SUMMARY REMEDIES. 123 



important relations of social economy. It exempts 

 those who hold the lands but will not improve them, 

 and thereby taxes the more heavily those who make 

 the greatest improvements. It pays a premium upon 

 gambling, and helps the gambler to capital to pursue 

 his calling, but oppresses the energetic business man 

 with double burdens. To effectually remedy the evils 

 attending tenant and bonanza farming this indefensi- 

 ble system of taxation must be reversed. It is a sys- 

 tem that found its origin in the dark ages of'Europe 

 when the landholders, at once lords of the soil and 

 rulers of the realm, threw all the burdens of govern- 

 ment upon the landless, the people of the towns and 

 cities, who were unable to defend themselves. Those 

 old customs have come down to us but little changed, 

 and from mere force of habit our people have acqui- 

 esced in their use. But they possess not one element 

 of justice ; they are a tax upon the many for the 

 benefit of the few, and that few are the vampires 

 of society. 



All unimproved lands, whether in city or country, 

 which should be held for more than one year without 

 being actually occupied and substantially improved, 

 or in actual process of improvement, in a manner to 

 correspond with the property by which it is sur- 

 rounded, and to serve the purposes for which it is 

 adapted, should be deemed speculative property, and 

 be assessed at its true market value, and pay at least 

 double the highest rate of taxation assessed upon the 

 nearest improved property of like character. This 

 increased taxation should be laid as the penalty to be 

 paid for holding land of any description, unimproved 



