Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-10-02
Oglo Statesman,
SHALL TAXES Be Equal 2.
Shall There be a Privileged Glass
Exempt from Taxation
TO THE VOTERS AND TAXPAYERS OF OHIO.

When question of politics comes home
to ''men's business and bosoms" they will
look into it closely. When Mr.. A. who
lives in the country on his farm OF hun
dred acres, valued at $4,000, comes into town
to pay his taxes, he finds that.they are in
round numbers one hundred dollars. II he
finds Mr.. b. at the Treasurers desk-who
rents house In town and whom he knows
has twice as much as A. is worth, invested
inI IGovefnment bends%7payi his taxes
with nine dollars and eleven cents on a few
hundred dollars worth of household furni-
ture, it is very apt to make him think.
1fMr. C., who has ahouse and In
town in which helives and does business,
finds that his State taxes are a hundred
dollars year-besides his license that he
gets from the United States to carry on
business-whie his next door neighbor. Mr..
D., draws 5000 year in gold on bonds,
boards at hotel and pays no taxes at all,
Mr.. G. will very probably have his curiosi-
ty excited about the at details of this singu-
lar system of taxation. If Mr.. G. has a
shop in which he carries on mechanical or
manufacturing business, and also house
and lot in which he lives, and on both of
which he pays taxes to the amount of forty
dollars year, he is apt to wonder why his
wealthy friend H., who has his money
in bonds, should enjoy the same pro-
lection of person and property for nothing
--or for the payment of small income tax
on what he has over $4,000. And Mr.. G..
will be apt to think it especially unreason-
able if he recollects that while he was off
in the army he had to send his wife twenty
dollars of his pay every six months to keep
his home from being sold for taxes, while
Mr.. III. was not in the army at all, but was
at home making good thing out of the
war by investing his money in bonds which
gave him per cent. interest in gold, when
gold was at 250. And Mr.. A. and Mr.. c.,
and Mr.. G.. will all be disposed to investi-
gate the matter and see whether it is re-
quired by any principle Of sound policy or
good faith that taxation should be so un-
equal.
This is exactly what we propose to eX-
anime. The Hon. John Sherman, United
States Senator from Ohio; Gen. Cox, the
candidate OF the Republican party for Gov
ernor, and other speakers of the same party
in the present canvass, have told the people
that any modification of this unequal sys-
TEN of taxation, was reputation and breach
of the public faith: that Congress had pro-
videdI that these bonds should not be taxed,
and that taxing them now would be vio-
lation of the contract. If this were true, it
would be cogent reason for leaving things
as they are, for the public faith once pledged,
whether righttully or wrongfully, should
be maintained unbroken. But it is not
true. Congress never provided that these bonds
should be exempted from tdratiOn: and the as
sertion that it did so is little creditable
either to the intelligence or the fairness of
men occupying the position of Mr.. Sher-
man and Gen. Cox. Congress did provide
that they should not be taxed by States,
counties or municipal corporations. And
they could not have been so taxed even with
, out such provision. A State cannot tax the
bonds of the United States: because If
would destroy their value and defeat the
power conferred on the United Giates by
the Constitution to borrow money.
But it never was provided that they
should not be taxed by Congress itself. On
the contrary, Congress has twice exercised
the power already of taxing them: first in
levying take of ! q per cent. on all incomes
derived from United States Bonds, when all
other incomes bore a tax Of 3 per cent; and
later by emitting this provision when the
income tax was raised and laying tax of
3 per cent. on all incomes, including those
from bonds, Except on incomes of over $l0,-
600, which pay a tax of 10 per cent? This
disposes of the outcIy about taxation being
breach of faith or reputation. No party
talks of repudiating the debt. The only
on it. Shall it fall on the labor and prOduc-
tion of the country, while the capital is to a
large extent exempt?
The amount OF public wealth invested in
these bonds is in the neighbOrhood of two
thousand millions of dollars. The amount
of bonds bearing gold interest is stated at
one thousand one hundred and eight mil
lions of dollars, in round numbers, and the
third series of 7-30 bonds (three hundred
millions in each series) is now being sold.
This vast amount of property has been
withdrawn from taxation. 1t was former
ly invested in real estate, lent on bonds and
mortgages or employed in business in some
way-in each case bearing its share of the
burdens of taxation and contributing at the
same time to the productive capital OF the
country. Now it is exempted from taxa
tion. On what do the burdens it used to-
bear fall? On the remaining capital and
wealth of the country, which has now to
bear its own burdens and those of the bond
holders too. The very class which can as
general thing best afford to pay taxes-those
who have surplus means to invest in bonds
is the very class exempted. