Morris tribune., 1907-10-19
TAX SUGGESTION.

The Minnesota tax commission in the dis
|charge of it's duties, may as properly make
study of those methods of taxation which are
INTENDED as curative of economic and social
evils, as of those which look exclusively to the
distribution and equalization of theta burdens
necessary for the carrying OH of the business of
the state and it's county and municipal subdi-
visions. Taxes which are imposed in the exer-
else of the police power and with the purpose
of restraining individual activities when they
are seen to be INDUCED at the cost of the gene
raj welfare, may cut large figure, i'll the ag-
gregate in local revenues. These include Ii
quor and various other licenses; and may we'll
include taxes billboards, graduation of
taxes on building, which shall discriminate in
favor of such as are freproof, or approximately
so, and against such as are easily infammable;
and the doubling of taxes on vacant city lots
and uncultivated land, as compared with lots
on which there are substantial buildings, and
with improved farms.
These two last proposals. especially, have
increasingly commended themselves to the
public sense as they have been tested by dis
cusson The bane Of American house build
ing has been flimsy construction and the gene
raj absence of due precaution against fire. The
man who erects ireproof building, or one in
which the chances of fire reduced to min
inmum by the use of every safeguard, is en-
titled to some recognition by the state. He
not only protects himself but in measure his
neighbors; and the example he sets is valuable
AS for the double taxation of vacant lots and un-
improved agricultural lands, it would be at once
fruitful in checking the selfish spirit of specu-
lation, which prompts man to hold unused
valuable property, while his neighbors work
and tax themselves to promote it's rise i'll value.
1t would lessen the farmers tax-load and make
the Spectator pay juster share of taxes sell
out.
In the beginnings of new communities it
was inevitable, perhaps, that the self-assertive,
pushing nd-speculator should be 6 iven some
preference in taxation over the crowd of far
mer's, merchants, manufacturers and wage
earners who focked in to occupy the land,
whose points of vantage the Spectator had
SEIZED For at that time the general prop erty
tax the outgrowth of a different economic
system from that which now prevails uni
versal and persisted unquestioned long after
the present system had established ITSELF
Moreover the landowners, and the men who
pre-empted the sites Of towns, we're the most
influential men in their several communities
and were able to resist changes in the tax laws.
But today other interests CONTROL and it is
time they should assert themselves to limit the
opportunities of men who expect to get rich
simply by squatting on land, refusing to i'm
prove it, aud letting their neghbors sweat to
boost it's value.
At the time it ought not to be overlooked
that in many cases those who have held land
factors in promoting the immigration and in
developing the state and it's cities. They have
not all been drones. Many of them have earn
ed their reward. In justice the tax laws should
distinguish between them and the man who
holds property without endeavoring to improve
| it, to find a purchaser to provide it's future
l. lives more comfortable and wholesome. How
such distinction could in practice be made is
by means clear.
| It is also possible that some of these sugges-
| tions may encounter even under the present
/ tax provisions constitutional difficulties.
| Not until the state courts have had occasion to
interpret the new provisions will the extent
and the limits of the power of the legislature to
] reform the tax laws be known-Pioneer Press