8o

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

Company  in  1817  (Figs.  XIV  and  XV).  More  than
one  hundred  firms  and  individuals  are  doing  business
in  these  contracted  quarters,  in  which  not  one  of
their  number  would  deign  to  live.  These  estates,  as
they  stand,  net  the  owners  an  income  of  probably
20  to  50  per  cent  on  their  original  investment.  With
modern  buildings  they  would  net  say  5  or  6  per  cent
on  to-day’s  valuation  of  land  and  buildings.
Why,  we  ask,  should  there  not  be  a  board  of  business
health  to  condemn  buildings  which,  like  these,  are
untenable  for  business?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  proper
system  of  taxation  would  vacate  these  untenable
buildings  without  the  aid  of  any  such  board.  If  the
erection  of  the  Exchange  Building,  the  Tremont
Building,  and  other  modern  office  buildings  could
empty  immediately  hundreds  of  dingy  and  stuffy
offices,  why  would  not  a  hundred  business  palaces,  as
fast  as  they  could  be  built,  empty  the  same  number  of
cramped  and  ill-appointed  stores,  workrooms,  and
attics?
If  land  and  buildings  stood  on  their  respective  merits,
subject  to  equal  competition,  that  is,  accessible  to
capital  and  labour  at  the  price  each  is  worth  for  use,
these  buildings  would  quickly  condemn  themselves.
Such  unmerchantable  material,  if  at  sea,  would  follow
the  decayed  frigate  to  some  navy  yard  to  be  broken
up.  On  land,  if  they  had  not  been  fastened  to  it,  they
would  long  ago  have  gone  to  the  junkshop;  but  as
they  are  fixed  to  the  land,  whoever  uses  the  land  must
use  them.
Under  the  best  of  conditions,  it  is  sufficient  for  the
city  to  maintain  a  street  at  the  front  doors  of  abutting
lots,  each  one  hundred  feet  deep.  Here,  on  Cornhilk