FOREST TAXATION AND THE SINGLE TAX.* 

 By Louis S. Murphy. 



The report of the sub-committee on taxation of the Fifth 

 National Conservation Congress last November would lead one 

 to believe that the adoption of the single tax would not leave a 

 tree standing or even permit one to grow, in other words, would 

 force the destruction of the forests and absolutely discourage 

 anyone from attempting the practice of forestry. This con- 

 clusion has as a basis the general statement of single tax propa- 

 gandists to the effect that "virgin forests are a part of land, a free 

 gift of nature, and should consequently be taxed as land or as 

 a land value." On the strength of such a statement their as- 

 sumption follows that the value of the land and the value of the 

 timber are to be added together and taxed on an annual basis. 



But the assumption is in error in at least two fundamental 

 particulars. The assumption first of all ignores the fact that 

 the term "land" has an economic as well as a common meaning. 

 It is patent that if interpreted in its economic sense the above 

 statement is perfectly intelligible and clear; otherwise it is not. 

 Land in the economic sense comprises all the elements of nature, 

 the rocks and soil, the forests, the minerals and the waters. 

 When it is understood that the above basic statement simply 

 means, therefore, that the forest — the virgin growth — is a part of 

 nature and that its value should consequently be taxed as a 

 natural value, must we conclude that the only way open to us is 

 to tax it as land surface is taxed? Herein lies the second error 

 in the committee's assumption that it is necessary on the theory 

 that being a single tax there can be but one way to apply it, or 

 some single-taxer may have said so, misled, undoubtedly, by the 

 archaic general property tax idea. 



The single tax is simply a tax on the utility values in nature. 

 There is nothing whatever in either the spirit or the letter of 

 the single tax doctrine requiring that timber be taxed annually. 



*Read at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Protection of New 

 Hampshire Forests. 

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