actory, or a railway is built upon it, or it is
drained or planted--rates and taxes, which in these days often exceed 50
per cent. of its improved value, have to be paid, without regard even to
the question whether its use is successful in yielding profits or not.
Familiarity with this system, instead of breeding the contempt which it
deserves, has bred a kind of passive acquiescence which is exceedingly
difficult to shake. Even such a champion of our land system as the Duke
of Bedford years ago in his book, _The Story of a Great Agricultural
Estate_, perceived the absurdity, although he was apparently blind to
the remedy and to the application of it to some of his estates which are
not agricultural. He converted an ordinary arable field into a fruit
garden, and discovered that his rates were promptly trebled by reason of
his expenditure. Striking, but, nevertheless, everyday examples may be
found if we see how the system works out in urban districts. If a new
factory is built, rates and taxes are immediately levied on the full
annual value of the building, which is a direct charge upon production,
and has to be paid before a single person can be employed in the
factory. It therefore not only restricts the possibilities of
employment, but has to be added to the price at which the goods can be
sold.

THE LESSON OF THE SLUMS

Or take the illustration of a slum area. Each tumble-down tenement is
rated and taxed on the assessment based upon its annual rental value. In
many places in the central parts of towns the total of these assessments
is less than the sum for which the whole site could be sold as a
building area, nevertheless if all the tenements fall or are pulled down
the site may remain vacant for years and no rates or taxes are paid. But
if substantial and decent buildings are erected on the site, immediately
the assessment is raised to their full annual value. The individual or
public body that has cleared away the slum and erected something decent
in its place is thus immediately punished for doing so, with the result
that such a thing is seldom done except at the public expense. The
remedy for all these absurdities is quite a simple one. No one disputes
that the sums necessary for municipal and imperial taxation have got to
be provided. The question is, in so far as they are to be raised from
lands and buildings, how can they be assessed most fairly and with the
least injury to trade and commerce? They should