Taxing Land Values

Thomas G. Shearman

[Excerpted from testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Internal Revenue, 16 October 1893]

“There is a vast source of income, other than these, and that is, a similar tax upon the landlords of the country. I am interested in all these different things, in land, bonds, and stock. Therefore, I am arguing against my own interest, from a selfish point of view. But the time has come for taking broad views of these questions.

“The possession of land in this country must, in my judgment, always remain a matter of private property. I believe that landlords serve a public purpose, and I, for one, have no desire to abolish landlords. They are useful in their proper place. They are instruments which nature has provided to raise revenue, and they ought to be made to subserve public use. You must remember that we do not propose to absorb all or any large part of the rent of land. It is only a question of absorbing, at the most, one-twentieth part of it, perhaps only one-fortieth. You are thinking of taxing everybody on both wealth and earnings. We ask that all earnings be exempted, and that no one be taxed except the holders of special and exclusive privileges. We would tax landlords, railroads, telegraphs, express and transportation companies, etc., because they are in their nature monopolies, and are owners of vast privileges of enormous value. You propose to tax them in any event. All that we propose different from what you would have in any income-tax law whatever is simply not to tax people who have no monopolies and no privileges, but are earning, by their own labor, every dollar that they get. Why tax any man on his earnings, when you can collect all the revenue you need from a small tax upon special privileges. People who live upon incomes of this kind are living upon the taxation of other people. They should be required to contribute what is reasonable and necessary to the support of the General Government.”