Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-13


II now pays without being unethically
taxed. and that therefore national con-
trhution toward the maintenance and
uphuiding Of the pital is unnecessary
and should be entirely withdrawn He
urged further that the half-and-ha'f law
has been not merely unnecessary hut in
furious and he accentuated the single
tax hostility to private ownership of land
as crime against the public. to he rene
died as quickly as possible by confsca-
tory single tax.
Land Robbery as a Virtue.
Single takers hold that there ought not
to he and officially Is not any such thing
as private property in land: that owner
ship is in the state, which can and ought
to exact the entire rental value in the
form OF a tax before taxing anything
else; and radical. militant single takers
hold that If the state chooses to charge
more in tax than the rental value OF the
property ami thus renders it valueless to
the nominal owner and takes it from him,
the confsca ton is not robbery. but mere
L. retaining by the state of its own:
and that no land owner ,as any right to
complain OF any assessment or tax put
upon his nominal properts. even if i, con-
f1scates to the state something for which
in accordance with the laws of the state
he has raid his money and as he
thought, made his own.
1t follows that the 1000 realty owners
OF the District NEARLY all of them poor
mem only think they own their homes;
that no assessment of their homes can
be excessive even II it deprivess them of
all selling value. If il nominalIy applies
only to the land. and that no injustice
would be done them if their land-taX this
year of two or three or four millions tke
ing In itself larger tax per capita than
that paid in other communities similarly
situated were increased to 81, 000,ONU
The resulting confiscation would be
ethical. Those who kill, thinking to do
God service. have their counterpart in
those who rob, thinking to do the state
service.
1t Is in the line of this sngle-tax. viz
tuously confscatory trend of thought that
Mr. Browne suggests that from an ade-
ouate tax on ground values, with the
revenue from liquor licenses and public
service corporations. SfJ.W0.000 could be
derived in the District without calling
upon the federal treasury for a dollar or
imposing any other tax whatsoever. And
it was in accordance with the same trend
of thought that Mr.. Browne as the wit
ness. the prosecutor and the friend of the
court in the George taxation committee
investigati ton of 1912 estimated 1914. 600 600
of taxable values into Washington realty
Examination shows that these estimates
have no relation to actual values as meas
ured by the standards employed in other
American cities, or to the financial ability
OF the persons to be taxed to pay the
enormous resulting levies. But what does
that matter from the single-taX point of
view" II the tax-Gatherer confscateS, the
state only comes into its own.
The danger to the District lies in the
fact that not all or not many will recoe-
n fp no
as statements of taxable values, measured
by the standards that prevail elsewhere
1t is not understood that in relation to
land they are radical and confiscatory
to be fairly used in comparison with tax
able values reported by assessors in other
cities.
Restitution by Confscation.
1. The Browne estimate that a fifteen
million dollar tax levy can he raised,
reasonably and equitably, from ground
values. liquor licenses and the public
service corporations in the District il
80 grossly variant from what Is viewed
rs equitable in other American cities
that 1t can be understood only rs a levy
designed to cOnnscate District ground
values. on the single tax theory that
such cOnhscatiOn IL not a crime, hut n
virtue.
Let us see what the practical effect
of the adoption o. this suggestion would
be. There are to be no new taxpayers
under the Browne scneme of taxation.
The $4,000 present taxpayers are to
pay the new well as the old levy.
From these $4,000 men who paid in 1872
total property levy of .9S4 (and in
doing so paid more per capita than the
taxpayers in Ia out of the 1874 American
cities and who thought themselves heavi-
iy burdeneS with this taxaton) Mr..
Browne proposes to collect SIo. Wo0oo.
approximately three times as much as
they are now paying. making their per
capita levy 30 per cent higher than the
most excessively taxed city in the United
States and two or three or four times as
much a $ other cities of the Capitals class.
MIR. Browne would raise from 10000 tax
PAYERS in resource!ess Washington more
Than was raised in 1872 in Detroit and
New Orleans combined, about as much
as Baltimore and Milwaukee combined.
p per cent more than st. Louis, 81 per
cent more than Cleveland. The levy is
clearly confiscatory as to somebody. for
this triple tax burden. some single takers
suggest, is to he lighter for small tax
PAYERS than that endured at present
and is to be accompanied By reduction
of rents.
The renter now claims that he Is the
real taxpayer since. as he alleges. the
owner adds the tax 10 his rent: hut the
property owners. triply taxed under this
fifteen million levy. are not to recoup
themselves even in part. from their ten
ants. ON the contrary the effect of
TRIPPING the tax is to be. the single tax
ers say. to reduce rents Some single
takers mot Mr.. Browne claim that I'm
der the adjustment of the triple burden
the small, taxpayer will pay even less
than he does nov. II triple tax bur
den is 10 he put upon part only OF the
property owners and they are to be pre-
vented from sharing the burden with
tl!e.r tenants. what does il mean but con
tiscation" Where are tie Washington
property owners to get the money 20 pay
their more than tripled taxes: Not from
the land itself for that has been deprived
Of It's selling value. Not from tenants,
for rents are to he reduced. not raised
Not from the other money-Settlng re-
sources EMO: ed by the ordinary CONNER
cial and industrial city. for the capital is
denied them.
To any one but militant. radical sim
gle taNer VINO not only thinks in the alb
stract that tnere should be no private
ownership of land hut who feels ii his
duty to abolish it in the concrete by con-
liscation. the mere statement OF the prop
osition suffiCes to overthrow II nat
other American. in or out OF Congress
would attempt TO collect from 4 part of
the 1000 local taxpayers. nearly all of
whom are small property owners. $4,000 :
u.l or approximately twice as much AS
the total raised in 1911. through all kinds
OF taxation by Baltimore. - per cent
more than was raised by the whole of
Cleveland and approximately three times
as much as was collected in all taxes IN
New Orleans"
The Browne Assessment.
=: The Browne estimate of 1912 oi
taxable realty values in Washington 81
q. 4 4 .O(,lD. INN. from which NJ the ~ 30