APPENDIX  E  185
as  much  as  my  own,  and  mine  have  rapidly  perished  in  the
attempt.
“I  think  we  are  all  agreed  that  the  value  of  the  land  of  Newton
is  created  by  the  whole  community  of  Newton,  with  its  improvements, ­
  character,  activity,  and  its  industry.  Are  we  not  also
agreed  upon  the  fact,  equally  important  and  more  patent
perhaps  to  the  casual  observer,  viz.,  that  this  land  value  is
maintained  from  year  to  year  by  the  public  expenditure  of  Newton’s ­
  taxes  ?  When  yoijr  public  service  ceases  or  languishes,
when  you  stop  the  care  of  streets,  the  water  supply,  fire  department, ­
  or  the  schools,  land  values  respond  almost  instantly.
All  these  public  expenditures  of  the  people’s  money  add  nothing
to  the  value  of  a  house—which  value  is  ultimately  the  cost  of
building  another  house  as  good—  but  they  do  add  to  or  rather
maintain  the  value  of  my  neighbours’  land  and  mine,  which
otherwise  would  rapidly  depreciate  in  value.  Why  should  you
tax  the  decaying  value  of  my  house,  to  help  maintain  the  augmenting ­
  value  of  hundreds  of  other  men’s  vacant  acres,  standing
unused,  just  like  so  many  idle  mills  supplied  with  the  main
shafting  from  nature’s  power  house  with  a  great  city’s  lavish
supplies  on  tap  ?
“There  would  be  far  more  reason  to  ask  me  and  others  to  pay
taxes  on  our  houses,  if  public  service  were  at  all  limited  to  the
needs  of  these  houses,  instead  of  being,  as  it  is,  vastly  in  excess,
if  not  indeed  double,  that  need.  This  public  service  costs  the
same  for  a  vacant  lot  as  it  does  for  the  adjoining  similar  lot  with
a  $20,000  house  on  it.  1  object  to  being  taxed  to  pay  for  the
other  man’s  share  of  this  public  service.
“Thus  I  am  asking  abatement  of  a  tax  that  is  H  upon
improvements  and  personal  property  and  fa  upon  land,
because  it  is  in  violation  of  the  requirements  of  the  constitution
of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  that  all  assessments  shall  be  ‘proportionate ­
  and  reasonable’;  because  it  is  more  than  my  proportionate ­
  and  reasonable  share  of  the  total  assessment—unequal
taxation  for  equal  benefits.
“Now  for  what  purpose  do  you  lay  taxes  except  for  public