HAPPY WITHOUT TAXES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9469, 11 June 1909, Page 6

HAPPY WITHOUT TAXES.

On the eastern shore of Mobile Bay there is a town which for 14 years has been giving, so far as existing laws will permit, a practical demonstration of Henry George’s theory. It was established for that purpose. It was built on practically uninhabited ground, and in the years of its existence it has grown from nothing into a thriving, prosperous, and happy community. Its inhabitants pay no taxes, and get along in fine style without them. Fairhope, Alabama, was started in January, 1895, by four singletaxers from lowa. It is now a mining town with a city charter, three schools, a hotel, two" newspapers, a wharf, a steamboat, several stores, a number of dabs, and a free library. It has a waterworks system*, but no water rates. It has a telephone service, which is free. It doesn’t cost anybody in Fairhope a cent, to go into his telephone room and call np anybody in Baldwin County. The scheme of the promoters was pimply this: To found a community wiic:reiu all land should be owned by the community—that is, by a corporation representing the community; to let out the land on long term leases to individuals; to take from the lessees the lull amount of the ground rent; to support the community out of the ground rent., and to pay the taxes levied by the State and county ont of the same fund.