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Show population Ino JI.e northwest. VV. wliili our legislators would lnio."l tne ui'lves about ttit) single tu TAXATION. j The committee appointed by the gov-, ernor to make an Investigation as toi Improving our system of Uiation has made Its report to the legislature. Too report contains little that Is new, although al-though It makes a number of recommendations. recom-mendations. The Idea seems to be to do away with double taxation, which la all right, and to do away with the yoll tax, which la also a good Idea. Outside of tills the proposition seems t.ip to see that nothing escapes taxa-' tionf Our whole system of taxation needs to be remodeled. The present system Is founded on the Idea that every ,nai should pay taxes In proportion to the amount of properly of all kinds he owns. The system ahould be founded " " ' on the Idea that a man should pay a tax to the community In proportion to the benefits be receives from he community. com-munity. The only way this can be measured la by the Increase of land values. A man's profits In business do not increase with the growth and Improvement Im-provement of the community, nor Is there any Increase In wages. In fart there la likely to be a decrease. The; one thing that does Increase and hi I exact proportion to population and l piovemenla Is the value of land. Now why should not a portion of done values created by the community so back to the rcmmuulty In the form of taxes? Our present system of taxation Infl'cls a fine on every man who makes Improvements. If he Improves his farm, puts out an orchard, buys stock the tax collector comef down on hun for doing so, yet these very Improvements Improve-ments help to Increase the value of au adjoining farm or city lot upon whlih the owner haa made no Improvement and the few tents extra tax lie pays bears little relation- to this Increased value. What every community wants are more Improved farms, more buildings, , more stock, more orchards. These l Taluea are created by the Individual i and should be free from taxation. I If ft man haa to pay just as high a i tax upon an unimproved farm or city i lot as his neighbor does whose land Is i Improved, Is It not an Incentive to make Improvements? We want more i bouses, barns, orchards, stock and lm- i provements. and the man do does this Is ft real benefactor to the community, i The man who holds land In Idleness Is of no use to the community, yet thou- i aanda buy land simply to get the bene- fits of Increased population and the i consequent higher price of land. We saw statement the other day that over half of the timber lands of the counry are held by less than 200 i persons and corporations. The time ( cat be said n our coal lands, oil Uuds. : I -no lands. In ft greater or teas degree. This makes monopolies of the Industries Indus-tries upon which these natural resources re-sources depend. If a tax waa levlel upon these lanJs eciial to their annual ; rental Tine It woulJ foite them Into ( use by their owners, or they would be 1 disposed of to those who would have tu ' use them to make them profitable. 1 This single tag upon land values Is j no untried experiment, but the tax com- , mission had apparently beard nothing of It. Id many parts of Northwest Can- i rda It Is In operation with great ber- ( fits. Perron 1 property aa1 lainrov i tints are exempt from tsistion. the ' whole tax coming from Isnl ve.uei This puts ceck on land specula. !on and encourages Improvements. That one reason for the large Influx of |