186

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

i

service  ?  What  more  reasonable  than  to  lay  these  taxes  in
proportion  to  public  service  rendered,  in  proportion  to  benefits
bestowed;  that  is,  in  proportion  to  special  privileges  enjoyed  f
The  land  value  is  a  perfect  reflection  of  this  constant  service.
The  same  is  not  true  of  houses  or  other  improvements  or  personal
property.
“Thus  I  am  constrained  to  ask  by  what  canon  of  taxation  do
you  tax  me  so  far  beyond  the  public  service  that  I  enjoy  as
indicated  in  the  market  value  of  my  land  ?  Surely  it  is  not  taxation ­
  according  to  ability,  but  rather  according  to  a  spendthrift
disposition.  My  house  adds  not  a  dollar  to  the  city’s  expense
on  my  account.  That  expense  would  be  the  same  if  my  house
should  burn  down.  The  same  is  true  of  my  personal  estate.
So  large  a  tax  cannot  be  on  account  of  special  privilege.  It  is
no  special  privilege  to  me  to  border  on  a  coal  yard  and  a  freight
yard  and  a  railroad.  It  is  no  special  privilege  to  me  that  while
the  woods  of  Newton  are  full  of  concrete  sidewalks,  I  have  lived
twenty-four  years  in  the  vain  hope  of  access  to  either  the  Newton
or  Newtonville  station  over  a  clean  sidewalk.  It  is  no  special
privilege  that  until  within  a  very  few  years  the  sidewalk  to
Newtonville  has  been  at  seasons  impassable  because  of  mud  and
surface  water  ankle  deep,  or  that  to-day  the  sidewalk  to  the
Newton  station,  one-half  plank  and  the  other  half  gravel,  is  only
wide  enough  to  accommodate  people  Indian  file.
“The  land  value  is  the  balance  or  equilibrium  between  these
public  advantages  and  disadvantages.  If  assessed  according
to  my  proportionate  and  constitutional  share  of  the  public
expense,my  tax  would  be  determined  in  this  wise:  as  $20,927,850
(the  total  land  value  of  Newton)  is  to  $4,750  (the  value  of  my
land),  so  is  $895,915  (the  total  tax  of  Newton)  to  $203.35  (my
proportionate  share  of  that  tax).  I  am  taxed  to-day  $297.15,
or  $93.80  in  excess  of  this  fair  amount.  It  is  the  abatement
of  this  excess  that  I  respectfully  ask  your  honourable
board  to  grant.”