The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-06-17

more heavily burdened than any oth.
er class and to the extent that the
taxes paid Ivy the owner are shifted 10
him as tenant he is equally heavily
burdened.
"a correction of these inequalities
seems to me to be an easy achieve.
ment II 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 II is to the advantage Of
those who consume coal, and oil and
gas and other minerals that they be as
cheap as possible rather than as dear
II is to the advantage Of all classes
that these valuable resources. that
cost the owners but little, IL any more,
than farm values, should be used and
not monopolized. It 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. II 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? Il 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 a state
board at the capitalized value that the
owner placed u~on it himself
Tax Things State Gives Away.
There Is still another reason why these
classes of property should be assessed at
their full value. II any class is to be
Disseminated against 1t should be those
who own this particular kind Of prop
erty. And for this reason: When we tax
a 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 corpora tions. to the
rights of the many transportation COM
panies in the state. 10 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 I'm
Ohio hundreds OF millions OF dollars But
they pay no tax whatever There Ia no
way TO tax them. AL Of the taxes Of the
counties and the cities are collected from
the things that labor creates. Ought not
the things that the state itself, that all
of us create and that have cost the own
ers nothing, be taxed at least as heavily
as the things that the individual himself
produces? II this were done would II
not reduce the taxes Of the ordinary man
by from 20 to 90 per cent more?
Promote Ownership Of Homes.
II Is but few days since we took pride
In the fact that the American people
were a people that owned their homes.
We all admit that the well being OF the
people Is largely dependent on the sort OF
loHtH tH'y i've IN OuBnt not the state TO
10 everything II can To make the owner
ship Of homes easy and natural? II
seems to me that t5is would be helped
very greatly n the cities had the right
10 exempt houses and improvements
rom taxation. Possibly II not altogeth-
sr, at least up to $4,000.
Give Counties ldore Control
In conclusion, II seems to me the cities
md the counties ought 20 have more
power In the dealing with taxation. The
conditions In cities are very different
rom the conditions In the country dis
.rict city land changes I'm value daily
There thousand forms Of invisible
wealth. abound that the country does not
have. II II were possible TO permit each
county 10 make It's 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
nrendum as | do. 1t seems to mo that
some means 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 peops
and let them work out their own ideas
In this Nay