Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-01-25
For The Standard. !.
AID VALOREM TAXATION.
No. 5.

No. 5.
Mr. HOLDEN In the Address of the Wake Coun
ty Working Mems Association, which, in the opinion
of the Salisbury Banner, "evinces but shallow view
into the great science of political economy" as an
illustration of the oppressive injustice of our present
tax system, occurs among many others, the follow
ing paragraph:
Again: Under our peculiar system and it is,
without precedent peculiar in many respects there
paid into the State Treasury the of $l2 379
by portion of the labor and industry of our citi-
This tax on the energy, enterprise and brains
of the community, which should receive in its de-
velopmcnt the fostering and protection of our
lawmakers so far as possible, amounts to about
sirth of the paid, We have shown, by $24S,-.
567, 800 worth Of one species of property. We are
satisfied that this distinctive feature in our revenue
system is so unustly oppressive utterly subveL3
Sivc of every reasonable and established principes
poticcl economy, and so openly at war with the
besA -Assts of our State that it requires no ny
trait -aetail to convince you that ref0rHaS
least IN this respect is mperatively demanded. STILL
that you may more forcibly comprehend its unjust
ness and inequality, let for a moment look to its
operation Every citizen except ministers of the
Gospel and our Judges, land why exempt the latter
when all other State officers are taxedD whose an
nual income from their labor is over $500, paid, a
tax, per cent on their respective receipts. The
clerk, the doctor, the mechanic, the lawyer, the
overseer, your county officers, every one, though by
untiring industry and stinting economy they may
be barely able to support their families, paid into
the Treasury of the State 81 upon every 800 re-
ceived. The foreman in the workshop, if in the re-
ceipt of $500 as wages paid, besides his poll tax,
So to the sheriff; while his ncighbor, owning ten
slave mechanics at work in the same shop at the
yearly wages of s., 500 or more paid to the sheriff
only So and his poll tax. The Overscer, with 20
hands under him. making for his employer 100 bags
of cotton worth So O00 if receiving $780, paid Sc,
or,H tln ntnt,lnN for tbot X-hin DpaH
$4,000 paid $40. The employees of our different
Railroad Companies each pay per cent on their
receipts, if they amount TO $500 the individual
stockholders, though they may receive or I per
cent on their Investments, amounting in the aggre-
gate to large sum, pay, with few exceptions moth
ing. The clerk, i'll the receipt of 800 per dRRWm,
paid s. to the State; his employer, with Sl00,O00
of State bonds in his SAFE yielding him ST. 600 per
aHnWln, paid nothing. These illustrations might be
indefinitely multiplied In 1854 our Executive, in
his message to the General Assembly, reviewing
revenue system, remarks thus upon the inequality
then existing 1.-The poll tax on the day laborcr
and the capitalist is precisely the same and it
times happens that the latter like the former, is
subject to no other species of contribution I'm the
case it is an OnerouS mpOSitiOn in the other a.
tax thousand fold greater mg ht occasion no sens,
bic inconvenience" II in 1884 reason existed for
complaining against the inequality of the system,
how much more have to complain of now, when
in the bucket, compared to that assessed on our
labor
The RrHB6r in its attempt to show what the facts
and figures of the address are worth selects from
the above one example, and thus comments:
q In the Address find it in the Standards
1--WE have not yet received copy of the pamphlet)
the following case is put: The oversecr with 20
hands under him. making for his employer 100 bags
of cotton worth IS 0e0 If receiving SE0as pa M I
and the employer, for that which protiuced ssN
600 paid $10' Now this statement Of the case Is
neither full nor fair and what is more without IN
tending to be offensive it is not true 1t is not full
because it omi;S the important fact that the en-
ployer has tdHdS as we'll as slaves employed in max
ing the 100 bags of cotton, and upon which he pays
4 tax 1T is not fair because the gross income of
the employer is given, while that Of the ovcrsecr is
nett it is not true, because the employer in fact
pays more than $40 tax upon the negroes alone, be-
sides tax on the land with which he makes this
100 bags of cotton.
Now we will undertake to give statement of the J
case, which we submit TO the judgment of all prac.
teal men the true one.
We assert then, fact that nine out of ten of
the plantations in North Carolina, upon which 100
bags of cotton be raised will sell in market for
$4,000. Besides this mules, horses, hogs, cattle,
farming tools are all required to carry the opera
tons Of farming, and they all cost money. Mules
and horses must be fed negroes must be fed, and
clothed doctors, blackSmithS, carpenters pillow ma
keTS ana members must all DC PAID TOO out oil TINS
$4,000. tax is paid both upon the land and the
poll, to the county as well the State, and rather
more to the former than the latter-ior it is as ne
cessary to support the county as the State govern
ment. The case simply and truly stated is as fol
lows:
20 negroes pay poll tax to the State of $40
The same negroes pay an average county tax of -
$4,000 worth of land pays State tax of 30
The same land pays an average county tax of %
Total 67
Slxtyscvcn dollars, then, is the tax which the en-
ployer must pay upon the property with which the
100 bags of cotton made and it must be paid too
out of this income Of $1,000, Just the overscer
pays Sc out of his income of 5000. But this is not
the only deduction to which this $1,000 income is
to be subjected We make another estimate for the
authors of the Address.
The expenses of the farm must he deducted. and
these we estimate as follows, again appealing to the
judgment of practical men to sustain u.s.
Total receipts by employer from cotton
crop, $4,000
He pays overseer's wages. 5 GOO
Feeding and clothing 20 hands, at
$40 each, 14OO
Wear and tear of mules, horses .wag- ..--.
ons, &c, &c, 500
$500