
In the profits of highway monopoly. 1t
has been computed that the Standards
visible, actual plant could be dupli-
Gated for possibly $50000,000, but it's
capital of $SO0,OC0,OOO represents the
capitalization of land values for it's
commercial purposes, and on that cap
ital it pays no taxation, because it can,
and does, shift the payment Tin it's
selling prices) on to the consumers
the people
When the community of New York
built its fifty million dollar rapid tran
sit the expectation was that the subur-
ban lands would benefit the people by
their low prices and induce them to
build, or at least lower the rents. Moth
ing of the kind has happened under
our system of taxation, based on the
economic earning power Of man, and
not on that of the suburban land The
cabbage gardeners and land speculat-
ing syndicates owning the land, at once
raised all land prices SO that the di-
rect benefit of the improvement was
confscated by them. The people of
New York, therefore, have first, as a
community, to pay for that improve
ment, and as individuals, they have to
pay a higher amount in rent and land
prices. They created that new land
value and the land owners confiscated
1t under our system of taxation. Could
anything be more morally wrong, more
absurdly dishonest? Why is it that
we don't see this? To understand it
comprehensively it is necessary to 60
back into history.
While Rome was true democracy,
its civic and economic power lay in it's
free and independent yeomanry. The
tillerS of the soil sustained the cost of
society (taxes) according to the eco
nOmic earning capacity of their land.
There was no shifting of taxes on to
men and their earnings Under this
system of taxation Rome grew to be
powerful nation. For details read
Mommsen's History of Rome Then
grew up an essentially plutocratic
class of patricians, who managed to
retain the plumber of conquest, and
who gradually shaped social and eco
n0mic conditions SO as to get a legal
hold on the land by acquiring the acres
of the old yeomanry under a system
Of private land-ownership.
Large estates were formed and the
former Independent farmers became
tenants. Then. for shorter period.
the patricians paid the old taxes on
the earning capacity of the land, but
they soon shifted the taxes on their
tenants, who then paid the full taxes.
Included in the rent. That was logical
and unavoidable. The patricians, in
turn, invested in more land, and thus
the yeomanry of Italy was wiped out,
even as that happened in Ireland and