Our veteran Vice-President, Alderman J. H. Dobson, has been a member of the Tottenham Urban District Council for the past 20 years. His advanced age, inability to attend evening meetings in winter-time, and the fact that he has not fully recovered from a recent bicycle accident, have compelled him to announce, to the widespread regret of his fellow citizens, that he cannot offer himself for re-election. It is to be hoped that the local Labour Party will find a successor as staunch as he has always been in the advocacy of the taxation of land values. Tottenham rates stand at 19s. 2d. in the £.

At a meeting at West Green last month, Mr. L. Shrive, a member of the League, stated that, for putting in a new window to his shop, he had been penalized by having his assessment raised from £55 to £80, while his neighbours, who had not spent hundreds of pounds on improvements, as he had, retained their assessment at the lower figure. His improvement, in addition to its capital cost, had fined him almost 50 per cent in increased rates.

In the same district, another member of the League, inquiring about the assessment of a newly built house, which he thought of buying, was told that it would probably be assessed at a higher figure than some other houses, built by the same firm in the same road, because "the floor space was rather larger." Within a few yards of the house is a large tract of uncovered land rated as agricultural. The present rating system, making sites dear by encouraging the holding-up of building land, and at the same time penalizing the provision of large and airy rooms, is quite sufficient to account for the high price that has to be paid for scanty accommodation.

The President's pamphlet on the Taxation of Land Values, published by the Labour Party, and to be had from the League Office, has been reprinted as a serial in the MALTA JOHN BULL.

Two members of the League Mr. Mackenzie Livingston, M.P., and Mr. Percy Harris, M.P.-with Sir Robert Hamilton, M.P., had on the Order Paper of the House of Commons, as an amendment to the Address, the following Motion: "But regret that no steps are being proposed to reduce the taxation and rating burdens on improvements by adopting the principle of the taxation of land values.' Owing to the closure of the debate, this amendment was not reached.

In a debate at the Memorial Club, Shadwell, on 12th February, the General Secretary was opposed by Mr. Weller, leader of the Conservative Party in the Y.M.C.A. Central Parliament." A resolution putting forward the Rating of Land Values as a solution of the Housing Problem was carried with one dissentient.

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The President addressed meetings in the Penryn and
Falmouth Division of Cornwall, 26th to 28th February.
MARCH MEETINGS
5th.-Chas. H. Smithson, at the Henry George
Club.

Fri.,
Wed., 10th.-Young People's Institute, Primitive
Methodist Schoolroom, Sterndale
Road, New Road, Battersea : Ald. F.
C. R. Douglas, M.A., "Land, Housing
and Unemployment." 8.30 p.m.
12th.-H. A. Berens, B.A., F.C.S., at Henry
George Club.

Fri..

Sun., 21st. Stoke-on-Trent Col. J. C. Wedgwood. Wed., 24th.-Bow W.C.G., 141, Bow Road Fredk. Verinder. 7.30 p.m.

SCOTTISH LEAGUE: William Reid, Secretary, 67, West Nile Street, Glasgow.

The weekly meetings in the Rooms were postponed owing to Dumbartonshire By-Election. They will not be resumed now till after our Annual Meeting, which is being arranged for Wednesday, 10th March.

The Lord Provost has promised to call a special meeting to consider the Land Value Rating Committee's report in conjunction with the new Rating Act.

Mr. John Peter, of Falkirk, has spoken at Stirling and to the Falkirk Young Liberals. There were quite good reports of both meetings in the local papers. On Tuesday, 9th February, the Secretary addressed a meeting at Dundee arranged by the League of Young Liberals. In the first week of March the Secretary is visiting Yorkshire, Fred Skirrow having fixed up six meetings for him there. A further meeting at Newcastle may be postponed because of the date fixed for the Annual Meeting of the League, Wednesday, 10th March.

Among the correspondence not yet recorded are letters by Mr. John Peter in EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS, GLASGOW DAILY RECORD and FALKIRK HERALD. Mr. A. J. Mace keeps on with his letters in the Clydebank papers.

The CATHOLIC TIMES has once again opened up on the land value question, and the IRISH WEEKLY has an interesting reference to Patrick Edward Dove by J. O'D. Derrick in its issue of 13th February.

