The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1909-10-28


u The Democrat Is unconyinced. bnl
elits reasoning powers run counter tt
i lbs sacred Single TAX theories, and Il
sldnds It difiicult to reconcile the
5 former with the Latter It says:
j, There Is much force In Pleydell's
sIargument. but It leaves us rather un-
i convinced. If the contention is truo,
! we do not see why production tax
j on coal. such as Judge Pennypacker
advocated when he was governor,
would not likewise be tax on
,|ground rent instead OF one on the
consumers OF coal for coal is no
more manufactured product than
natural gas; 1t already sells at a
price as high as competition will per-
init, and once 1t is worked out. the
Estate of Pennsylvania has lost that
much of wealth rightly belonging to
the community.
! Natural gas Is as much a product
OF labor as oil or coal or lumber or
stone or iron or zinc or copper or
lead or any other natural growth or
deposit. Capital and labor must be
utilized in Its development and in It's
production to the consumer. 1t diff
lfers in no respect that we can see
except in Its volatility from any other
product OF labor; and II indeed 1t
does not differ in any respect from
other products of labor save in the
particular noted we are bound to
conclude that tax upon 1t such as
West Virginia proposes is one that
will fall, not upon the value of ma
tural gas opportunities. but upon the
consumers of natural gas.
Perhaps the Democrat has failed
to keep its single tax philosophy on
straight in this instance. 1T admits
the possibility of error. But Pleydell
has not yet made 1t clear to our mind
that our Characterization of the pro-
posed West Virginia tax is at fault.
We believe the boot is on the other
leg.
The New York acknowledged au-
thority on taxation" is evidently not
q consumer Of natural gas, nor an
authority on the natural gas situa-
ton. He is applying a theory to a
condition. and that is not what. con-
fronts the consumers of natural gas
in this section of the country. We
fear that the New York expert Is not
an authority on Pennsylvania condi-
tons. Natural gas is luxury, and
Its consumers who have acquired the
habit of Its use will not go back to
the dirt and smoke and inconvea-
fence of coal SO long as they can af-
ford natural gas. This fact is fully
understood and appreciated by the
producers of natural gas, and if
West Virginia imposes a tax on this
product 1t is morally certain that the
producers will add it to the cost and
collect it from the consumers.
Another thing which expert Pley-
dell overlooks is the fact that natural
gas like water cost little or nothing
TO produce and deliver after the In
itial cost of the well and pipe lines,
and that the pipe lines are never
built until a revenue sufficient to
make them profitable is in sight.
Natural gas is most desirable as a
domestic fuel and there is compara-
lively little of It used in large manu-
featuring establishments,
1t may be "a maxim OF political
economy that taxes on ground rent
cannot de shifted" but it is never
theless an established fact that the
price of natural gas is one of the
most arbitrary things in the COM
mercial world, and that 1t is gov
erned, not by maxims of political
econmy, but by the wishes OF the
Queen Of the Household who knows
little of the Single Tax proposition
and cares less.
The boot is very much on the other
|leg.