from Note 4: It should not be forgotten that land for
which the demand is so weak that its site value cannot be
easily distinguished from the value of its improvements,
is certain to be land of but little value, and almost
certain to have no value at all. ...
Note 14. Land values are lower in all countries of
poor government than in any country of better government,
other things being equal. They are lower in cities of
poor government, other things being equal, than in cities
of better government. Land values are lower, for example,
in Juarez, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, where
government is bad, than in El Paso, the neighboring city
on the American side, where government is better. They
are lower in the same city under bad government than
under improved government. When Seth Low, after a reform
campaign, was elected mayor of Brooklyn, N.Y., rents
advanced before he took the oath of office, upon the bare
expectation that he would eradicate municipal abuses. Let
the city authorities anywhere pave a street, put water
through it and sewer it, or do any of these things, and
lots in the neighborhood rise in value. Everywhere that
the "good roads" agitation of wheel men has borne fruit
in better highways, the value of adjacent land has
increased. Instances of this effect as results of public
improvements might be collected in abundance. Every man
must be able to recall some within his own
experience.
And it is perfectly reasonable that it should be so.
Land and not other property must rise in value with
desired improvements in government, because, while any
tendency on the part of other kinds of property to rise
in value is checked by greater production, land can not
be reproduced.
Imagine an utterly lawless place, where life and
property are constantly threatened by desperadoes. He
must be either a very bold man or a very avaricious one
who will build a store in such a community and stock it
with goods; but suppose such a man should appear. His
store costs him more than the same building would cost in
a civilized community; mechanics are not plentiful in
such a place, and materials are hard to get. The building
is finally erected, however, and stocked. And now what
about this merchant's prices for goods? Competition is
weak, because there are few men who will take the chances
he has taken, and he charges all that his customers will
pay. A hundred per cent, five hundred per cent, perhaps
one or two thousand per cent profit rewards him for his
pains and risk. His goods are dear, enormously dear
— dear enough to satisfy the most contemptuous
enemy of cheapness; and if any one should wish to buy his
store that would be dear too, for the difficulties in the
way of building continue. But land is
cheap! This is the type of community in
which may be found that land, so often mentioned and so
seldom seen, which "the owners actually can't give away,
you know!"
But suppose that government improves. An efficient
administration of justice rids the place of desperadoes,
and life and property are safe. What about prices then?
It would no longer require a bold or desperately
avaricious man to engage in selling goods in that
community, and competition would set in. High profits
would soon come down. Goods would be cheap — as
cheap as anywhere in the world, the cost of
transportation considered. Builders and building
materials could be had without difficulty, and stores
would be cheap, too. But land would be
dear! Improvement in government increases
the value of that, and of that alone. ...
Q43. Is there any land question in places where
land is cheap? In Texas, for example, you can get land as
cheap as two dollars an acre. Is there a land question
there?
A. There is no place where land is cheap in the sense
implied by the question. Land commands a low price in
many places, but it is poor land; it is not cheap land.
It is true that in Texas there is land that can be had
for two dollars an acre, but it would yield less profit
to each unit of labor and capital expended upon it than
land in New York City which costs hundreds of thousands
of dollars an acre. The valuable New York land is the
cheaper of the two. The land question is the question in
every place where land costs more than it is worth for
immediate use. ... read the book