THE HABITATION TAX 79 
check wasteful display in the maintenance of great establishments, it 
would tend to eliminate a conspicuous form of invidious comparison 
which at the present time is one of the chief factors determining men to 
erect immense habitations. A beautiful and expensive residence is a 
standing witness of the owner’s ability to pay, and it at the same time 
clearly proclaims him in a different class from most of those who 
view it. 
Again, in so far as the habitation tax would tend to reduce the number 
of magnificent residences, it would have the effect of decreasing the 
value of real estate and in this event a social gain would accrue to the 
modern city. The huge private parks surrounding so many of the fine 
residences in our cities might tend slightly to diminish in size and in 
this way more of the working-class might have homes in other places 
than the congested sections where they now reside. 
If then the tax on habitations can be so arranged that it will not 
interfere with the amount of money that must be spent in order to secure 
for the people their actual welfare, but will only bear on that part of the 
expenditure which is unnecessary to the well-being of the community, 
the objections to it as a tax on consumption will in some degree be 
removed. If the exempted minimum rental is properly adjusted, there 
can be no serious complaint that such a tax will fall unjustly as a con- 
sumption tax upon those least able to bear it. 
HISTORY OF THE HABITATION TAX 
The tax on the rental values of property is not new. It had its begin- 
ning in the action of the Constituent Assembly of France in the year 1791. 
This assembly erected upon the ruins of the French monarchy sought 
to construct a new fiscal system that would eliminate the obnoxious 
features that had been so characteristic of the monarchy preceding. 
Of these one of the worst was the inquisition into the affairs of the 
citizens. In seeking, therefore, for new objects of taxation, and also 
such as would require no inquisition, the members of the assembly 
resorted to the tax on rentals. Since that time this tax has prevailed 
in France, though its strict theory is not carried out in all departments. 
In a number the tax is assessed upon the ability of the citizen to con- 
