The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-03-19

taxes only from the farm, which is no
paid for, and demands nothing from tn
purchase moi ey which has no drawback
upon it, the greatest injustice and ine
quality would be produced.
The State does not, and cannot in
quire whether the lands, and tho per
sonal estate, and the merchandise il
paid for, and why should it inquire whe
ther the credits have drawbacks upor
them? In this distinction consists the
odiousness of this law. It makes deduc
tions for one species of property, viz
bonds, mortgages, notes, accounts, bank
deposits, and allows none for any other
Let US take an example. Two cattle
feeders borrow each So, 900, and invest
it in the purchase and feeding ofstock.
Their investments have prospered, until
the stock thus purchased at SIS, 600 is
now worth $500. AS the time for as
scssment approaches, the one sells his
cattle for 81, 500, and takes bill upon
New York payable in sixty days. THIS
is noao " credit" When the assessor
comes around, he say to him Sir, 1 have
credits amounting to $500, and I owe
for borrowed money $4,000. 1 will de-
duct my debt from my credits and return
So. 500. This is the nett profit which
he has made upon tho investment of
S., 900.
The assessor goes to the other. He
has not yet sold his cattle. He puts
them in at $500 but So; to the assess
or, owe SIS, 900, which ought to be de-
Quoted from tho value of these cattle.
No, replies the assessor, you cannot de-
duct your debts from your property, only
from your credits. These two men, then
equally wealthy, having an equal amount
of property, aud having made equal pro-
fits upon their investments, pay-one of
them just throo times as much tax as
the other, by the operation of this bill
The one pays upon his net profits, the
other upon his whole property. Win
the public mind ever approve or abide
by system which works such results as
these? l. it to be tolerated in coun-
try of equal laws, and equal duties?
No. Mr. President, the people will
feel this injustice, and they will resent
it. Indignation is always sure to fol-
low sense of wrong, and the toiling
masses will see and feel that they are
made to bear the burdens which ought
to be shared by others. No sophistry,
no technicality, no refinement about
chooses in action or fctions of law can
resist that great conviction, which facts
ike these will force upon their minds,
that this system is fraught with Unequal
ity and injustice.
The whole history of taxation in Ohio
has been history of exemptions and
determinations. For forty years it was
the policy to tax real estate only at the
naked value of the land, irrespective of
of improvements. When entered upon
life, and went to dwell among the peo
pie of the Northwest, found farmers,
living side by side, owning equal guam
titles of land, and Of equal quality, pay
ing exactly the same amount of taxes,
the farm of one, highly cul,i-
vated, was producing large income,
and worth perhaps $40 per acre, while
the other, ain the woods" as we say,
yielding no income, was
worth only s3 per acre. This was said
to be tax in favor of industry, and it
was supported on the false theory that
to tax farmer upon the improvements
which made his farm valuable and him
self rich, was to discourage industry.
So, too, every horse was assessed at $40,
worth $500 or only S5. So,
too, the 1000 Durham paid 10 more
tax than the poor mans COW worth So.
During all this period there were no
taxes upon bonds nor upon banks, nor
upon drovers, nor upon cattle and hog
dealers, nor commission merchants. I'm
der this fatal system, the finances of the
State declined, and the industrial class
es were almost crushed by the weight of
taxation, which, this most unwise and
unjust system imposed upon them.
then came the law of l845, which assu-
med the cash value of all property as
the basis of taxation, yet the shackles
of the old system still hampered to some
extent the new. By this law of ls45,
no State bonds nor banks were taxed,
and it retained one vice of the old sys-
tenn of taxation-a discrimination in IA
yor of the "credit system"-that old |
hobby of the financial world. This un-
wise and unjust discrimination is now
sought to be forced again upon US by |
the 5th section of this bill. It can never |
receive my assent. azr
My second, objection to this bill is,
that the provision of taxing the banks
is unconstitutional, and is unequal and
unjust. It provides that the indepen-
dent Banks "shall return to the county |
Auditor, the gross amount of the notes
or bills discounted, or purchased, moneys |
loaned, aud all other property, effects or
dues of every description without deduc-
tion." as is required by section 8, of the |
18th article of the Constitution; that
the Auditor shall place upon the dupli-