VALUE OF LAND AN UNTAXED VALUE 37 
The illustration is intended to show the effect in a 
normal or advancing community of mortgage interest 
and taxes upon the market value and cost to the user 
of a lot of land and a house respectively having equal 
purchase and rental value., and each subject to the 
same mortgage interest and taxes. 
FIRST: THE LAND 
Proposition 1.—Let it he supposed that you want a 
piece of urban land that is worth I300 a year to you for 
use. You can afford to pay I300 a year and no more, 
a nd it can be had at an annual cost of $300 a year. 
Let us then proceed to acquire this piece of land, 
exercising diligence and caution to profit by each step 
m the transaction. 
(a) At the very outset the question arises, what is 
die thing for which you are proposing to pay I300? 
Surely it is not the soil itself, because it is a question 
°f a building site, which could be had out in the country 
l°r little or nothing. It is not merely the area upon 
Which to dig a hole in the ground, wall it about, and 
er ect a building, for the same space can be had else 
where for a song. In short, it is not the earth’s sur 
face; it is not the inherent capabilities of the soil; 
d is not light and air, or other bounties of nature 
resident in that lot of land; it is not natural 
resources of which you are thinking as worth to 
you $300 a year. 
(&) But what you are going to pay for is the accom 
panying and incidental use of a great many expensive 
things outside of the piece of land, things which you 
^11 need and must have, which you cannot afford to