The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1915-08-20
THE FARMERS TAN PROBLEM

A clear expression on the Single
Tax from the farmers point of view
is given in a letter from Grange No.
1865, of Lake Katrine, New York,
in the National Grange Monthly, The
essential part of this letter follows:
Farmers complain, and justly so,
of being overtaxed; that for benefits
received they pay far in excess of
what town and city dwellers pay. We
have striven for many years to get
rid of this unjust burden, but our
efforts have been futile and have
tended rather to increase our load.
The reason has been that we did not
understand economic law as affecting
the incidence of taxation, so when we
taxed mortgages we only raised the
rate of interest on ourselves or made
it more difficult to get money, and
this applies to every form of real
wealth or capital. Now it is clear to
us that money for public purposes
should be raised in those localities
most benefited by the expenditure of
public monies.
The value of land, Independent of
the labor values, or improvements
thereon, is the true measure of the
advantage of social presence and So
cial abilities Contrary to current
notions, there is very little land val
ue in our farming communities. The
sum total of all the land value of all
the farms in this state does not ex-
ceed 100000, while the assess
ed land value of the ordinary lots of
the city OF New York alone is S5.00O,-
100000. Farmers should pay very
little for the support of government,
as they get very little from govern
ment. Taxation is payment for So
cial service, and the measure of the
value of that service is land value
An ordinary farm in this state worth
$4,000 has seldom as much as
$1,000 of value aside from the i'm
provements and labor values there
on. Therefore, very small amount
in taxes would be taken from the
farmer, for the farmer gets mighty
little from society in the way of So
cial service
1t is absurd, as well as dishonest, |
to charge a farmer for building a
barn, for the barn represents a SER
vice not rendered the farmer by the |
county, but a service rendered the |
farmer by himself; involves the coun- |
ty in no added expense, nor does the |
farmer receive from the county any
more service after he builds the barn |
than he received before. The only |
and the sure way for the farmer to |
get rid of unjust burdens of taxation |
is to take for federal, state and |
county use the values that are due |
to social presence and the service, |
and that value is not to be found in |
rural communities, but in our great |
cities, and in taking this value no
injustice is done to anyone, for we
but take socially created value for
social needs.
While it is obvious that taxing
land values instead of labor products
would greatly relieve the farmer of
his present burden, it must not be
that at the same time it
would lift the heavy burden from his
ers in the cities, who are
his chief customers, setting them free
with ready cash for all the farmers
products"
There should be enough to satisfy
my farmer in the comparative figures
)f land values of New York City and
IN the farms of the state. With $500
100000 of land values on the farms
md $4,000, 100000 in New York Ci-
", it is clear that under the Single
Tax New York City will be assessed
or State taxes 16 2-3 times as much
Us the agricultural districts That
'efutes all the silly talk about Sin
,le Tax being a burden to the farm