THE SAFETY VALVE OF OUR GREAT NATION
Wednesday, June 28, will be "BaseBall
Booster Day" in Lincoln. By all means
let it be made a partial holiday. There
is not a single reason on earth why every
business house in the city should not
close at 3:30 p. m., thus letting 'every
body go out to. the ball park and whoop
things up. There are a hundred reasons
splendid ball club. It is advertising the
why they should. Lincoln has got a
town splendidly. Baseball is the great
ntional safety valve, and we need just
that. Things are not going right in the
office or store. Your head is full of
cowbwebs. You have a grouch against
things and people in general. Ordinar
ily you would relieve your feelings by go
ing home, scolding the children, snubb
ing your wife, growling at the hired gii J
and kicking the dog that runs with wag
ging tail to meet you. But you do not.
You don't have to. You take your trou
bles and your grouch to the ball park,
and by the time you have cussed his
umps till your stomach is relieved,, aid
yelled for the home team until you have
forgotten there is any such thing as busi
ness worry, you have an appetite like a
harvest hand and a glad smile that
makes the kiddies, the wife, the servant
girl and the dog hike to meet you with a
welcome that money couldn't buy.
It's the greatest game in the world.
If you feel like smashing the office fur
niture or firing your trusty stenog
rapher, hike to the ball park and forget
it ! Do you feel like taking a poke at
some erstwhile friend who has crossed
you? Go out and root for the home team
until every man on earth is your friend,
save only the robber who officiates as
umpire aud deliberately gives us the
worst of it on every conceivable occasion.
Baseball has kept many a man out of the
penitentiary by reason of saving him
from attempted murder, arson, burglary,
mayhem and assault and battery. It
has kept many a good man out of the
lunatic asylum by wiping the cobwebs
out of his brainpan and letting the real
sunlight of joy and happiness enter. It
has saved many a man from bankruptcy
by taking his mind off of his troubles
long enough for his brain to clear and
thus get into shape to cope with business
difficulties. This good old country of
ours owes more to baseball than it does
to its standing army or to its navy. Army
and navy protect us against the danger
of foreign foe. Baseball protects us
against ourselves, and we are always our
own worst enemies.
So come on ! Shut the office door and
the store door on Wednesday, June 28,
turn the key in the lock, and hike to the
ball park to give a rousing greeting to
the Antelopes. Grandstand or bleacher,
be there and root to a fareyewell.
Preacher, politician, lawyer, doctor, mer
chant, chief, rich man, poor man, every
body! Let's make it a great old day in
the history of the national pastime in
Lincoln. Come on, and let's relieve the
steam pressure by turning loose the
strident yell, the cheerful whoop and the
wild hurrah!
Meet me at the ball park, brother, . .
Wednesday .next at four;
All out on a lark, brother;
- Yell and root and roar.
Whoop and dance and scream, brother,
Till you're weak and hoarse;
For the old home team, brother;
. That's the dope, of course!
THAT PROBLEM OF TAXATION ONCE MORE
Hon. J. D. Evans of Kenesaw, whose
splendid services in the last legislature
indicate that he is a well informed gentle
man constantly seeking to add to his
store of information, submits to the pub
lic through an esteemed contemporary
a few questions concerning taxation.
Realizing that contemporaries .unwill
ingness to answer that question as its in
dividual editorial writers know it should
be' answered, we make bold to undertake
a reply to the interrogatories of Mr.
Evans. Noting that nearly one-third
the assessed valuation of Lancaster
county this year is upon personal prop
erty, Mr. Evans asks: "Would a system
that wiped that off the slate and added
the amount to real estate be less vicious
and more equitable?"
Most certainly it would. A tax on
personal property is a tax on enterprise,
consequently a hindrance to improve
ment. It is also a tax on consumption,
which bears unequally for the reason that
those with", the least amount of property
are taxed equally with those who have
large property interests. For instance,
the goods of the retail merchant are tax
d as personal property. This tax the
merchant adds to "operating expenses"
and passes on to the consumer in the
shape of increased prices. The work
ingman with a family of six or eight to
support on $15 a week, consumes more
than the man of ample means with only
himself and a wife to feed, although the
latter needs no more to feed and clothe
himself than does the underpaid work
man. A personal property tax is unjust
because the man with little can not con
ceal it; the man with much can conceal
most of it. And in its last analysis a
personal property tax is, as stated be
fore, a tax on enterprise and thrift.
"Would you," asks Mr. Evans, "say to
the man with a quarter or half million
in personal property, 'society and gov
ernment has no claim on you; let the
homes of the people pay the tax?"
Certainly not ! Mr. Evans has studied
the single tax to poor advantage if he un
derstands it to be a tax on homes. It is
absolutely the contrary it is a premium
on homes, and a tax on those who per
sist in making it increasingly difficult
for men to obtain homes. Let us take
a concrete example of this "personal
property" matter. Mr. Rockefeller is
assessed at approximately $5,000,000,
most of it "personal property." Sup
pose we exempted Mr. Rockefeller from
personal taxes and made him pay a land
value tax what would be the result? It
would mean that hundreds of thousands,
of acres of oil and mineral lands that
Mr. Rockefeller now holds out of use,
and which form the basis of his personal
property holdings, would be taxed equally
as much as the comparatively few acres
that are used. This would force Mr.
Rockefeller to either develop those lands
or let go of them to men who would de
velop them. The resultant revenue
would be so immensely greater than the
paltry sum secured from his personal
tax that Ave would hear no more of the
complaint that the "capitalist escapes
taxation." As a matter of fact, the vast
bulk of the so-called "personal property"
is merely , a land value in other words
dependent in its last analysis upon the
land and a land value tax would really
tax the personal property more equitably
than it is now possible to tax it. An acre
of land held idle by the oil trust but
capable of producing as much oil. as an
acre of land developed by the oil trust,
ought to pay as much tax. The steel
trust has a virtual monopoly of the steel
business, not because it has. the largest
steel mills but because it controls the
source of supply, the mineral lands. The
same is true of the anthracite coal trust,
and to a lesser degree of the bituminous
coal business. If we taxed the idle min
eral land of the steel trust as much as
we do the land that is used, what would
the steel trust 'do? It would have to get
revenue from it or let go of it. The same
is true of farm land now held put of use
by speculators.
Mr. Evans should free his mind of the
erroneous idea that the single tax is a tax
on land. It is a tax On the value of land
for use and occupancy. In other words,
the value that a man makes for himself
is untaxed; the value that the community
makes is taken by the community for the
community. And the community made
values are ample to bear all the expenses
of government without resorting to a tax
on individual enterprise.
"But that would- increase the tax on
farms !" cries' one. Not at all. It would
decrease the taxes on the improved farm
by making the unimproved but equally
usable land pay an equal share. This