26

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

If  eight  hundred  and  fifty  industrial  combinations  or
trusts  have  a  capital  stock  of  nine  billions,  of  which
five  billions  are  represented  by  common  stock  —  and
that  common  stock,  water  —  it  means  that  every  i  per
cent  (150,000,000)  or  every  5  per  cent  ($250,000,000)
received  in  dividends  on  this  common  stock  is,  as  an  income ­
  from  rent,  unearned  by  the  people  who  receive  it.
An  income  from  special  privilege  is  usually  part  and
parcel  with  an  income  from  rent,  and,  as  such,  belongs
to  the  class  of  unearned  incomes.  As  ground  rent
is  a  social  product,  its  private  appropriation  is  a  special
privilege,  which  affords  large  private  profit  at  public
expense.  Why  not,  then,  at  least  tax  such  a  privilege
upon  what  it  is  worth?
The  gross  income  of  the  owners  of  the  land  of
Boston  in  the  form  of  ground  rent  is  .  .  $55,000,000
Or  $90  per  capita.
And  there  is  now  taken  in  taxation  only  .  .  10,300,000
Hence  the  amount  that  is  distributed  annually
in  unearned  incomes  (if  rent  is  an  unearned
income)  is  $44,700,000
This  amount  is  equivalent  to  $75  per  capita  for  the
600,000  population,  or  to  $375  for  each  of  the  120,000
families  of  five  persons  each.
Boston’s  total  taxes  for  the  year  1907  amounted  to
$40  per  capita.  If  all  of  this  $40  had  been  taken  from
the  above  $90  there  would  still  have  been  left  to  the
landlords  $500!  ground  rent  per  capita  (equivalent  to
$250  for  each  of  the  120,000  families),  besides  the
exemption  of  $660,000,000  of  buildings,  personal
property,  and  polls.
Is  it  even  apparently  fair  to  let  so  much  common
wealth  escape  taxation  at  the  expense  of  individual
wealth?