The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-11-23
BY HERBERT QUICK

Virginia farmer This article is on
Land Values"
BY HERBERT QUICK
HE first necessary of life is
II land. It comes before even
such things as food and shell
, ter, for we cannot have either Of
these without access to land. The
grossest error of mankind is the
thought that high land values mean
good to man.
We shall go on from bad to worse
if we cannot make land cheap once
more. Our good cheap land is gone.
Our problem is to get it back again,
in city and country. We shall get 1t
back If society is destroyed, but It
viii do nobody any good in that case.
Mesopotamia once had high land
values, but when the hordes Of CEN
trail Asia overwhelmed ii they de
stroyed both the land values and the
society which built them up.
What the farmers need is cheap
land, not on some receding frontier
as in my youth, but right where they
live now, in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
ohio, Indiana, Kentucky. Iowa and
'verywhere where farming is carried
On. Cheap land and cheap land alone
will save US from the disintegration OF
agriculture.
Legislation Necessary
If land is to be made cheap, the
high values in the hands of land
owners, both those who occupy their
lands and those who do not must be
taken away II ON them. The only way
TO take it from them is by legislation.
It can be taken from them in only
two ways-by land naturalization
and by the state thus becoming the
universal landlord, or by taxation so
levied as to relieve every form Of
property Of taxation except land
values.
This latter method would relieve
from taxation the buildings of the
farmer, his machinery, his money in
bank, his fences. his crops. his or
chards. his income. his drainage, his
fertilization, everything which he has
except the value of his bare land.
This would make land cheap: for
under such conditions nobody would
buy farm land-or any other for that
matter-for speculation. No one
would want land except for production
use. No increase In population or
progress in the arts and sciences
would make the land more valuable
for sale, for the increased value
would always be absorbed by taxa.
ton.
Plenty Of Cheap Land
The town landowner would sell out
or move back to the farm and become
dirt farmer. The man who has to
hire his work done would decrease his
area OF land to the amount he and his
family could till This would throw
on the market plenty OF cheap land
for every one who wanted 10 farm.
About three years ago 1 visited,
after many years OF absence. my ma
tive county in Iowa. Two farmers
were settling up a deal for 800 acres
OF farm land--a half section Of land
which was sold in my boyhood for five
dollars an acre-and even that. some
times, on grain payments.
There had been o farm land boom.
The buyer, dirt farmer, had made
preliminary payment Of $4,000. The
boom broke and he could not take the
land. He was deciding it back and los
ing his $50 Geo. The vendor had
moved to town and did not want to
take It back He thought the buyer
ought to lose more than his $S0,OoO.
They were dickering to determine how
much more he should pay to get out OF
the deal. 1t was finally settled on the
basis Of his paying $500 more. lie
lost the land and 1880.
$500 an Acre
The purchase price was SloO, OOo, OF
$500 an acre-a not uncommon pflce
in the Mid West then. So TINS laiid'
on the value of which the farmer
must earn interest if he prospers, haa
increased In price a hundred times
within my memory.
This is the great factor when
makes farming improbable IN the
United States.
This passing of the land into the
hands of people rich enough to own
his y priced land is causing the aver
age size of farms to Increase. Ihey
are growing larger and larger sta
tistics show this.
A recent survey by the Depart
ment of Agriculture shows that Oh
5000 farms OF more than average
size" the average value was $lo'4VV'
Machinery, equipment, livestock
money. etc, was worth on the aver
ae>a opI,y 50 500 each