The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1920-05-05
THE NOLAN TAX

THE NOLAN TAX
BILL
Congressman Nolan of California has
introduced bill in. the house Of repre-
sentatives providing for the raising Of
public revenue by a tax upon the priv.
leges of the use and enjoyment Of lands
Of large value" The measure has Gre
ated considerable commotion in Iowa,
respectfully in the Eleventh congression-
al district, because if enacted into law
it would place the burden Of taxation
largely upon lands and amount in prin,
ciple to the confiscation of real estate
and its uses by the government, by
taxation. 1t would not mean public
ownership of the land, but single tax
on land. That is, the government
would require the payment of such
high taxes that the man who owned II
would be compelled to pay a rent in
ifcation of the old Henry George the.
DRY Of singles taxes. 1t is a return to
the, feudal tenures when the lord held
his lands from the king, in whom all
the real estate was vested. The unr
derlings held from the lord, to whom
they paid rental tax in the form of
military service whenever called upon
to do SO. The lowest strata, the tillers
of the soil, held from these underlings
and paid rent service which amount
ed to the most debased slavery, in.
Guiding military service. Thus, the
same thing was accomplished as lis
sought in the Nolan bill, the direct tax
coming from the king through the
gradual degrees Of tax collection to the
serfs and ehurls. 1t was the doctrine
of some Of the American Indians. Ne
cnmseh asserted ait one Of the 'eounGils
at which his people were eedtRg their
did not own the lands, but only the'
right to the use of them. The great
spirit, he said, owned them.
s There is no possibility of sthe Nolan
bill ever becoming q law. Neverttie.
less; It Is worth Knowing Something sOf
its author and the merits of the bill
itself. Congressman Nolan Is re.
publican. He represents one Of the.
congressional districts within the: city
of San Francisco. He is an iron moul.
der by trade, and has been Identified
with the International sMoulders' TN,
ion Of North America for fourteen
years: He was secretary Of the San
Francisco labor council during 1912. He
has been in congress for a little more
than six years. His experience in pub.
lie life, other than that in congress,
comes from one years service on the
board of supervisors of the city and
county of San Francisco. This sum-
mary affords an idea Of his ability or
lack of ability to regulate great taxa
ton questions by law.
The bin is based on one Of the theories
that sounds (. plausible. on paper hut;
cannot be worked out in practice with
out the onfiscation of yprivnte proper:II
ty. Its goes. back TO the theory qsthat,
private ownership of land is a viola
ton of the law, Of nature. tits argued
in defense Of the siRgle tax theory that
the land should belong to tlei state and
pay for the privilege in the form Of
taxes. n Private ownership having crept
in and made it impossible to apply the
principles of single taxes without de;
stroyitg the, property rights of land
owners, the next thing proposed is that
the government should levy a heavy
tax on land and stoi an equal extent re.
duce taxation on other forms of prop
erty. SO that unused and therefore IN,
land would be forced intp
service. 1t is reasoned that such q tax
would make II improbable to own. land
which did not produce, and therefore
virgin land would not lie idle, and spec
ulation in land would be eliminated be.
cause it would in fact have no value,
the tax; being the measure of payment
for use and not ownership.
II there were the .remotest possibil. |
ity of the bill receiving even the most
cursory attention in congress an analy.
sis Of it's provisions would be import.
ant. But as nothing of this sort is
probable attention may be turned toll
the constitutionality of such laws. A
tax on land is a. direct tax; that isl one
directly against the individual,
In contradistinction to one levied on the
sale OF a commodity either as a. tariff
or an, internal tax, but which is notl
levied directly against nor collected di. |
rectly from the individual. 1t will be |
recalled that the first income tax hw'l
passed tby congress was held unconsti.t
tutiOnal by the United States supreme
court on the grounds that it was a di. Il
rect tax not distributed according to I
the provision of the constitution. The
decision was; overcome by the sevehsl
tenth amendment, which Z gave the1
power to congress to apply the print
cip1ss Of the income tax among the sew.
etIaAse sta tea. The, iahihit ion isen ss suclfl
laws Is, found in. that provision OF the
constitution which reads: Il
shaaEs ie4 apporsaoned among the severi
al states which may be included withsl
In this union according to their respect.
I've numbers (of inhabitants)."
The constitution clearly prohibits
and its Interpretation along that line
Is SO comprehensive as to have become |
levied on specified classes Of individu. l
ais or specified classes of property. The |
elementary-direct taxes from being |
income tax law held unconstituti0nalt
lttemptedsto levy direct tax upon GER.
tain classes OF citizens, such classes be- !
ing fixed and determined by the !
amount Of the individual income. The