The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-11-26
Rv oIrICK-

by HERBERT QUICK.
ROBABLY my readers are as
tonished when l assert nothing
but a new system of taxation
or the sweeping system Of land ma
tionalization win afford the relief
which agriculture must have in
America.
They may think hat either sug-
gestion is a perfectly absurd and revo-
lutionary one. Such things in
America! Perfectly insane!
Think a moment. We are in this
world. The world is changing. w
find basic Observation-Disclosures
going down to ruin. This means the
same ruin that has always come to
people who disintegrate under econ
omic evils, And this is what has
brought changes in the land systems
of all the countries which have been
upset by recent convulsions-convul-
sions which are not over, but which
have just begun.
I do not believe in land nationalist
ton Yet that is Just the scheme
which is easiest put across by politl-
clans struggling with mere poultices
on the ulcer they are called upon to
treat.
Go to the nations which have re-
modelled their Institutions, from Tur-
key to Poland, and clear across the
Russian Empire TO the Pacific.
and you will find that the patent medi-
cine which has been applied has been
the scheme of land naturalization. It
In the program of the second
party in size and power In Great
Britain.
win Not Work
And yet land naturalization, as it
have to be carried out under
American Institutions. would not
work. For the land would have to
be paid for in taxation, and the burden
Of taxation would be as hard to zeal
the burden of rent 1t would re.
place. The mere proposal to buy all
the land and place it in he hands
Of users Of land would excite rdidicule.
on the other hand, the imposition
Of all taxation on the value Of the
bare land. exclusive OF improvements,
Is something which could be done
without any basic changes in our in
stitutions.
Il would cheaper land and make It
a thing which the workers could afford
TO use; for it would make the value
Of the improvements the purchase
price. It would make no change in
the titles. Land would be sold, in
and passed from hand TO hand,
just as now.
Il would take from no man any
value which he has personally created.
lana values are creations Of So
ciety; 1t is only the improvements
are individual creations. and
they would be freed from taxation.
Occupy Cheap Land
Under this system the universal
policy Of land users would be to
occupy land Of as small value az pos
sible and place on 1t the maximum Of
improvements, This means more
houses, livestock. barns. drainage.
fertilizers and personal property. and
fewe half-used or idle areas.
And It Is just. What society creates
belongs to society tn taxation II It
cares to take it; and our present sys-
OF taking from the people a part
Of what they individually create is
wrong. Render unto the individual
the things which are the individuals.
and unto the COLLECTIVELY the things
are the collectivity's.
And the values taken in taxation
are never paid for through taxation.
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ch%eapening Of land would seem a hard
to some, and TO some 1t, OF course,
really would be a hardship; but we,
who have taken slaves from their own
ers and a continent from a crown
without compensation ought not to
from redeeming society by
cheapening land through taxation. Not
II our life depends on it-and it does.
The conservative citizen has by this
time, I suppose, ceased to read these
or is Just looking them owe
to see what new enormity I shall sug-
gest. And yet, hoping some Of them
may still honor me with their notice,
shall write this last paragraph or
so to the conservative citizen whose
land will be cheapened and probably
made to represent q loss when my plan
Is carried out.
Plan Is Conservative
Compared with what will almost GER
come upon us in a generation
or SO If this taxation plan is not adopt
ed, 1t is truly conservative. It con-
what is good and destroys
what Is bad. 1t takes from you, Mr..
Conservative Citizen, nothing which
Individual enterprise or labor has Gre
ated, but only what society as a whole
has produced-the unearned increment
Of land values.
1t would make useless and uneces-
sary most or all of our taxes on i'm
provements, on personal property, on
goods in commerce, and on incomes.
Perhaps all of them; anyhow, most
Of them. We should have to wait and
see whether or not economic rem
would amount to all the revenues of
all kinds which we require; but it
would at once, In the enormous i'm
pulse which would be given to i'm
proVements, create a new era Of pros.
perity, the benefits of which to most
Of the conservative citizens would be
greater than their profits
present or prospective from the value
IF the bare land.