The Washington herald., 1915-12-12


year pass through the gates Of ths
who pay their nay. a1d In paying their
way pay their taxes. heavily and ha1d-
someIy. Nay their numbers increase!
Do not all these AGENCIES contribute 10
building up ground values through rents
and purchases? Do they not all Increase
the business and taxable wealth OF
Washington? Every dollar spent adds
It's inevitable toll to the business. to the,
profits and therefore to the ground val.
ues Of Washington. What becomes Of
the stars long face. over poverty
stricken Washington" compared with
wealthy manufacturing and commercial
cities Of the North" How disinsenuous,
How foolish,
Land yalues Hishey in WashinGton
Than In Baltimore.
The highest priced piece of ground in
Washington. at the corner Of Fifteenth
and @ Streets NV. sold for 800 a square
foot In 1871. The highest price ever
realized for business property in Baiti-
more. with double the population OF
Washington. at about the same date, was
sc square foot.
Yet Baltimore is q wealthy city with
huge and growing commerce. with splen-
did and prosperous manufacturing enter
prises. Rents and the cost of living are
30 per cent higher in Washington Why
the difference? Because per capita in
come and expenditures in Washington are
80 per cent higher than in Baltimore.
Three-fourths OF Baltimore is built ON
lands held in ground rent tenures. For
Baltimore. it has had this one great ad-
vantage. II has prevented excessive land
speculation In Washington land specu-
lation has been fostered by an extremely
low land tax and stimulated by the Fed
eral half and half subsidy; and as that
subsidy has grown year by year from the
moderate S1.Ils.s33 Of 1879 to the huge
100000 appropria tions of recent years.
so have sweied the land boom, the cost
Of acquiring home site. the cost of
building thereon and the cost Of living.
Land Owner. Absorb Federal sub.Id,
As was shown in the case of the Bar
ibour-Chaconas lease at the corner of
Ninth Street and Louisiana Avenue Slo.0aD
OF the slI.ee annual rental due to private
use of the Governments sidewalk, pass
Ing from the purchasing public directly
through the tenants hands to owners of
the underlying fee simple. So the Federal
subsidy passes through the hands of mere
receivers Of the appropriation into the
swollen Golfers Of ground landlords and
real estate spectators. II is the ineyi-
table and irresistible law of economic
sravitation. And as result of that law,
not only the high level of Government
disbursement but the additional Federal
subsidy has raised land values in the Dis
trict from the moderate levels of the
seventies prior to the adoption of the
half and half plan" to over SGo, Oo9.0oo
at the present time.
congress rides roughly over all kinds
ot property interests every time it
changes the tariff or adjusts internal
revenue taxation. Why should it be SEN
sitive. then. when it is called on to tax
the privilege of iandhoIding on the exact
and just basis of benefits received? Any
other rule than this works injustice to
the general public which has to paw the
privilese holder for every enancement in
the value of the privilege The cost Of
the Little Falls project, estimated at
Sl""""p, viii be less than per cent or
the true value of the privately owned
lands of the District. II will add over
+" per cent to their value. The privately
owned lands increase normally in value.
accordingly to eX-Commissioner Rudolph.
sl2eS."v1 annually. Here is an added
stimulus. Why not realize on this COM
munity investment? The annual unearn-
ed increment of the privately owned and
taxable lands of the District would pay
Whence springs that increment? From
the community as a whole. In the name
of common justice whose Is it? Tn.
communitys: In the name of common
sensc why don't We take II then for
common use? Why do We continue to
tine and hamper legitimate business.
commercial and industrial activity, and
strain and distort the whole social fabric
by an unsound and unjust system OF
taxation.
Proposed Reform In Taxation.
have paid slight attention to compara-
tive municipal statistics There are cities
with lower rates than Washington. there
are cities and communities with higher
rates-plenty of them. There are cities
with lower per capita taxes and expendi-
lures; there are cities with higher. Few
there are. however. with higher per
capita land values Low taxes and ex-
pendtures may mean starved municipal
functions, poor streets and inefficieu.
schools. High taxes may mean eXtrava-
giant expenditures. jobb.ng and corrup-
ton Those are problems for each COM
munity 10 work out in its own saliva
ton. High taxes We'll and economically
expended are a public benefit. II is nos
the tax level which forms the criterion
but the benefits derived from their ex-
penditurc.
Other cities make heavy bond issues for
permanent improvements. Are their citi-
Zsns to pay additional taxes that Wash
inEtOn may escape that necessity?
Washington in some directions IL eN-
travagantly and wastefully governed; in
others il is a model for the world Its
administration. however. is widely dit
fused and inchoate. To discuss those fea-
lures is apart from my present purpose.
What ! do propose is the absolute ana
entire abolition of the half and half
subsidy and the substitution of an ade-
quate and just system of assessment and
taxation. | accordingly urge the abolI-
tion of all taxes of n personal character
and all license taxes save those on the
liquor traffic. Personal taxes all add
to the cost of living for they travel with
and increasingly add to the cost of the
object taxed. They are taxes upon labor.
thrift. capital and enterprise. for through
increasing prices they check consump-
tion and therefore check production.
Let us examine in the light of economic
reason the District tax levy for the fiscaI
year ended June %. 1914:
Taxes On Privilege MasquerndinE Is
Property.
Land S2.''S'.-Ss
Special privilege corpora
tions-on gross receipts:
Electric light Companies
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