The housing problem will never be solved while the land problem remains unsolved. The land problem will never be solved while the taxation problem remains unsolved. The taxation problem will never be solved while assessors are required to tax real estate as though land and buildings were one and inseparable. No system of taxation, even though it be revenue only, can fail to aid or injure the general welfare. And no system of real estate taxation can fail to raise or retard the housing standards of the community. There is, of course, no single solution for the housing problem. Housing is too closely tied up with unemployment, exploitation, lack of city planning and the whole distressing maladjustment of our economic and civic life to be perfectible by any panacea. But a wise use of the taxing power can provide the mental and financial stimuli without which we cannot hope either to banish the slums or to banish the need for governmental subsidies. Recent years have witnessed a decided trend away from the old general property tax, which aimed to levy at the same rate on all kinds of wealth-real estate, securities, jewelry, furniture and all other property-and to assess it all by the same methods. In thirty-four states the constitution now permits a classified property tax, and eighteen now tax certain intangibles at special low rates. Seven states, including New York, levy no tax on intangibles in the hands of resident owners; and New York in 1933 took the further step of abandoning all attempts to reach personal property through a property tax. This progress has resulted from a more or less confused realization of the fact that a like treatment applied to radically different elements does not produce similar results in economics any more than in chemistry. The same taxing methods could not be successfully applied alike to real estate, household goods and intangibles. It now appears that we shall find it necessary to go even further and realize that real estate is not a homogeneous form of property, but a dual form which must be broken down into its elements-land and improvements-before we can approach a scientific method of taxation. * Editor, The American City Magazine. President, General Welfare Tax League. Member of council and executive committee, National Municipal League. Member of advisory committee, President Hoover's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership. Member of council, International Federation for Housing and Town Planning. Director, Planning Foundation of America, National Conference on City Planning, National Child Welfare Association.