The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-10-06
1AxATION OF Personal ESTATE.

We, In Pennsylvania, under our State laws,
tax real estate and for the most part, exempt
personal Can any one give us good and
sound reason for this distinction? Why one |
kind Of property should bear the whole bur- |
den of that charge which is laid by the State |
or municipality for the purposes Of revenue
we never could, and believe we never can, |
understand. Taxes, we take it, are the price |
paid by the citizen for the protection he enjoys
in condition of civil society. But as all per-
sons and all property enjoy it, why should not
all be made to contribute their quota of the
costp
Governments have made Individual wealth
the criterion OF basis ofapportionmenti in assess
ing the amount which each one ought to pay
for the political security afforded his life,
estate, and reputation by the law and its
ministers. And this measure of obligation is
perhaps as good as any other, if not the very
best that could be adopted for the purpose.
There is no more available, even if there were
any more Just, means of estimating the stake
which every person has in the peace, order,
and legal muniments of society, than the
amount Of actual property he possesses. The
more he has to be secured and guaranteed to
him by Government, the more direct interest
he has in the maintenance ofGOvernment, and
It is but right that he should be required TO
bear the expense Of the system to the extent
of the benefit he personally derives from its
administration.
If this be the principle Of taxation, 1t seems
dlfIieult to comprehend the equity or reason
Of that application of it which subjects lands
and tenements TO tribute for the support oi
the State, but comedies immunity to cows and
horses, ships and dry-goods, bonds and mort
cages, bank and railway stocks, and the like.
The latter are not less real forms Of personal
wealth than the other, though they may be
not so accessible at all times for the purposes
of taxation, or so capable Of precise valuation.
1t l. very certain that man whose fortune
consists in promissory notes and kindred
securities Is quite as much dependent on she
public tribunals for the assurance Of his capi-
tai and It's income, as be who has put all he Is
worth into broad acres and tine houses. Yet
the latter is compelled to sustain almost the
entire cost of an advantage which is common
TO both alike.
ANOW VIC doSSAJ buab iu lulh Ol
responsibility and retribution, when there is
no difference in the benefit partaken, there is
gross and manifest injustice. But the wrong
done is not all the evil. The exemption OF
personal estate from the dues paid into the
public treasury by the tax gatherer induces
capital to seek and prefer that form Of invest
ment; and hence a large amount Of money,
which, under more impartial system, would
De employed In valuable real estate improve
Hnenla, ia diverted from that most important
nu uoHprehensive mode Of utilizing indivi-
iua, wealth tOE the Interests Of the many.
-. - We asd space we might also discuss at
some length the other bad effect Of exoperat-
ang personal property nom the burdens
levied on lands and house,, which eonsists -
1he habit Of wild aud nnwholssorns 1880 -
1ion witnessed daily on the stocr rveSan..a so.ar
and which, while rendering the for,uns. s's., ~,
happiness Of men preeariOus and aucta,,,n., INV
Ia the extreme, Is at once destructive Of psaes
'uind and integrity Of character.