The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-03-15
THE PEOPLES FORUM.
A Continuation Of 1r. Ralston's
Article on Maryland's System of
Taxation.
To the Editor of The Republican:

| onlng the BODY polite, paralyZlng pro-
gress, failing to do their duty by the
State and nation of which they form a
part. What can we think of the logic
of a community which fines a man
once for stealing chickens and fines the
man who puts up the chicken house
once every year? The fine upon the
chicken thief is supposed to operate as
a deterrent. Does not the fine upon
the man who would build the chicken
house operate against the making of
improvements? And yet the farmers
of Maryland have for years taxed them
selves for constructing houses and
/ barns and all the other things that 90
| to make life possible in the country.
/ Why wonder that Maryland Is back
ward?
Why should not Maryland be back
ward under such circumstances? Will
we not naturally put up the smallest
and most inferior improvement which
as make-shift carries as through
present emergencies rather than i'm
prove our lands so substantially as to
attract the serious attention of the as
SCISSOR to pursue US most vigorously for
/ building the best?
The argument is simple. the illus
trations are trite. In the old world
when taxes were imposed upon win
dows people dwelt In darkness. Where
ever taxes are imposed upon dogs their
number diminishes. License taxes
keep down automatically the undue es-
tablishment of saloons. Are not taxes
levied upon improvements exactly the
same in their effect as taxes on win
dows, dogs and saloons? Do not such
taxes therefore, prevent our progress
i've farmers from doing for the benefit
of themselves and the community the
things which ostensiblv we believe to
be for the advantage of all?
The effect of our procedure is funda-
mental. 1t becomes less profitable to
use land than to hold it out of use 1t
becomes Improbable to employ labor
and our laborers suffer.
Under our system OF taxation we are
driving the Independent farmer from
the farm and turning over our land to
tenants who have no particular inter-
est in maintaining is fertility. We are
/ despoiling the granaries of the nation
and robbing the coming generations of
the riches of the earth, that earth
which we should hold in trust for them
as well as for ourselves.
Under this system of taxation, some
forty per cent of our farms is cult
waited by people who have no interest
| in their maintenance and development.
This figure has risen within thirty
years from twenty-five per cent. If
we continue as we have begun, in an
other thirty years our country life will
have so completely degenerated that
the independent farmer will be almost
unknown and his place will be taken by
those who by that time will have be-
come a restless, shiftless and ire
sponsible tenantry, without pride or re-
spect for the country in and the land
on which they subsist.
Today taking the whole United States,
almost 20 per cent. of the farming land
in tracts of 1000 acres and more is
held by less than one per cent. of the
| farm owners and of this land less than
10 per cent is under cultivation, where
as land held in tracts up to 500 acres is
cultivated to the extent of 60 to 70
per cent. A large part of these small
er farms left cultivated is as we know
held speculatively, as are the great
tracts. Meanwhile two and one fourth
millions of farmers-more than one
third of the whole number are getting
in many cases difficult existence on
farms of fifty acres or less.
The sons of the farmers of these
smaller tracts find the door of op-
portunity closed in their faces because
the relatively large owners demand for
the privilege of purchase of their lands
price which is prohibitive to industry.
Thus they are driven from our rural
communities to seek precarious livings
in the cities, or to go great distances to
obtain cheaper lands. In this we shall
largely find the explanation for the
fact that the rural population of South
ern Maryland was fully as great in 1920
as in 1910. the Young men having been
driven from the agreeable climate and
natural advantages of Maryland far
out into the West, even into the
deserts, to get the opportunities which
existed, but which were unavailable, at
their own doors.
Our whole civilization, our growth in
population, our advancement in govern
ment, unite to build up and maintain
the value of land. No element can be
named not conspiring to this end,
whether it be school, church, lodge, fire
protection, police, roads and railroads
mr. what NOT Euaru ononou &c ,,o,,o.,.