Amador weekly ledger., 1857-12-12
TAKING MINING CLAIMS.
MINER II.

: most in the public mind, and most of the
journals in the State are contending upon
one side or the other of the agricultural and
commercial proposition to tax mining claims.
It is proposition which has been more or
less urged ever since the formation of the
State Government but it is only recently
that it has assumed very threatening as
pect. 1t is now an issue which must be
promptly and unequivocally met.
Most Of the presses in exclusively agricnl-
tural counties, and portion at least of those
directly representing the commercial interests
of the State, are demanding the tax. In
some counties Grand Juries-those unwieldy
bodies. about as useful as would be Grand
Inquest to determine who struck Billy Pat
terson-have brought the matter to public
attention in their reports, and contended that
the agricultural counties pay more than their
just proportion of the government expenses.
Among the papers published in mining coun-
ties, we have noticed but one, as yet, that
fayors taxing mining claims; and the argn-
ments it introduced in favor of the PROPOSE
ton were really good reasons upon which to
base an opposition to the scheme.
Do the farmers Of the lower valleys and
the merchants of the commercial cities pay
an undue share of taxes? or,smore properly,
do the miners and the mining counties pay less
taxes than they should? We contend that
the miners, directly and indirectly, pay every
dollar and more than they should-that pret-
ty nearly the entire tax is derived either di-
rectly or indirectly from them-and that
without them neither the farmer nor the mer-
chant would have anything upon which tax
could be levied. 1t is a plain proposition,
fully proved by experience in the times of
Protective Tariffs, that the consumer aud
not the merchant pays the duty on imported
goods the merchant advances the amount of
the duty, but it is taxed up with a good
round interest against the consumer. The
portant sense precisely parallel case. The
merchants and the farmers possess property
the true value of which can be readily arrived
at upon this they pay taxes, but the mer
chant adds it to the cost Of his goods and
sells accordingly, while the farmers produce
is estimated and sold at correspohdingly
increased value-the miner being not only
the purchaser and consumer, but The producer
Of the gold with which he pays for all he gets,
and without which, as already stated, there
would be nothing to pay taxes either on or
with. That this is the practical working of
the matter will be fully clear to all who will
investigate the matter-to all who will allow
themselves to think it over. Does not the
stage proprietor, in estimating his expenses,
include the tax upon his stock; and does he
not fix bis rates of fare so as to cover that
and all other expenses? Does not the land
lord estimate the tax upon his property in
connexion with its value in order to fix upon
a rental that will yield him an interest upon
all the money invested and to be inyested?-
Most certainly he does. The man who rents
a house pays the tax upon the property; it
is included in the rental So it is with the
miners Of California they not only produce
all the gold, but buy the farmers and the
merchants goods, at cost, TAX, and pratt pri-
ees +; and even if the miners paid no direct
tax, very nearly the entire revenue of the
State would nevertheless be derived, under
the present organization Of affairs, from
their hard earnings.
Even If it would be no injustice to tax
mining claims it would be impolitic and in
fact totally impracticable. Impolitic, because
it would cripple the energies of the miners
cause many claims not to be worked that
otherwise would be, tend to keep away i'm
migration to the mines, and in short have the
effect of decreasing the product of gold, more
orless. lmpracticable, because something tan
gible and Of determinable value must be found
before tax can be levied and collected
No man knows or can know the value of a
mining claim until he has worked it Quit
may be worth something and it may be worth
nothing. As well might any other product
be taxed in advance; and better, because
other products are much more certain. Yet
the agricultural counties would Indignantly