Bailie Peter Burt, our President, was reported in the GLASGOW HERALD of 19th February as opposing the purchase by the Glasgow Corporation of Dalry brickworks. "He gave figures showing that for three years running of the works there had been a total loss of £7,259, and the total bricks produced was fully 12,000,000. He gave further figures showing that there

was a loss of £50 per house built with the Dalry bricks. The amount of bricks produced at Dalry was small, and would not control prices. The price of bricks was largely controlled by the price of coal, and the price of bricks had come down because the price of coal had come down."

The officials and members of the Scottish League have thought the approaching annual meeting a suitable opportunity for offering to Mr. Wm. Reid (Secretary of the League) their congratulations on his valiant defence of their principles during his election campaign in Dumbartonshire; and it is believed that many others outside of the organization will be sympathetic to the proposal.

A social meeting has accordingly been arranged to be held in the Cadoro Restaurant, Union Street, on Wednesday, 10th March, at 7.30 p.m., when a high tea will be served. All who assisted Mr. Reid in the contest are cordially invited to join in making this meeting a success.

PETER BURT, President.

ALEX MACKENDRICK, Hon. Treasurer. MANCHESTER LEAGUE: Arthur H. Weller, J.P., Secretary, 5, Cross Street, Manchester

The following meetings have been addressed :Clitheroe Co-operative Society, W. Brennan; Flixton M.C.G., A. H. Weller; Hulme M.C.G., A. H. Weller; Stockport M.C.G., W. Noble; N. Salford Labour Party, J. Brentnall.

66

Mr. John Orr, M.A., gave an interesting lecture to the members of the Chorlton Literary Society on 29th January, on the subject: Can Britain Feed Herself? The address was followed by a discussion in which many members of the audience took part.

Meetings of the Discussion Class under the auspices of the Moss Side Land Values Association were held on 5th and 19th February. In March the meetings will be on Friday evenings, 5th and 19th, at 8 p.m. Mr. John Garner, Hon. Secretary, will welcome new members at 34 Crosscliffe Street, Moss Side.

One of the League's most active workers was visited at Christmas by a German friend who is a teacher in a secondary school in Hamburg. Letters received from that city since his friend's return show that our colleague made the best of his opportunities to propagate the Single Tax during the Christmas vacation. One letter contains the following interesting news: "We have had three courses of study here before Christmas: one of them is occupied with Karl Marx; the second is an economical one, and in this we read now Henry George's PROGRESS AND POVERTY; the third is one to learn the English language better and we read there Henry George's SOCIAL PROBLEMS. This week-end we shall have discussions with Prof. Nelson's people about the land question. Please send me four more copies of SOCIAL PROBLEMS." In a subsequent letter receipt of the books is acknowledged and six copies of PROGRESS AND POVERTY are asked for.

A letter from the Secretary in reply to one by Mr. Acland on rural land values was printed in the MANCHESTER GUARDIAN on 16th February. Letters from Messrs. Noble, Owen and the Secretary have also appeared in the MANCHESTER CITY NEWS. Articles written by the Secretary have been published in the STOCKPORT OBSERVER, CLITHEROE ADVERTISER and the COTTON FACTORY TIMES. Mr. Owen continues his good work in supplying the local Labour Press with serious and humorous land values arguments and illustrations.

The Churches and the Housing Problem. An appeal

to Christian people has been issued by the Copec movement in Manchester in a pamphlet entitled Houses for our Poorer Neighbours," in which some examples of terrible overcrowding are given. The authors assert that the problem is not merely to get houses built, but how to get them built at a cost which will admit of their being let at an inclusive rent of about 10s. per week. That can only be done, they say, if Christian people lend their money for building at a low rate of interest-say 2 per cent. The scheme is to be launched at a meeting in the Free Trade Hall on 12th March.

A reply to this and other proposals for housing the poor has been written by the Secretary, and it is hoped to have it printed and distributed widely. Sample copies may be obtained from the League's office, and contributions towards the cost are invited.

15th.-J. M. Marston: Liberal Meeting, Stocksbridge.

17th. The Secretary: Liberal Assoc., Shelf, Halifax.

