The Lunarian Professor and His Remarkable Revelations Concerning the Earth, the Moon and Mars / Together with An Account of the Cruise of the Sally Ann

by James B. Alexander

“The majority having without serious effort brought about a reconciliation between their logic and their interests, proceeded to put their conclusions into operation. The constitution of Minnesota was amended in due course and the new plan put into execution with much growling and protest on the part of the land owners, but without violence or serious trouble, all the rest of the country looking on with great curiosity.

“The effects very soon began to show themselves. Nearly the whole tax being removed from shops and factories, profits and manufacturing became at once very considerably enhanced. This induced numbers of manufacturers to emigrate from other states and from Europe to Minnesota, and so the population and wealth of the cities increased with unexampled rapidity. By the year 1925, the population of Minneapolis had reached 1,780,000 and that of St. Paul, was over half as great.”

“Then,” said I, “the cities must have grown solidly together and formed a continuous town.”

“Not at all,” he replied, “University and Como avenues, became continuous streets, with good residences. But both cities became compactly built up with tall and substantial buildings for offices, dwellings and factories. Nearly everybody that paid rent lived in flats. These buildings were ten to 16 stories high, fire proof, furnished with elevators, electric heat and light. In connection with many of them, were cook shops, in which the tenants could get their provisions cooked at cheaper rates than they could do it themselves, and save their own time for other employment. A great many women who in your day, would have been kept at home all day to cook the meals for a small family were enabled to seek profitable employment in various kinds of shops factories and offices, or had their time for recreation or leisure.

“Cooking became a regular profession and people no longer cooked for themselves to any greater extent than they doctored themselves. Kindergartens were likewise attached to these great co-operative dwellings, in which those too young to go to school, were looked after in the absence of their parents.

“As mechanics and people of moderate incomes could live not only cheaper, but far better in these buildings, than in separate homes at long distances from the business and industrial centers, as well as enjoying far better opportunities for society amusement etc., they soon came to adopt that sort of life exclusively and separate residences continued to be maintained only by the rich. The growth of the cities continued for many years to be confined to the large spaces that in your day were left vacant far within the corporate limits. People owning such property, were anxious to get it improved so as to get their taxes back in the rents of buildings. Those owing suburban lands and lots soon found that it would be useless to improve them as people would not occupy them till all the more central lots were occupied. Much dispute arose as to the way in which such property should be taxed. At first the assessments of valuation on the lands were as high, as they had been before the adoption of the single tax plan. But it was soon found that the land no longer possessed such value. The value had been prospective or speculative, and people had paid as tax far more than the land would rent for, and held it and paid taxes on it for what it was expected to bring in the future. But now so much of the speculative value was taken out of this suburban land that the owners refused to pay the taxes in many cases, and nobody would buy it at the tax sales because the tax was more than the rent for agricultural purposes, and to buy for the future was like leasing property and paying rent on it for some years before occupying it.”

“But,” I interposed, “the single tax people in Minneapolis disclaimed the intention of taking a full rental of the land in the way of taxes, but only enough to support the government, and thought that four per cent of its value would do that. As money was then worth 6 per cent and rents would average about the same the owner would clear 2 per cent. This they said would be sufficient to make the owner retain his interest in the property.”

“Yes,” he answered, “that was their notion, but the events turned out very differently.

“When the tax was two per cent and the rents, six per cent, the owner got clear the equivalent of six per cent on two thirds of the value of the property. But when the tax was increased to 4 per cent, he got the equivalent of six per cent on only one third of it. Thus his net income being reduced to one-half of what it was, the selling and buying value of the land was likewise reduced one-half. This made no difference to the tenant paying rent, he still had to pay the same, but, two-thirds instead of one-third now went to the state. But within the corporate limits of Minneapolis, St. Paul and other cities, there was a great amount of unused land, that produced no rent. This unused land constituted about three-fourths of the total areas of those cities and represented one-third of their total land valuation. The very first assessment of the new tax was the signal for the reduction in the value of all this property, fifty per cent or more at once, and every acre was immediately thrown upon the market. By the time of the next assessment the assessors were obliged to recognize this depreciation, and so all this land was returned at half or less than half of what it had been. The loss of tax money thus sustained had to be made up by a higher rate, and the second levy was placed at 5 per cent instead of 4 per cent. This worked a further reduction in the values of unoccupied lots and by the time of the third assessment these lots were estimated as having only the value of farm or garden lands; and so it became necessary to still further increase the rate of taxation, which was now established at six per cent.