Professor Sprague of Business School Criticizes Present System of Agricultural Taxation at Dinner of Iowa Club

At an informal dinner of the Iowa Club which was held last night at the Colonial Club, Professor C. M. W. Sprague '94 of the Business School spoke on the general effect of recent legislation on the credit system of farmers. The trouble with the present system, he said, is that land is taxed according to its capitalized value instead of the income derived from the product, and this capitalized value instead of the income derived from the products, and this capitalized value is often unjust. Too frequently the land's worth is judged by a comparison with similar farms in the community, with the result that great injustices are committed unwittingly. This theory, he said, might be parallel to the English one of raising the selling price of estates because a social prestige is connected with them.

"No class suffers so much as the farmer from the bane of surplus supplies", Professor Sprague declared. "This is true for two reasons. In the first place, farming produce cannot be exported easily because it will spoil in the process. Secondly, the farmer cannot suspend, operations as do the large steel or coal corporations, until the prices rise and even if he could, the farming class is so numerous that prices as a whole would be affected little by one man's attempt to decrease the output. The general wheels of 'up or down' are hard on the farmer because he cannot get out from under.

"With some products, however, it is possible to hold off the sale. But computations in the cotton market slow that in seven out of ten years, any attempt at holding back results in losses".