The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1913-06-07
The Land.

-
All the land IN the United States
Just the bare lands valued at
something like forty or fifty billions
Of dollars. -+:s, A I'll = the irmpr ovements
thereon5s the farmhouses and factories
and @skyscra pers and railways are
probably worth about al much more.
The improvements represent human
toll and thrift. - ,*-'5 -, = : s:.':~.
The value OF the land represents
simply human need-of food and
clothing. The value OF the bare land
is due solely to the pressure of popu-
lation, and not to what the owners
have done upon it.. The improve
ments are perishable and Of steadily
declining value. The land value is
tmperishable and advances steadily.
In the last Is years the land value
has more than doubled. In these
same fifteen years the larger part OF
what stood Observation-Disclosures ana
buildings has had to be replaced.
< The greater they amount of the i'm
provements, the greater the value Of
the bare land Those who made the
1mprovements-that is, the whole Of
the population--presented to the own
ers Of the land something like 20 or
SO billions of dollars. The gift was
masked by the fact that a very large
part of the improvers were also the
landowners
But the rapid rise Of farm tenantry
and city tenatry will soon make the
line Of cleavage clear: Then perhaps
we shall become Intelligent enough to
secure the increment in land value 10
the whole community, and not to the
steadily decreasing number to whom
1t Is now source of private and enor-
nous gain-Coilier's Weekly.
The Income Tax.
Undoubtedly the next congress- will
levy an income tax. It may be a
lazy, reactionary measure, framed
with no regard to. the worlds expert
ence or to the principles which sci
entific thought has derived from that
Notwithstanding slapped to-
gether and cracked through with no
larger thought than that Of getting
the biggest possible income in the
easiest possible way for the govern
ment. In. that event it will be one
more unjust and unequal tax. A
great many Of those who should pay
it Will evade it, exactly as PERSONAL
property taxes are evaded.
It: will put q premium on lying and
penalty on truth; for those who pay
will bear not only their own burdens,
but the burdens Of those who escape.
It may take no eognizance Of what
ought to Be the first principle in all
taxation--that each citizen should
contribute to the government accord
Ing to his ability.
l. A man with six-thousand-do dollar
income" and a. wife and children has
not the same ability to support the
government that q; bachelor with a
six-thousand-dol1ar. income has.
/ It may, III short; 81 more folly and
iniqufty in our generally: foolish and
iniquitous revenue system.
/ On the other hand, It may be an
enlightened measure, With the tax
levied at the source Of the income,
| reducing possibilities Of evasion to 4
| minimum, and with intelligent recoe-
milton of the different burdens that
rest upon incomes of the same
| amount. If it is such an enlightened
measure 1t may well: prove the be-
ginning of a reform in our whole rev.
enue system, and be an ever honor
able monument to it's trainers. Which
is it, going to be?-saturday Evening
Post.
The Posts remark that each citf-