Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1907-05-31
Number IL
Lands and Values.

! There is an evil in holding land out
OF use, for speculative purposes, which
could be and ought to be diminished;
but society or government has no means
of doing it other than by taxation of
such lands upon yearly increasing yalu-
ations. That is, as fast as the land
grows in value it should be assessed to
the full, so that the inert owner shall
not be able to pocket the whole of the
unearned increment for which he waits.
Country lands are little subject to this
evil 1t chiefly affects the city lots and
near suburban lands, and is a real evil
in and about every growing city.
1t is commonly said that it is the
massing of population in and about the
cities that gives high value to land;
but there are causes that rise to the
concentration of population. The
energy that erects buildings, starts,
promotes and supports Industries,
pushes mercantile effort, concentrates
trade and expands 1t, attracts the work.
ing classes to the centers and makes il
possible for them to obtain employ-
ment, is the underlying principle of all
growth and progress at the centers of
population. In all this movement the
landowners take the chief part; for
unless they owned the land they would
not build upon it, and great cities
would not exist, nor, consequently,
would there be the concentration of
population to which it is so often said
land values are due.
The landowner therefore is entitled
primarily to the credit OF creating or
enhancing land values. We mean, of
course, the enterprising land owner;
not the drone, who is holding, without
improvement, for the higher values
created through the spirit and energy
of Others. Every community, how
ever, has its drones but the men and
women who erect buildings, push the
improvements and activities that make
a city should not be told that, as land
holders, they are robbers, becaese they
have appropriated values created by
others. What is it that has made the
parcels of land upon our princIpal
streets valuable? The improvements
made upon them, which in many, even
most, instances represent the work of
owners for their lifetime. But for the
improvements on these streets the
land would have no more value than it
had in its original state.
1t will be said, of course, that it is the
growth of population that has created
the values; yet without the builders
there would have been no growth of
population. Recognition OF the work
of the builders is the moral basis of
their right to the larger values, as
against the argument that these owners
have done nothing to create them.
The legal right of those who make no
improvements, but merely hold for
growing values, is of course unassail.
able; for laws and the administration
thereof must follow broad lines or prin-
ciples. The only practicable way,
therefore, of dealing with the useless
land owner is to assess his property
each yearat the fullest value that can
be placed upon it. There can be no IN
justice in collecting taxes upon such
lands at aboutthe rate the owner him
sell places upon them when approached
with an Offer to buy them. The evil of
holding lands out of use, for higher
values, is one not easily exaggerated.
OregOnian.
Amen! If all property farm and
city-were assessed at the sale valuation
placed upon it by the owner, it would
mean Il lower levy and no increase, per-
haps decrease, in the tax thereon.