Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-05-02
UNTAX THE CONSUMER

Editor Askov American:
Habit is powerful thing. 1t makes
Legislators levy processing taxes,
sales taxes, gross income taxes, and
net income taxes when they should
know that they reduce purchasing
power and continue the vicious cycle
that might be interrupted by taking
the public product, land rent for pub
lie expenses. They change the name
but not the nature of the tax they i'm
pose, because of habit. Instead of
taking the load off the overburdened
farmers, railroads, gasoline and motor
vehicles, they apply another tax
with a new name, because of habit.
There are three essentials that are
costing the farmers more than they
can afford to pay, namely: Land on
which to work, transportation, and
government activities. The farmers
greatest expense is transportation,
and that is not only true in respect
to farmers; it Is the largest one item
of expense that everyone pays. The
carrier charges could be reduced ma
terially if in exchange for such re-
ductiOn our federal government would
exempt all transportation industries
from their present duties as tax col
lectors. A federal levy of one per
cent on all land values. urban and
rural, would yield the national treas
ury about one and a half billion dol
lars a year, which approXimates the
taxes on railroads, motor vehicles,
and other transpol tation facilities.
Now view the railroads. They are
paying over one million dollars day
in taxes. Add the cost of their tax
department and interest on moneys in
vOlved and their total tax cost, it is
estimated, is over three million dol
lars daily, all added to their rates
and paid by consumers, in high prices
for goods and services. l suppose
most people live under the delusion
that railroads pay taxes. They do
not, they are only acting for our gov
eminent as tax collectors and an ex-
pensive one at that, compared with
cost of collecting land tax. 1t is
| the consumer who pays the railroad
taxes, thereby reducing his buying
power for consumption. OF our en-
tire population, 80 per cent are con-
sumer-workers, who will gladly buy
more if Congress will take taxes out
of prices. Farmers need no other
help from government and it can give
no other without "robbing Peter to
pay Paul
1t is impossible to make common
carriers pay taxes, but not so with
landlords who hold valuable land out
of use for speculation. 1t is difficult
to visualize any landlord being re-
duced to the breadline. If William
Randolph Hearst had to pay an extra
one per cent tax on his 100000 acre
San Simeon ranch, or his block after
block of valuable land in New York
City, or his rich mineral land in the
Black Hills in South Dakota, | pc
lieve that the Hearst family would
still eat.
1t might hurt Columbia university
receiving land rent of S3,6OO,000 a
year for the site under Rockefeller
Center, and also Trinity Episcopal
church in New York City, with pro.
ductive land assets of $27, S7O,40O. A
land value tax of one per cent OIL
even higher. might not force any Of
the eight per cent of our population
to the breadline.
The Henry George method has t(
be developed if we will avoid some
kind of dictatorship. 1t is in no sense
revolutionary, nor is it dogma. II
is practical course of action witt
tools already shaped and at hand.
Let us shift taxes gradually. steI
by step, and one step at time, be-
ginning where adjustment is most
needed-the transportation taxes-be
cause they are wrapped up with ever,
item bought.
LUDWIG MOSBEk.
Askov, Minn, April 30, 1885.