42

WHO PA VS VO UP TAXES?

having the great advantage, that it makes spontaneouslyall the allowances which it is so difficult to make, and soimpracticable to make exactly, in assessing an incometax; for, if what a person pays in house rent is a test ofanything, it is a test not of what he possesses, but ofwhat he thinks he can afford to spend.”

The market value of real estate is always proportion-ate to, and dependent on, the amount of personal prop-erty, or rather productive capital, placed upon it or inits immediate vicinity. Land in itself has originally novalue, as it cost nothing to any man to produce it. Ifthere is no personal property or productive capital con-nected with it, or reflected on it, it will not sell in themarket, or will bring only a nominal price. If by chanceany buildings should be connected with such land, theywill possess no rental value. Only as personal property,or productive capital, is brought in connection with realestate does its value become appreciable and augment.

Applying, practically, to New York State the proposedsystem for taxing personal property through buildings orrentals as its representative, we should find that theasrEfresrate of taxation would be the lowest in the mostsparsely settled agricultural districts of the State. Prop-erty here is mainly in land, whose low marketable valuewould be still further reduced on the tax list, if a valu-ation of sixty per cent, were taken as the standard for•assessment. The marketable value of the buildings alsois small; and what should be especially borne in mind is