The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-06-27
JUSTICE m TAXATION
Representative of Labor Dis
Cusses Taxation Question.
James A. Robinson Of the Ohio
federation Of Labor Makes
Timely Suggestions.


first vice president of re Ohio Fed
Grafton OF Labor, read paper on
Taxation in the State of Ohio" be-
fore the State Tax Commission at the
meeting of April s.
Mr.. Robinson said it is a common
assumption OF many people that Ia
Dor does not bear its share of the
burdens of state, but he did not care
to discuss the question from that
point of view alone, but rather as a
question Of justice between all
classes.
Under the present system Of ap-
praising real property" continued Mr..
Robinson the small home Is valued
higher than the building site and COM
mercial property In the center of the
city. This Is due TO Two causes.
First, the assessor is able to tell pref
| ty accurately the value of house and
lot or a farm, whose value is from
one to three thousand dollars.
| Second. Under the plan of val
uing real property every ten years
the small home owners prop
erty is kept on the tax duplicate at its
| full or more than its full value (for
IT does not change very much) while
the valuable building sites, worth
more per front foot than the entire
value of the small home. will double,
oft-titnes treble in value before the
next assessment is made.
ITO the extent that the laboring
| man is home owner therefore he is
more heavily burdened than any 9TH
er class and to the extent that the
taxes paid by the owner are shifted 10
him as a tenant he Is equally heavily
| burdened.
"A correction of these inequalities
seems to me to be an easy achieve
| ment. 1t can be accomplished by the
more frequent valuation of real prop
erty and by some means for giving
publicity to the valuations as they are
fixed by the assessors.
Promote Labor.
"Just as the valuable sites in the
cities are undervalued, so the mines,
the oil and the gas wells, and the
valuable mineral rights of the state
which mount up into the hundreds of
million of dollars are assessed in
many instances at their value as
farms. They are capitalized by their
owners at many times their farm
figure. Now 1t is to the advantage of
hn oil nd
gas and other minerals that they be as
cheap as possible rather than as dear.
1t is to the advantage Of all classes
that these valuable resources, that
cost the owners but little, If any more,
than farm values, should be used and
not monopolized. 1t is to the ad-
vantage of all those who labor that
these resources should be worked
rather than held out of use, for this
will increase the demand for labor and
consequently the well being Of all
\ classes 1t should be the object Of the
state to encourage enterprise and in
dustry and cheaper the price of these
raw materials. BY what means can the
state, without dealing an injustice to
any one, promote this end? 1t would
seem to me that law should be.pass-
ed by which all of the mining, oil, gas
and every other mineral property in
the state would be valued by state
board at the capitalized value that the
owner placed u"on 1t himself
Tax Things state Gives Away.
| There Is still another reason why these
classes of property should be assessed at
| their full value. IF any class is to be
| Disseminated against it should be those
| who own this particular kind of prop
erty. And for this reason: When We tax
mans home his farm, his tools. his
machinery, the things he has In his
| house, we tax wnat has cost him labor.
| They represent his own effort and his
| savings. Now when we come to the
| franchises of the city corporations to the
| rights of the many transportation COM
| panies in the state. to the mines and the
resources, there is another value that
| does not come from any mans labor.
| Now. l understand that these values,
| which for lack of some better name may
| be called franchise values are worth in
| Ohio hundreds of millions of dollars But
| they pay no tax whatever. There is no
| way to tax them Al of the taxes OF the
| counties and the cities are collected from
| tne tnlISS (ndl ldDOf creates OuSnt not
| the things that the state itself that all
| OF us create ana that have cost the own
| ers nothing. be taxed ut least as heavily
| as the things that the individual himself
| produces? II this were done would it
not reduce the taxes of the ordinary man
by from 25 to so per cent more?
Promote Ownership of Homes.
| 1t is but few days since we took pride
| In the fact that the American people
L hat I,a;,
| We all admit that the well-being OF the
people is larrely dependent on the sort of
| homes they live in. Ought not the state to
| do everything 1t can to make the owner
| ship of homes easy and natural? 1t
| seems to me that this would be helped
very greatly if the cities had the right
to exempt houses and Improvements
| from taxation. Possibly If rot altogeth-
4 er, at mst up to s., 900.
gre Counties ,,ore Control.
In conclusion, it seems to me the cities
and the counties ought to have more
| power in the dealing w!:h taxation. The
| conditions in cities are very different
| from the conditions In tbs country dis
| trict. City land changes III value daily
| There a thousand forms OF invisible
| wealth abound that the country does not
| have. If II were possible to permit each
county to make its own rules and plans
for taxation of these things it seems to
me we would make greater progress than
| In any other way.
| Initiative and Referendum,
And, believing in the initiative and ref
| erendL. as l do, 1t seems to me that
some n. ns should be devised so that
| the electors OF every county would be
able by petition and election to bring the
matter OF taxation home to the people
and let them work out their own ideas
IN this way.