In Newcastle and district, Mr. A. W. Dakers has been addressing a number of meetings at Workmen's Clubs, Adult Schools and a Church of England Men's Society, on historical subjects which pivoted round the Land Question. These lectures were followed by interesting discussions.

Mr. William Reid, Glasgow, will be with us for a week commencing 1st March and will address a series of half a dozen meetings in Keighley, Bradford and district.

We have noted the following letters in the Press :— 21st January, John K. Musgrave, YORKSHIRE OBSERVER; 28th January, William Thomson, YORKSHIRE OBSERVER; the Secretary, BRIGHOUSE AND ELLAND ECHO; 1st February, "Fesole," YORKSHIRE POST; 5th February, the Secretary, YORKSHIRE PIONEER; 20th February, "Fesole," KEIGHLEY NEWS.

We are having good sales of literature.

MOSS SIDE LAND VALUES ASSOCIATION: John Garner, Hon. Secretary, 24, Crosscliffe Street, Moss Side, Manchester.

The Discussion Class met at the above address on 5th and 19th February. During March meetings will be held on Friday evenings, 5th and 19th, at 8 p.m. New members will be welcomed.

With the help of local friends a social gathering has been arranged to take place in the Greenhill Street Congregational School on Saturday, 27th March, at 7 p.m., when members of the Upper Moss Lane P.M. Choir will render the operetta Maritana." Further particulars and tickets may be obtained from Mr. Garner.

66

-Mr. Chapman Wright, Stratford Road
Labour Church.

Feb. 31st. Mr. Chapman Wright, Wolverhampton
N.U.R. No. 4 Branch.

The Rev. Leyton Richards, M.A., of Carr's Lane Church, spoke on 17th February, at the Birmingham Y.M.C.A., on "The Relation between Christianity and Economics." The BIRMINGHAM POST carried a good report of the address. Disaster followed, said Mr. Leyton Richards, if they were not loyal to the laws of God. It was the same with the economic laws so far as they were entirely natural laws: if they violated them they suffered. When they came to the laws which were due to man's action they had to obey the laws of God. There were two respects in which we flouted those economic laws to-day-one a natural and the other a moral law-two things which were the very basis of our social structure. The natural law was that labour applied to the land was the source of all wealth, and that there was no wealth apart from labour applied to the land. We denied labour access to the land in this country to-day. We locked land up in a legal monopoly, with the result that one-seventh of the County of London was vacant land held up by landlords for a speculative rise. If they were to liberate the land-there were many ways of doing it, but the simplest way was to tax all land values there would immediately be sufficient land in the market in England to absorb all the able-bodied and willing unemployed. It would abolish the dole, more goods would be produced, prices would go down, there would be a bigger demand for labour, and wages would go up. Everyone would become a capitalist. That was the true solution-not to abolish capital, but to universalise it. The moral law that was flouted was that co-operation and not conflict was the condition of human well-being.

The Annual Meeting of the League will be held on 17th March, when the Rev. Leyton Richards will give an Address.

WELSH LEAGUE: Eustace A. Davies, Hon. Secretary, 14, Pembroke Terrace, Cardiff.

The following is our list of meetings to date :— Feb. 4th-Young People's Guild, Frederick Street C.M. Church, Cardiff. Speakers, Capt. Saw and Mr. C. A. Gardner.

دو

10th-Aberfan Labour Party, Women's Section. Speaker, Mr. T. E. Davies.

15th-Cwmcarn and District Labour Party, Capt. Saw.

18th-Ystrad Mynach I.L.P., Capt. Saw.

The Executive Committee met at Cardiff on Thursday, 21st January. Capt. Saw occupied the chair and there was a good attendance. The Hon. Secretary was instructed to write to the successful candidates at the last Cardiff Municipal Election, who replied favourably to our questions, urging them to take action on the Council at an opportune moment. This instruction has been carried out, but unfortunately no reply has yet been received from the Councillors concerned. It was

decided to hold the Annual Meeting at Cardiff in March or April and to invite Sir Edgar Harper down as speaker. Unfortunately, Sir Edgar Harper, owing to ill-health, is not able to visit us. It is hoped now to arrange for our ex-President, Mr. P. Wilson Raffan, and Mr. T. C. Morris, Labour Organizer for Wales, to address us. We are short of funds for meeting the expenses of the Annual Meeting, and Mr. David Davies of Penarth has kindly sent us a donation of £1 1s. towards the expenses, and we are hoping that a number of our other members will follow this welcome lead.

