\ GROUND RENT A SOCIAL PRODUCT 19 
Even if $5,000,000 be deducted from this $55,000,000 
for error in estimate, there will still be left $50,000,000, 
or more than double the amount of present taxes. 
The fact that ground rent is the combined product of 
the character, activities, and industries of a people 
and that its taxation is in no way a burden upon 
labor or enterprise is ample reason for taking in taxa 
tion, at least the one-half of the ground rent necessary 
to cover all present taxes, instead of taking only 
about two-tenths as is done to-day. Would it not also 
suggest the ample sufficiency of rent for meeting any 
future wise increase in public expenditure. 
Next to that of the farmer, the province and function 
of the landlord would seem to be one of the greatest 
in its importance to his fellow-men. The farmer is 
the commissary of subsistence; the landlord is quarter 
master of the camp. The farmer feeds the world; 
the landlord houses the world. Besides being the 
natural housers and the natural tax gatherers, the 
landlords are also the natural assessors. “Nobody 
runs after the assessor to tell him what property is 
Worth. Everybody runs after the landlord to, tell 
him what his land is worth.” With this triple respon 
sibility and privilege of housing and tax collecting and 
tax assessing, landlords ought to be, as, if they paid 
all the taxes, they would be, the natural guardians of 
the public treasury against wastefulness and mis 
application, for the simple reason that ground rent, 
while increased by every wise outlay, is decreased by 
every unwise expenditure. 
There remain to be considered five points of special 
application to the landlord’s interest, viz.: 
The taxation of real estate only; the tax imposed by