The Caucasian., 1913-10-19
TAX EQUALIZATION
THE DCSTDN PLAN EXPL AIMED
INTERESTINGLY BY
Il IN. ]. J. PAST0 RIA
Equity and Uniformity the Funda-
mental Basis Upon Which Justice
Must Prevail - Speaker Declared
Himself Single Taxer.

Himself Single Taxer.
There gathered in the court house
Friday night a number of represen-
tatlve citizens and taxpayers of
Shreveport who listened attentively
to the discourse Of Hon. j. J. Pas
toriza, commissioner Of the city Of
Houston, Texas, who explained lu-
cidly and interestingly the Houston
plan of taxation.
The assemblage was called to Or
der by J. w. Chamberlain, who in
troduced Commissioner PastOriZa in
we'll chosen words.
As a preliminary to his discourse
Mr.. .PaStoriZa remarked that he had
visited a large number of offices in
which women were employed and
he had told them that if they had a
vote and had the same political ad-
vantages enjoyed by their male rela-
tives there would come a change in
the whole economic system of GOV
ernment and instead Of boys and
girls being compelled to work too
frequently for limited wages they
would be given scholastic advan-
tages which they needed and to
which they were entitled.
The speaker announced that he IS
single -taxer, but he had not come
to discuss the Henry George theory,
but to explain the Houston plan OF
taxation and to point out what had
been accomplished through that
system. Under it," he said, prop
erty owners in city, assisted by the
assessor or tax commissioner, indi-
Gated what they believed was the
true value of one foot of land 'front.'
ing on street running back 100 feet
in the middle of the four sides of
each block.
I'm Houston, where all lots are
50xiO0 feet, and nearly every one
knows what a lot 50xt00 feet in his
neighborhood is worth, it was very
easy matter for the assessor to get
the price of one foot by simply di-
viding the price Of 50-foot lot by
so. This unit price>was written upon
the map of the city.
when this, is done by the city
assessor and the property owners
themselves, the map is turned over
to the representative of the Somers
system and by that system he calcu-
lates the value of all the other lots
in the block.
This calculation insures to the
owners of every other lot in block
a valuation which will result in a
fair equalization Of the commercial
value of every lot in that block. The
value of the corner lot is the prod
uct of the blended values of the two
intersecting Streets
In explaining that he had no con-
nection with the Somers system and
that he had no personal acquaint-
ance with any OF the gentlemen Of
that system Mr.. Pastoriza explained:
when I was elected tax commits
sioner the Mayor told me he wanted
100000 more money with which to
finance the city government. Under
the old system the only way to raise
it was to assess everybody certain
percentage over former assessments.
knew this plan was unjust and
unfair.
Learning that the Somers system
was being installed in Denver, Colo,
took my vacation there and worked
two weeks with the representative
of the company who were installing
the system. became convinced that
the Somers system would give any
city a fair and equitable valuation
of all its real estate, provided, of
course, that the representative of
the Somers system had the co-ope-
ration of the assessor and the city
administration"
On his return to Houston he began
the work of the system of taxation
which is in effect today and is being
operated satisfactorily to the great
majority Of the taxpayers.
''The power to tax" he explained.
can be used either to destroy or to
build up, and Houston decided to
ESQ i D build Up. We eliminated tie
tax on money, and hank deposits in
creased s5,GGo,G00 in two years.
Money deposited outside of the city
was brought home and put to work
developing Houston. There was a
great building era, and today the
hotel facilities in Houston equal
those of any city in the South.
Our system has put a stop to
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