144 FOREST VALUATION 



a government conducted by and for the people, and respect- 

 ing the rights of property, should, on the whole, give a full 

 equivalent in service for the taxes collected. Whatever the 

 effect may be upon the individual property owner, the entire 

 level of values is raised and the public or common share in this 

 increase should absorb less than the total gain. 



Perfect equality of taxation on all forms of income and capital 

 value would have no visible effect upon relative values of dif- 

 ferent forms of property. But if the burden of taxes is un- 

 equally distributed, either by deliberate intent as is proposed by 

 the advocates of single tax on land, or by exemptions of certain 

 forms of private property from taxation, or merely by reason 

 of the imperfect working of the machinery for assessment and 

 collection of taxes, this balance is disturbed. The value of 

 property over-burdened with taxation is then confiscated in 

 actual reality and to just the extent of the excess of taxes above 

 the average level. This serves to depress the sale value of the 

 property and lower its apparent taxable value, resulting either 

 in diminished taxes or an increased tax rate which still further 

 depresses values. The end of the vicious process is physical 

 confiscation of the property, destruction of the private enterprise 

 dependent on it, and the cessation of public revenue from taxes 

 formerly received. Meanwhile, property bearing less than its 

 share of taxes is automatically increased in value and made 

 prosperous at the expense of the over-burdened forms of enter- 

 prise, but only to a certain extent, for the effect of the destruction 

 of any form of industry is a general lowering of the value of 

 all forms of property or of the total wealth of the community. 

 Universal equality in taxation on the basis of ability to pay 

 ( 149) is, therefore, the goal of all genuine efforts at tax reform. 



154. The General Property Tax. The general property 

 tax is a direct tax levied on the assessed value of all forms of 

 tangible and intangible property on the theory that equality 

 in taxation is thereby secured. In an agricultural age and 

 region results were fairly equitable. With increasing complica- 

 tion of modern industrial development, the method has become 

 less and less effectual, since it fails to secure equal proportions 



