Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/454

436 employed, and the property is paying a rental on three hundred thousand dollars; if you reduce the profits permanently, in any way, to five per cent net, the property would not pay a rental on one hundred and fifty thousand; in fact, it would hardly pay any rent at all, for five per cent would be too small to induce a business at all in this country."

"Movable property always seeks and locates on immovable property where it thrives and multiplies most rapidly. A spot of ground, a city, a county, a State, or even a nation, that offers the greatest thrift, will be sought and located upon by the greatest quantity of it, and the greater the quantity the more value and thrift will the land have. Any tax levied upon it lessens its thrift, and consequently is in violation of the correct principle; though it may not be enough to perceptibly affect it, yet it will have some effect. Though it may not drive any away, yet it will, to some extent, keep other movable property from coming."

"It is said that it was the last feather that broke the camel's back, while the first had as much to do with it as the last. An oppressive tax, such as exists in some parts of our State, drives off a good deal of movable property, and absolutely forbids any more coming to such parts, unless it comes relying upon dodging or evading the law, which large capital never does. Men of small amounts of money, goods, etc., such as one can hide, may come; but men of large amounts of money, to go into open banking, or merchandising, on a scale that can not be hidden, or evade the law, will not come.

"Here I wish to state a truism which, perhaps, many owners of real estate may never have thought of. It is this, to wit: The renter or lessee of real estate must always prosper before the owner of the real estate can expect to prosper. This is certainly true as a rule, when taken for a series of years, in a country like ours, where land is abundant, and the people free to go where they please. This will apply to all real estate, whether farms, storehouses, shops, or other kinds of realty. I don't mean he must have greater prosperity, but that he must prosper first."

"Of course, all mankind, where they have lived for a time, form local and social ties, and will submit to some oppression, though their property be all movable, before they get their consent to move away; but with the millions of dollars of movable property we desire to attract to us, no such ties exist; and if we do not offer quite as much thrift as other localities, and even more, when the property may be already located, we need not expect to attract it to us. But it is just as certain as that the law of gravity will cause the apple to fall toward the earth when it leaves the tree instead of toward the