Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/459

Rh or ten million dollars, and perhaps even less, and the estate of every real estate or immovable property holder in the same ratio; but I can not say that I will greatly injure the movable property man, for he may go to Boston, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, and do quite as well as he did in New York city with his money, goods, etc. The truth is, it would entirely bankrupt the great city, for the demand for immovable property would not be sufficient to pay a rental sufficient to pay the interest on her city, county, and State debt. I do not think these assertions on the extreme, or the picture overdrawn. And if the picture is not overdrawn, and even say it is overdrawn by fifty per cent, who would be the injured party in New York by the enforcement of such a law? Would it be the great merchants who, for aught I know, rent their houses from Mr. Astor? Or would it be Mr. Astor, the great real estate owner of Iew York? In other words, would it be the movable property man, with his goods, money, etc., who can take it and go to Boston, Philadelphia, or elsewhere, and perhaps do quite as good a business as he did in New York, or would it be the immovable property or real estate man, who has to stay where he is and pay his city and county debt, without tenants or rental from his property? Hence, I say that, of all the men who should object to oppressive and, to follow the principle, I will say any taxation at all on money, merchandise, or trade, manufactories, etc., it is the man who owns the real estate or immovable property. His position should be this: He should say to the thousands of men in the civilized world, with their money in their pockets, looking out a favorable locality to go to banking, merchandising, manufacturing, or farming, etc.: 'Come, locate on me; I will not oppress you; come to me, for I can't go to you, and we must come together, or I am worth nothing; and knowing this, I will not tax you and oppress you. Other localities make you pay a tax; I will not, consequently I offer that advantage over other localities.' Heretofore it has been the merchant who has done the complaining about the tax levied on him; he is not the one to do it; it is the real estate man, and the writer being one of those men owning real estate almost entirely, and not owning a dollar's worth of merchandise of any kind for sale, and not being a lender of money, but, on the contrary, a borrower, and not being a manufacturer of any kind, and not being the owner of machinery, except a steam sawmill and a steam cotton-gin establishment, but being what is known as a plain farmer or planter by profession or occupation, thinking he sees his interest in the system he is advocating; consequently therein is to be found the moving cause of this letter.

"I contend that this system will lighten the burdens of taxation on real estate, and, after a very short time, the rate of taxation will