We are glad to be able to again record that Dr. Black Jones, Capt. Saw and Mr. C. A. Gardner continue their activities as Press correspondents. There have been several useful letters from them in recent issues of the SOUTH WALES NEWS.

Our political economy class continues to meet every Monday, 8.0 p.m., at McGhie's Café, Whitechapel. All are welcome.

As a conclusion to the considerable correspondence in the CATHOLIC TIMES, in which many of our leading supporters took part, the Secretary was successful in having three long letters published, the last of them being a résumé of our case. This widely read paper has afforded us a very fine opportunity, and the corre spondence has now ceased solely through the retirement of all critics from the field.

HIGHLAND LEAGUE: I. Mackenzie, Hon. Secretary, The Arcade, Inverness.

At a meeting of the local Allotment Holders' Associa tion, on the 5th of February, it was alleged that thirtyfive plot-holders had been practically evicted from their holdings, and that further inquiry be made as to what steps the Town Council intended taking to meet the demands for plots of the evicted plot-holders.

VALUE OF PLOTS

Mr. George Mackenzie called attention to the gross value of plots in the Burgh of Inverness, contending that the Town Council were charging at the rate of £10 per acre for ground in the Public Park-the same ground being let at £1 per acre for agricultural purposes. How in the name of all that was reasonable did the Town Council expect plot-holders to produce value equivalent to this rate? The thing was absurd on the face of it. When ground was let to the Municipality, as in this case, the profit which was created by the community should pass on to the community.

In course of conversation with some large farmers in Easter Ross and other parts of the Highlands, the Secretary ascertained that they preferred freedom and independence to control by bureaucrats who knew

nothing about farming. All they wanted was a free hand and relief from taxation on improvements to produce food in abundance.

The annual meeting of the League will be held during this month, and a brief report will be given in the April issue of LAND & LIBERTY.

PORTSMOUTH LEAGUE: S. R. Cole, Hon. Secretary, 165, Francis Avenue.

"Causes of Industrial Depression was the subject of Mr. H. Thirsk's address to the League at the John Pile Memorial Hall, 9th February. The speaker gave a lucid explanation of how land was related to the production of wealth. When rents increase faster than production, he argued, they become prohibitive, as there was not sufficient wealth remaining, after paying rent, to give the ordinary return to Labour and Capital. Our rating and taxing systems also impeded production by the burdens they imposed on Labour and Capital. By abolishing the rates and taxes that fell on production, and rating and taxing land values instead, he contended that the rent, or land value, would be appropriated by the community, and land would be opened up to Labour and Capital.

There was an excellent short report, as usual, in the PORTSMOUTH EVENING NEWS. Mr. Thirsk in all respects gave us a thorough good address.

YEOVIL, SOMERSET

Alderman F. C. R. Douglas, the Prospective Labour Candidate Alderman F. C. R. Douglas, ex-Mayor of Battersea and President of the London Henry George Club, is putting the Taxation of Land Values and Free Trade in the forefront of his campaign, and has already addressed many meetings in the constituency. Speaking at Somerton (PULMAN'S WEEKLY NEWS report), on 22nd January, he said :-

Unemployment had been greater last year than in the previous year, more persons were destitute and drawing relief from the Unions, wages had fallen, and the cost of living had not diminished. At the very first stage of housing they came up against the difficulty of getting land at a reasonable price. Even in comparatively small towns in Somerset they found houses built close together in terraces with hardly any garden. What reason was there for that except the price that was asked for the land? If they wanted a piece of land at present used for farming, in order to build a few cottages on it, they would have to pay a much higher price than the farmer could get it for. While the land was used for agriculture it paid a quarter rates on a low assessment, but if cottages were built on it they were rated at their full value. The rates very often amounted to a tax of 50 per cent on the homes of the people, and made them half as dear again as they ought to be, but the large landlord and the land speculator were relieved at the expense of the poor.

