The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1912-09-06
"Unearned Increment" Illustrated

monitor puDllSned III DOSlOll,
Mass, non-partisan 0 u r n a |
which is fair and just in the dis
cussion of all questions of ma
tional or economic character:
When Henry George, in Pro-
gress and Poverty" more than a
generation ago, talked of un-
earned increment" what he said
fell mostly upon unhearing ears.
Somehow or other, even those who
at that time were professed stu
dents of economics failed to grasp
his full meaning. The country for
one thing, did not, in the early
'8os, have so many or such strlk-
ing illustrations to offer of the
meaning of the term. Illustrations
at the present time are practically
without number and some of them
are impressive in the extreme. The
founder of an American family,
whose name is familiar to all, left
an estate consisting mainly of land
ed property on Manhattan island
valued at $40, 200, 900. Most of its
value accrued during his lifetime
from the increase of Manhattan is
land s population and business.
Through five generations this eS-
tate has been frequently divided,
but two branches of the family
holding the bulk of it today are
represented to be worth at least,
5000, 900, 900. The greater part
of this has come to these heirs
through unearned increment. They
have done nothing worth mention
ing, beyond reinvesting the mere
ment, to increase its value. 1t has
been increased altogether by what
others have done: by the continued
growth of Manhattan island.
Some of the youngest legatees of
a recent will in this family have
become heirs to several millions
each. In one case it is expected
49, 49, ..xLa~,+,roa x,,IJ Jo,l1to -,
value before the beneficiary be-
comes of age; in another case the
inheritance, through the minority
of the heir, is expected to quintuple
in size. In neither case will the
heirs or their trustees have done
anything to earn this increment. 1t
will simply have grown upon their
hands as consequence of the pro-
gress all around them.
The other day in Chicago val
uation of s. 900, 900 was put upon
a lot that sold for S275 in I843.
This valuation had nothing what
ever to do with improvements. A
block in the same city that in 1850
sold for $4,000 is now valued at
SIS 900, 900, aside from all i'm
provements. This means an in
crease in sixty years OF $50, 900
per cent. The owners of this land
have done nothing to it or for it In
the three score of years that could
thus marvelously increase its val
ne. 1t is the same square OF land
now that it was in 1850, except that
while it was then part OF the area
of a. small town it is now embraced
within the business center of
great city. 1t has not made the
city, or done anything toward
making the city. 1t simply hap
pened to be in the city and the
growth of the city has made IT
worth 1880 times more in 1912
than it was worth in 1850. Toward
this growth the fertility of the Am
erican West, the opportunities
opened up by the Development and
expansion of the American repub-
lie, and the needs, energies, ambi-
tions, activities and industries of
the world at large have been the
principal, in fact, the sole contrib
utors. The worlds progress has
created, the Individual owners of
the land have gathered, the incre-
ment.
There are those-and their num-
Der increases yearly-who believe
that a system which permits this
is lacking in the primal elements
Of the square deal. They believe
that if all were to share equitably
in the fruits OF the worlds pro-
gress, no such accumulations of
unearned increment could accrue to