Harold Sudell sent this LTE to the Philadelphia Inquirer, in October, 1945 – but it could have been this year in many American cities and towns:

INCENTIVE TAXATION

To the Editor of The Inquirer:

According to one of your editorials there are 100,000 houses now needed in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Housing Authority plan provides for only 19,500 in the next six years.

Evidently, then, we have to depend on private enterprise to provide the large part of them. What are we doing to encourage this? Nothing—nay, worse than nothing—for by our tax system we discourage home building.

To change this, City Council should at once request the State Legislature to empower them to abolish the foolish, hurtful, and unnecessary tax on buildings and to concentrate all local taxes on the people-made value of Philadelphia land.

This would be doubly beneficial. It would lift the present heavy tax from homes and by increasing the tax on land would drastically reduce its selling price, thus making building sites (the first requisite in the building of a home) much easier to get.

HAROLD SUDELL

Philadelphia, Oct. 3.