The same difficulties arose with regard to smallholdings. It was not uncommon for the smallholder to pay three or four times as much in proportion in rent and rates as the large farmer did, and he had been told of cases in Somerset where it worked out at seven or eight times as much. It was not surprising that it was difficult to make small-holdings pay under such conditions.

The Prime Minister had announced a great scheme of electricity supply. If it was carried out, one of the results would be an increase in rents and in the price of land in the districts benefited. The landlords knew very well that the value of a farm or a building site

was greater if there was a cheap supply of electricity available. The result was that a great part of the advantage of public improvements, such as that, went to increase rents. In fact, the value of land was entirely due to the presence and demand of the community. It ought to be taken for public revenue, reducing the burdensome taxes imposed upon the food and necessaries of the people and the rates levied on their houses.

The collection of land values for public revenue was wanted not merely for the sake of the relief in other forms of taxation. It was needed also in order to force land into use. Land' ought not to be exempted from rating and taxation when held idle as it was at present; it ought to pay on its full value whether it was used or not. This would make it impossible for owners to hold land out of use. Landlords would be forced to sell or rent it, and the competition of this unused land coming into the market would bring down rents and prices of land. It would then become possible to get land for small-holdings at reasonable prices. At the same time, the smallholder could be relieved of rates on his improvements, and his position would be much improved. As soon as a substantial number of agricultural labourers were able to obtain small-holdings for themselves the farmers would begin to be faced with a shortage of labour, and they would require to make better terms with the workers in order to keep a sufficient amount of labour. At the same time he would like to see the progressive farmer encouraged by being relieved of rates on any improvements. This would be to the advantage of those who used the land intensively and employed most labour.

THE DANISH LAND VALUES BILL

Adopted in the Lower House

Nothing could be more welcome to our readers who have their eyes on Denmark than the news that the Bill for Land Value Taxation for local purposes is well on its way to the Statute Book. The Bill proposes to apply the system in town and country alike and includes all land, urban and agricultural. It is a Government measure introduced in October, 1924, by the Social Democratic Party now in power and has been strongly supported throughout by the Radical Party. It has been twice in Committee and had to be largely modified before it gained the approval of the Moderate Liberal Party. Its only opponents in politics are the " Popular Conservative Party." The Bill has passed through an intense agitation not only in Parliament but also on the platform and in the Press, and Denmark has rung from shore to shore with the debates on the whole question of land value taxation.

The measure was sent on 11th February, to the Upper House after being carried on Third Reading in the Lower House by 103 votes to 26.

The original amount of the proposed rate on land values has been reduced while the rates on improvements are higher than was originally intended. But modified as it has been, the Bill embodies the clear and straightforward principle of land value taxation and takes a step toward the goal of Land Value Policy that is of the greatest importance for the welfare of Denmark and for the emulation of other countries.

Local authorities in Denmark get their tax-revenue at present partly from local income taxes and partly from taxes on land and buildings that have a penalizing effect on improvement. The Bill provides that all the old taxes on land and buildings will be swept away and their place taken by two local taxes: one on the value of the land apart from improvements and the other on the

value of the improvements; but the tax on the improvements is to be only three-fourths of the rate of tax on land values, and before any buildings or improvements are taxed at least £150 value must be deducted from their assessment. This building exemption may be increased to £500 in the metropolis, to £400 in the provincial towns and to £250 in the counties and parishes. It means that small houses and the improvements on small farms will be practically free from taxation.

The effective rate of the local land value tax in the metropolis, the provincial towns and the counties will 7 per thousand of the capital value and in certain parts of the country this effective rate will be reached only after some years owing to the provisions for a transition stage. In the parishes the average rate of land value tax (in addition to the county tax) will also be be 7 per thousand and after two years may rise higher according as the parishes exercise their option to reduce or abolish the local tax on incomes.

If to the local tax on land values we add the existing national tax of 1 per thousand on land values (put in force in 1924) the general result will be to levy taxation on the capital value of the land in the towns at a rate equivalent to 2d. in the £, in other words at 3s. 4d. of annual value. In the country districts, the counties and parishes, land value will be taxed 4d. in the £ (say 6s. 8d. of annual value) for the first two years and later it may rise to 6d. in the £ of capital value-that is, more than 10s. in the £ of annual value. In all cases the local land value rate and the rate on improvements go together, the latter always being three-fourths of the former after deductions have been made from the assessment of improvements as aforesaid.

