The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-06-15
SAYS PEOPLE OF US,
WILL Pull THROUGH
ECONOMIC TROUBLES

1.-THE American people soon will be
talking and studying economic prob !
lens as never before. and the nation !
will come through its difficulties with |
IN short time" said Louis Walls, of |
Chicago IN his address to the Kiwanis |
club Thursday noon. Mr.. Walls is a !
member of the Joseph Fels Commits |
sion Of New York, Chicago and Lon
don.
Tho Kiwanians were informed that
date would be set some time in the |
near future for a visit to the Boys |
camp The date will be selected at
a later date so that all the members
might prepare to have that day to go
down and have a good time at the
Camp KtRo-Y
Mr.. Wallis said in part:
"Thc business man of today is the
victim Of a number of adverse forces.
He is heavily penalized by taxation
TO raise money for national, state,
county and city government. He must
pay heavily for a location, owing to-
tho enormous increase in the rental
and selling price of land. The buying
power of his rural customers is cut
down by stiff taxes, high land prices,
and the expenses of sending agricul-
tural produce to market The country
districts are being depopulated, while
the cities are overcrowded. There are
two men hunting for every man-size
Job. The laboring classes are becom-
ing more infected with socialism every
year. They do not understand the
difficulties of business men and far
mers. The doctrine is being preached
that the private capitalist is a useless
parasite who should be eliminated by
government ownership of business.
president Harding has recently
published through an Indianapolis pub
fishing firm, a book entitled Our
Common Country in which the presl-I
dent points out in strong words the
evils of what he calls "capitalistic
speculation in land If you buy land
and farm it, or built home on it, or
put up a factory or a business block,
you are taxed much more heavily than
il you put your capital into the mere
capitalistic speculation in land. This
discourages real productive enterprise.
while, at the same time, it promotes
speculation and boosts unnaturally the
price of land in city and country.
High Taxes are Menace
High taxes and heavy ground rem
tails are blockading business, and fore
ing billions and billions of capital in
to public bonds and into the purchase
of mortgages issued by our great in
dustrial plants The economic inter-
ests of the nation are being more and
more bound up with the success of in
dustrial, commercial and agricultural
capital, and less with investments il
land and special privilege Even those
who like the Astors, in New York, are
drawing large ground rentals from val
liable land are transferring their in
terests elsewhere. What l mean is
that, as their ground rents accumulate,
they are not put back into the pur-
chase of additional landed property,
because vacant land has now become
so expensive.
while we are casting about and
asking what to do, the Canadian gov
eminent is quietly taking thousands
and thousands of American farmers
out of this country every year, and
placing them in the western provinces
where the burden of taxation is being
gradually shifted from improvements
to land values The same policy is 60
ing into effect in Australia and New
Zealand; also in parts of British South
Africa. In our own country, the legis-
lature of the state of Pennsylvania has
passed law applying to cities of the
class of Pittsburgh and Scranton, eX-
empting industrial machinery by de-
grees from taxation, and assessing the
deficit on land values, all land of the
same value being taxed at the same
rate. whether improved or not.
This program should be extended
to the entire country Idle land could
not then be held out of use on specu
lation, as its market price would be
forced down by the increased taxation
A growing share of the ground rentals
of the nation would go into the public
treasury in lieu of taxes on improve
ments and on productive capital. Far
mers, whose chief taxes are now in
direct, would pay less than at present
A larger amount of capital would go in
TO new production: so that there
would be bigger industrial structure
to carry our tax load"
The speaker said this is not a propo
sition to get all public revenue from
single source.