336 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



estimated "true value" of all real estate and improvements 

 was $39,544,544,333, of which $13,137,145,842 was for " farms" 

 of thirty acres or more. If the ratio of improvements to land 

 was the same as in California in 189G* (37.2 per cent) the value 

 of the land alone was $24,933,973,842, and the rate of tax on 

 land alone to produce the sum raised by national and ad 

 valorem, state, and local taxation would have been $3.40 on 

 $100, or 3.4 per cent. The total rental value of the land, 

 assuming interest to be 5 per cent, was $1,246,668,692. The 

 taxation of that year would not, therefore, have consumed the 

 entire rental value of land. This, however, gives no indica- 

 tion of how the burden would have been divided between 

 city and country. 



I am not aware of any statistics of assessments and taxa- 

 tion within the United States which give a better indication 

 of the probable results of the single tax as a fiscal measure 

 than those of California. Since 1879 all land in California is 

 assessed separately from the improvements upon it, and "city 

 and town lots" are consolidated in the returns separately from 

 other real estate. All property, also, is required to be assessed 

 at its "actual cash value," which in an ultimate analysis must 

 mean a certain number of times the cash rent which is paid, 

 or might be obtained for it. If interest is assumed to be five 

 per cent, the "cash value" would be twenty times the annual 

 rent which could be paid for the use of the property. As a 

 matter of fact property is not assessed at its true value, espe- 

 cially city property, nor can its true value be known in many 

 cases, because the income which it yields is not known. As 

 in other states, the cities are doubtless regularly undervalued. 

 Still, the State Board of Equalization seeks to remedy this, 

 and the fact that in 1890 real-estate values in California were 

 grossly inflated both in city and country, and that the item 

 "city and town lots" includes large areas of what was really 

 farm property, incline me to consider the real-estate assess- 

 ment of California in 1890 as nearer to the "true value" of 



*In the older and colder states the ratio of improvements would be greater, 

 and the land tax rate would be higher. 