A further provision in the Bill is for an increment tax of one per cent levied annually on increases in land value that attach to the land (irrespective of its sale or transfer) between the date of one periodic valuation and another. This annual increment tax may be levied at the option of the local authorities.

NEW YORK CITY

James R. Brown, President of the Manhattan Single Tax Club, contributes an informing article to THE BUFFALO TRUTH, 14th January, entitled "Something for Nothing and Nothing for Something." We quote:

The principal source of power that enables some to get something for nothing and gives to others nothing for something is to be found in our tax laws that take private property for public use and give public value to private individuals.

If it were not for the tragedy that is involved, our tax laws could be looked upon as the most magnificent roaring farce ever staged by man.

The selling price or assessed value of land is the greatest liability that industry carries, the greatest bar to the advancement of production and civilization. Very few, if any, of our alleged statesmen seem to be aware of this, and our pseudo-economists seem to be delightfully innocent of any knowledge or understanding of this, the most important truth of economic science.

In New York City, without taking in special land franchises, such as railroad, subways, elevated lines, surface lines, telephone, telegraph, etc., and considering the common lots alone, the assessed value of land is $6,000,000,000, and the selling or real value must be very much more, comparing sale prices with assessed values. This is $1,000,000,000 more than the value of all improvements that in all these years we have put

upon these lands, and constitutes a yearly tribute or levy upon industry of at least $300,000,000; and year by year this amount grows and grows, though no services are rendered nor goods delivered by the receivers of this vast amount. If all land privately owned was to be correctly assessed, and all land privilege values added thereto, the annual amount of the economic rent of New York City would be in the neighbourhood of $700,000,000. We now collect about $180,000,000 which forms no part of the larger amount, for taxes levied upon land value cannot be added into selling price. What a ghastly fact that day by day it grows more and more difficult to produce wealth in New York; day by day rents are artificially boosted through a fool system of taxation that makes land artificially scarce by offering a greater and greater reward to men to hold land out of use for speculation and imposing at the same time frightful taxes upon improvements and thereby doubly checking production.

"Something for nothing" is the most costly vice of our people. When one looks over the whole of the United States and takes an intelligent view of the economic situation (for what is true and can be seen in New York City is true and can be seen in a degree all over the United States), how one is impressed with the magnitude of the load production in all its branches and ramifications must carry.

It is a moderate statement to make that between taxes on labour values and payments exacted through privileges and monopolies of various kinds, out of every $2.00 of wealth produced, the producers are robbed of $1.00; in other words, something for nothing costs us one-half of our production.

The annual rental value of land is the only true measure of the annual value of the services and benefits rendered by the city to the citizen, and it is the only value created by the community, and therefore is the only value that should be collected by the community

PROGRESS IN NEW SOUTH WALES Where Agricultural Land is "burdened" with Land Values Taxation

Speaking at a luncheon given him in Sydney, Mr. James Fraser, Chief Railway Commissioner of New South Wales, said:

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On 30th June last the capital invested in the State railways and tramways totalled approximately £111,000,000. In the 12 months ending on the same date these services earned £20,388,000. The Department spent about £15,115,000, leaving £5,274,000 to pay 4.88 per cent. on the capital. This return on capital has not been equalled by any railway in the world operated by white labour. In this period the services achieved upwards of 50,000,000 tram and train miles, and the trains carried 128,532,000 passengers and 16,200,000 tons of goods. The gross ton mileage was 7,000,000,000.

"I believe, though it is not possible to prove this, that we are producing ton miles in New South Wales at a cost lower than any involved elsewhere, and this despite manifold disabilities.

In New South Wales wagons are loading to 70 and 75 per cent of their capacity, and they run a better mileage per day than any other railway operated by white labour. America has set herself the goal of 36 miles per wagon per day, and Victoria's ideal is 30. In New South Wales last year the mileage was 46."-Reuter, 10th February.