THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

•3°

marked  illustration  that  actual  conditions  call  for  an
apportionment  the  very  reverse  of  this  academic
treatment  of  the  subject.  Thus:

ASSESSED  VALUATIONS  LAND  BUILDINGS  TOTAL
33  cities  $1,088,329,177  $998,896,745  $2,087,225,922
37  large  towns  139,965,083  178,810,787  318,775,870
70  cities  and  towns  .  .  .  $1,228,294,260  $1,177,707,532  $2,406,001,792
•284  small  towns  123,986,089  216,017,954  340,004,043
354  cities  and  towns  .  .  .  $1,352,280,349  $1,393,725,486  $2,746,005,835

Thus  the  land  valuations  of  the  284  small  towns
($123,986,089)  and  of  the  70  cities  and  large  towns
($1,228,294,260)  are  seen  to  be  about  in  the  ratio  of
one  to  ten.  Nor  must  it  be  overlooked,  that  there  is  a
larger  proportion  of  urban  property  in  small  towns
than  of  farm  property  in  the  large  ones.  The  state
census,  which  gives  farm  values  by  themselves,  corroborates ­
  the  above  estimate  that  the  Massachusetts
farm  land  value  left  for  the  agricultural  illustration  of
Ricardo’s  law  of  rent  does  not;  exceed  one-tenth  of  the
assessed  land  value  of  the  whole  state.
Putting  the  foregoing  statements  together—that
is,  considering  at  once  the  relative  weight  assigned
to  the  two,  as  indicated  by  the  treatment  of  the
authorities,  and  the  relative  importance  of  the  subjects
—we  are  confronted  with  the  spectacle  of  fourteen
times  too  much  attention  given  for  a  hundred  years  to
ten  times  too  small  a  matter.  Proceeding  now  to  the
multiplication  of  fourteen  by  ten,  we  are  brought  face  to
face  with  the  mathematical  conclusion  that  in  order  to
restore  a  lost  equilibrium,  the  schools  might  reasonably
from  now  on  give  one  hundred  and  forty  times  more
study  to  the  subject  of  urban  or  city  rent  than  they
have  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  in  the  past.