Collection Overview

Title: The American Association for Scientific Taxation, 1927-1952

Predominant Dates: 1927-1938

Arrangement: Series I. Miscellaneous Announcements, Writings, and Publications of the Association; Series II. Correspondence and Writings of Association President Charles Johnson Post; and, Correspondence and Writings of Secretary Water Fairchild

Biographical Note

Founded in 1927 by Charles T. Root (1849-1938), the purpose of the American Association for Scientific Taxation included “making investigations into fields of taxation, to make studies and researches with respect to taxation and economic conditions, and to make and publish reports from time to time.”  Root also served as the founder and director of the United publishing Corporation and edited several trade publications including Iron Age, Dry Goods Economist, Hardware Age, and Boot & Shoe Recorder.

Charles Johnson Post (1873-1956), a journalist and son of famous single taxer Louis F. Post (1849-1928), served as the first President of the Association.  Post contributed many articles to national newspapers and leading magazines including The New York World, The United Press, and Harper’s Magazine.  He also published several books and studies including Across the Andes (1912) and Some Postal Economics (1918).  For more than 15 years, Post worked as a Commissioner in the U.S. Department of Labor. He also served as President of the Tax Protective League

Walter Fairchild (1877-1945), a tax lawyer, served as Secretary and Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Association.  He also served as President of the New York Torrens Title League and actively supported the work of the Henry George School of Social Science.

The Association was dissolved by proclamation in 1952.

Collection Content

Series One: Miscellaneous Announcements, Writings, and Publications of the Association

“Meet the New Mayor,” December 31, 1933
“Land Value Tax Pays,” April 1934
“Raise $50,000,000. Special Excise Tax on Inadequately Improved Land” [1934]
“Manhattan Land Values 1935”

Undated
“A Legislative Framework for the Philosophy of Henry George”
Charles T. Root, “Not a Single Tax”
“The American Association for Scientific Taxation. Its President”
Harry Gunnison Brown, Relieving Business Through Scientific Taxation
Graded Tax Committee News Bulletin #2
Graded Tax Committee News Bulletin #3
Graded Tax Committee News Bulletin #4

Series Two: Writings of Association President Charles Johnson Post

“A Plea for Scientific Taxation” (April 1927)
“An Equitable Wage Policy,” AJES (April 1943)
What Private Enterprise Can Do (1950)
“How Come Some Don’t Pay City Taxes” The Old-Telegram and Sun (June 18, 1951)
“How New York Solved Its Housing Crisis,” (1951)
“Let Us Talk this Over,” The Tax Protective League, undated
Obituary for Charles Johnson Post, Henry George News (March 1960)

Series Three: Correspondence and Writings of Secretary Water Fairchild

Walter Fairchild to Ernest F. Goodrich, October 24, 1934
William Stanley Miller to Walter Fairchild, December 17, 1934
Walter Fairchild to Norman Fowles, December 18, 1934
Walter Fairchild to Harold S. Buttenheim, January 18, 1935
Walter Fairchild to Members of the Legislative Committee, January 18, 1935
Walter Fairchild to Robert Nilson, March 6, 1935
Walter Fairchild to Editor of the NY Herald Tribune, April 12, 1935
Walter Fairchild to William Stanley Miller, April 22, 1935

“Relation of Housing to Taxation” (October 17, 1934)
“Graded Tax on Land” (January 8, 1935)
“Single Tax vs. Triple Tax,” The National Municipal League (1935)
“Taxation for Prosperity,” The National Municipal League (1935)
“The Ratio of Building Value to Land Value” (April 1936)
“Economic Aspects of Land Titles,” Reprint from Cornell Law Quarterly (February 1937)
“A Single Tax Upon the Value of Land,” Dynamic America (August 1938)
“Graded Tax Committee,” The Freeman (1938)
“How the Graded Tax Plan Works,” American City (1938)
“Improvement in Recording and Indexing,” Georgetown Law Journal (December 1939)