The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1854-08-11

E"A'''bh IChuiho 'pplS VI 1883 f''' w
establishment Of government in Ohio,
and that its abolition would make tax
assessments nnlity, butsill they oppose
any law thar requires an oath! Owe. of
these gentleman has been an assessor,
sworn TOO, and has full faith in the ac~
curacr, of his valuations, as snch;so | e
tells us. He, Of course, valued under
oath his own and his noighbors' properly.
But when not elected assessor he denies
he would possess, capacl,y 10 wIue his
opn. This is singular. There must be
an unknown virtue in popular elections
which enables a man 10 judge Of the
value Of his neighbors' properly who is
admitted by himself unfit to pronounce
upon the value Of lis own. Such posi-
'ion is simply absurd, and j0slifies the
remark, that where this squcam'shness
about taking oa'hs to verify taxation re-
turns is manifested, (where it is moi
adopted as prejudice wilhoutrh cIon,)
it is always scruple of The pocket and
no, Of the conscience.
In the section regulating the rules for
valuiug property, "money in possession
or deposit, in or out of the State" is pJn.
vided TO be entered in the statement.
This Is treated Us q novelty and has heen
m msrepresenled both by friends and foes
of the bill II gives no new { fleet 10 The
law, and Courts have decided in other
Siales lha, foreign deposits made tor
temporary purpose by citizens of other
States are no, taxable. But it is hopes
less on such subjects to cxpec, fair con.
,roversg This too, has been censured
as double tex. Yet if pn exchange or
money dealer in Ohio deposiis part Of
his capital in another State, or at some
foreign mart Of trade, TO use that deposit
in Ohio, am unable to see why This
capital, available in Ohio, should not be
subject TO tsxaion as other property.
But the question has no, been fairly met.
nor will i, be, either in this House or by
the. Press. ...slsaa
The rule Of taxaiion as regards Ptivate
Stock Jobbefs, Exchange Dealers, Bank
ers, Sc, rs to taxation is made precisely
The same in Practice as it is in reference
banks. This would seem
to be ust in law under a constitution
that regards equality Of taxation as fun
,damenial principle.
In reference TO Bankers, Manufaciu-
rers, and Merchants, tho most important
feature, perhaps, in the Bill is, that il
does away with the average system of
listing property, upon the plan of taking
the stock on hand Twelve times year
and Of The end determining what was the
average amount os the whole. The pres
eni system reduces taxation in these de-
partmen,s Of business and trade, at least
as to The grea, majority of manufac,u-
rers and merchants, 10 system of guess
iGe, and then requires an oath 10 The
correctness ofthe guess. Few small man
ufaciurers or merchants keep books with
such accuracy as 70 be able 10 make a
monthly estimate Of their stock on hand +;
few make more than an annual inventory
by which they can approximate 10 accu-
r4cy in their annual statement, Yei the
present law requires that ';he average
shall he made up by taking The amour!
in valne on hand, as nearly as may be, in
each month of the next preceding year
in which the person making such states
pent shall have been engaged in busi>
ness, adding together such amounts, and
dividing the aggregate amount thereof by
the number Of months that the person
making the statemcn, may have been IN
business during The preceding year. p
This requirement, which is taken from
Kel!ey's Law Of 1885, is like many oth>
er clauses in the law Of 1859, imperfect,
because borrowed from a preceding law
wi.hou; consideration of its adaptation TO
abe principles Of the new Constitution un.
der which il wasenac,ed. Il copied
without reflection, as was The principle oil
the tenth section Of the law. which the
Suprema Court hasdeclared void, and is,
lake it, by good lawyers considered OF
doubtful ConsliiuiionaliiS Its very lam
guage exhibits iha, those yho,enacied il
did no, anticipate tha, il would be aceu-
rate. Ii does not anticipate that the state
men, shall be really corect,but only that
lhe value on hand aslneallys as may be-
shall be estirhaisd 10 some way, and at