is to give them the right to own land. I have a farm in Connecticut and I have occasion every year to hire some farm laborers. They work during the farming season, getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, and contributing nothing to the community life except what they do with their manual labor on the farm. But suppose one of these farm laborers has enough money to enable him to buy a plot of ground. When the title passes to him he becomes a different man. So long So long as he was one of the hired help it did not make much difference to him what condition the roads were in except that it took him a longer time to drive to the station, and he did not care much about the schools and the conduct of the village or town; but as soon as he became a land owner he took an entirely different view of things. He wanted to find out if the money he paid in taxes was properly spent upon the roads and in building bridges; he wanted to know if the schools were well conducted, for presumably he would have a family of children to be educated. He wanted to know that the town or village government was being properly conducted. What made him a different man? Nothing more or less than the fact that he became a real estate owner and possessessed land which he hoped some day to hand down to his descendants. Does it not seem to you that this right of ownership of land is essential to good citizenship, and that when you deprive people of the right to own land you deprive them of the greatest incentive to good citizenship? And yet the single tax, if adopted, would have the effect of abolishing private ownership of land. I am convinced from the study I have made of this subject that rents in cities would be higher under government ownership, or under the single tax, than they are now with private ownership. The rent of the land itself would be the same whether paid to the private individual or to the government, while the leaders who make it possible to put up a building would require not only the interest upon their money, but an amount each year in addition on account of the depreciation of the building. Under private ownership the lender takes as security a mortgage upon both land and buildings, and he reasonably expects that the increase in the land value will balance the decrease in the building value; but if he can only have as security the building itself he has no compen sating factor to balance the yearly loss in building value, and this yearly loss represents an additional amount above and beyond the interest which must be exacted from tenants using the property. Lower rents will therefore not result from the adoption of the single tax or government ownership of land. Higher rents will be inevitable and so will congestion of population. We have heard a great deal about the relief of congestion which would come from exempting buildings from taxation. This, of course, applies only to cities, but the inevitable effect of taking the tax off buildings and putting it to the land would cause higher buildings to be built than otherwise. This was the result in Vancouver, where it was admited that the heavy land tax made buildings go up into the air instead of into the outskirts of the city. By loading the tax on the land the owner must put his buildings up in the air; otherwise his taxes will be higher under the single tax than they are at the present time, so that both from the point of view of low rents and relief of congestion of population the single tax remedy is fallacious. I can see no possible excuse for the single tax or for government ownership of land. On the contrary I believe that our Republican institutions would be jeopardized if all land became common property, as my friend Mr. Brown contends that it should be. Perhaps the best answer ever made by those opposed to taxing land and exempting personal property, was made by Voltaire many years ago, and I will close what I have to say with Voltaire's story of the Forty Crowns." A French agricultural laborer who owned a small plot of land and by incessant labor, under conditions of extreme poverty, contrived to secure from the soil produce worth forty crowns. The tax gatherer, finding that this wretched peasant contrived to keep body and soul together on twenty crown3, assessed his land at the other twenty crowns, and took that amount from him. One day the peasant met an old acquaintance, who had been as poor as he, but had been left a fortune of 400,000 crowns a year in cash and securities. He lived in great style and drove a handsome coach and six horses. Said the peasant to his quondam friend, "Of course you pay half your income, 200,000 crowns, to the state." His friend replied, "You are joking, I am not a landed proprietor like you. The tax collector would be a fool to assess me because everything I have comes ultimately from the land, and somebody has already paid the tax on that. To make me pay would be intolerable double taxation. Good-bye, my friend, you pay your single tax, enjoy in peace your clear income of twenty crowns; serve your country well and come in now and then and have dinner with my lackey. Yes, yes, the single tax is a glorious thing. THE PRESIDENT: We have a very brief report of the Auditing Committee: PROF. W. A. STOCKING: The Auditing Committee appointed by the President has gone over the books and records of the Treasurer and has found the statement he presented yesterday to be correct. The Committee has therefore signed the statement which will go on file. (Signed by) W. A. STOCKING, JR. PHILIP MUNRO THE PRESIDENT: We will now listen to the report of the Committee on Resolutions, by W. N. Giles, Chairman. