FIRST BOSTON OBJECT LESSON 59 
ings should, in a comprehensive sense, be “altered 
to suit tenants”? 
A Striking Illustration of a Common Fact 
The land in Winter Street, which was assessed at less 
than $4 per square foot in 1850, was assessed in 1907 
at 1130 per squar& foot. During the fifty-seven 
years intervening, the income, above taxes, from 
the land, in rent and appreciation has amounted 
to an average of 150 per cent annually on the 
investment of 1850. 
Three Burdens for “Business and None for the 
Landlord 
Query. Is that a constitutionally “just and 
reasonable” system of taxation which constrains 
the business man of Winter Street to erect at 
his own expense a basis of taxation, pay the 
tax itself, and then turn over without consider 
ation the very basis itself to the pocket and 
Profit of another man? Should not the land be 
taxed until it is at least as profitable to use it as 
to hold it out of use? 
Leading Questions 
Query. Why should not Winter Street, with its 
concentrated business and highest land values in 
Boston, have the best buildings, with the best attain 
able equipment, elevators, ventilation, heat, light, 
Water, sanitation, etc.? 
Query. Wherever business has up-to-date accom 
modations, as in the Exchange Building on State 
Street and the new Tremont Building on Tremont