334 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



promptly to one hundred farmers for $1,500 and takes their 

 notes he is taxed upon them; and the plows are taxed iu the 

 hands of the farmers where the assessor finds them. The only 

 property whose use can earn the taxes is the plows. In this 

 case it is treble taxation. These illustrations might be multi- 

 plied indefinitely. What have been given are sufficient to 

 show the nature of the unjust taxation which the farmer 

 demands, and of wliicli he is sometimes the victim. It ia 

 demands of this kind which serve as an excuse to rich men 

 for evading taxes. The farmer claims that the rich do not 

 pay their just share of taxes, and it is true, but the way to 

 reach them is not by double taxation. If it be asked how we 

 are to reach them, the reply is that that is one of the most 

 vexing questions in political economy, and not to be fully 

 dealt with in a chapter. We are, however, in this chapter, 

 considering one method which is strongly urged as certain to 

 accomplish the desired end. 



Conceding for the moment that taxes on personal property 

 are to be abandoned, the farmer will find that in the assessment 

 . of real estate, city property is greatly undervalued as compared 

 with rural land. The evidence upon this point is abundant, 

 but the most striking case that I know of is disclosed in 

 a report (1894) of the Illinois Bureau of Labor statistics. This 

 is a volume of over four hundred pages entirely devoted 

 to the statistics of the taxation of real estate and improve- 

 ments in the city of Chicago, in comparison with taxation in 

 other parts of the state. The assessed valuations are also 

 compared with true valuations in a great number of cases, the 

 true valuations being based not on estimate, but on actual 

 transactions. One of the most remarkable cases described 

 is that of a lot containing eight thousand two hundred 

 thirty-five square feet — a little less than one-fifth of an acre — 

 which had just been leased for ninety-nine years at an average 

 rental of $78,011. Assuming interest to be 5 per cent, the 

 value of this lot is $1,572,220, which is obtained by multiply- 

 ing its annual rental by twenty. It was assessed in 1893 at 

 $89,952, or 5.72 per cent of its value. Assuming the land 

 adjoining to be equally valuable, which it is not, the lot in 