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS WHEREAS, It is the sense of this New York State Agricultural Society, in session at its Seventy-fifth Annual Convention, that the Torrens System of Land Title Registration (embodied in Article XII of the Real Property Law, as amended by chapter 627 of the Laws of 1910) is destined to be of great benefit to all the farmers of the state of New York, whereby each of them can obtain for his real property an absolutely indefeasible title in fee simple, vested by the state, after all clouds have been removed and all defects cured, thus enabling him to obtain mortgage loans from the land bank of the state of New York or elsewhere, on the Torrens certificates issued by the state; Resolved, That we heartily endorse the Torrens System of Land Title Registration, and recommend its immediate adoption by all members of this society as well as all other farmers of the state of New York, and that they proceed at once to register the titles to their properties thereunder. Your committee studied this resolution carefully and listened carefuly to arguments of the gentlemen, and offer this substitute resolution: Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by the Chair to suggest the best means for developing the registration of land titles under the Torrens System of Registration Law, and use their best influence to encourage this system of registration. We move the adoption of the substitute resolution. WHEREAS, The New York Agricultural Experiment Station has for some years seriously needed additional building facilities, which should provide an auditorium, business offices, space for the demonstration of station results, library rooms and relieve space in existing buildings now needed by several station departments, and in addition provide experimental forcing and plant houses and cold storage facilities; Resolved, That the Governor and legislature be respectfully urged to provide the funds necessary to the erection of an administration, library and demonstration buildings, new forcing and plant houses, and a cold storage building. This resolution has been unanimously adopted by our committee and we urge its careful consideration. I move its adoption. Carried. WHEREAS, Many farmers of the state, whose cattle have been killed for tuberculosis by officials of the Department of Agriculture, have been kept waiting for years for the compensation to which they are entitled by law, and some are waiting now, even in cases where the disease, if present at all, was shown by the autopsy to be so limited and encysted as to be absolutely incommunicable either to other cattle or to persons consuming their meat and milk; and WHEREAS, The same farmers are nevertheless required to pay their taxes, even though their ability to do so and in some cases their means of living — may have been destroyed or seriously impaired by the loss of their cattle; Therefore be it resolved, That the New York State Agricultural Society respectfully but very earnestly memorialize the honorable legislature to appropriate, at the earliest possible opportunity in the present session, an amount sufficient to meet all approved claims of this character, the payment of which is now delayed by the lack of an appropriation, and also such amount, to be estimated by the Commissioner of Agriculture, as may reasonably be considered sufficient to meet promptly all future obligations of the state, of the character referred to, until the next legislature shall be able to act in the matter. Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to send a copy of these resolutions to the Governor of the state and to each member of the Finance Committee and Committee on Agriculture of the senate, and Ways and Means Committee and Committee on Agriculture of the assembly. I move its adoption. Carried. WHEREAS, The New York State Agricultural Society for years has discussed and advocated better marketing methods and facilities for farm products and food stuffs, and WHEREAS, The State Department of Foods and Markets has been created largely through the influence of this society, for the purpose of developing and establishing ways and means whereby producers may get more for their products and consumers may pay less for their food stuffs, by saving unnecessary commissions, charges and handling, and by eliminating waste and speculation, which have been and now are highly detrimental to both producers and consumers; Therefore be it resolved, That the New York Agricultural Society in annual meeting assembled, in Albany, this twentieth day of January, 1915, records its unqualified approval of the establishment of the State Department of Foods and Markets and recommends that the state support and aid by liberal appropriations and cooperation, in every way possible, the fullest development of the highly important functions of the Foods and Markets Department. I move its adoption. Carried. WHEREAS, It is necessary for the welfare of the agricultural interests of the state that transportation companies furnish satisfactory train service, shipping facilities and the improvements required by the development of agriculture, and |