Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-12-17

all the taxes. When his lease expires
he must pay the increased rent which
his own improvements make possible
to charge, or else move, abandoning
his own building. Some recent sales
show the almost fabulous price which
the absentee landowner receives when
he does sell London real estate in the
more favored sections.
What is Great Britain to do about
it? Democracy, which is, or at least
should be, the policeman and the part
ner of industry, is already in the Uni
ted Kingdom doing something and
plans to do more. Let we'll enough
alone" no longer satisfies, much less
'1et bad alone, lest the change bring
worse"
National Ownership Makes Roadway.
Three general plans of land reform
have been seriously considered, and
each, to a degree, has been adopted.
The three plans are naturalization
of the land, the small holdings policy.
and taxation Twenty years ago the
great Gladstone said: IF the time
comes when the British nation finds
that the land should be nationalized,
and it is wise to do it, they have
perfect right to do So" Nationalist
| ton. which means the ownership by
all the people of all the land, is open
ly talked. Indeed, it is put into prac-
teal effect to a degree in government
| purchase and ownership in the land
purchase acts. That striking form VI
naturalization known as the single
| tax, which brides itself on being eff
| fected without compensation and by
the confiscation by the state of eco
nomic rent" has many strong advo.
Gates. Rent being value created by
the whole community, say it's support
ers, should belong to the whole COM
munity All economic rent, the rent
of the actual land apart from the i'm
| provements, is unearned increment.
| The single takers would confscate not
the land to the state. but the rent.
Compulsory Sale and Leasing.
Another form of land naturalization
| is considered, though not seriously.
This involves the taking over of all
the land by the state, with compensa-
ton to the landlord. Small holdings
| by compulsory purchases and small
holdings by compulsory leasing are
other plans actually pursued. Under
| these schemes the landlord is COM
| PEELED to sell or lease small acreages
| for actual farm use. Land hire by the
state and land purchase are involved
| in this general scheme. A more dras-
tic measure has just been proposed by
| Mr. Will Thorne on the house of COM
mons Under the Thorne bill it would
| be illegal for any person to hold, in ag-
ricultural districts, any land, exceed
| ing fifty acres in extent, in waste or
uncultivated state, unless it shall not
| be possible to cultivate such land at a
profit, or unless it shall have been
devoted to some purpose of public
| utility.
"A Tax to Burst Land Monopoly"
| The real attack upon the evils of the
present land ownership, the one about
which the fiercest contention has Ia
ken place, is that in Lloyd-George's
| budget of taxation Many forms of
| land taxation have been proposed,
considered and, occasionally, adopted.
| Land value taxation, in some form, en-
| tiers into discussion everywhere. This
new land taxation, however, recently
carried into effect by the Liberal gov
| eminent, is not a tax to raise revenue,
| but, to quote the pungent phrase of
the chancellor of the exchequer in pro"
| posing it, "a tax to burst the land
monopoly" This new system of taxa
ton included five per cent. duty on
mining royalties, taxation of gifts of
| nature or windfalls. 1t included tax
| on the capital value of unworked min
erals, thus stimulating the exploitation
| of mines hitherto unworked. The inn
| portant principles of the new taxation,
however, are involved in the incre-
ment tax, the tax on undeveloped
building land and on leasehold reyer-
sions. Under these sections two tax
| values are placed on land, the site
value and the improved value. The
tendency of the tax, as shown by its
actual workings, is to bring more
| building land into the market, thus
relieving congestion in the cities and
the country.
Under the system of long lease
| holds, which is peculiar to Great Bri-
tain, the owner of the freehold OBJ
tains, on the expiration of the lease
its falling in to employ an English
phrase-"a property which has sub
stantially increased in value by reason
of the general growth of the commun-
ity and independently of any expendi-
ture of labor or enterprise on the part
of the owner"
The budget levies ten per cent duty
upon the margin by which the lease
hold has appreciated since it was last
granted. Agricultural leases are ex-
pmDt from this dl1tv as are all leases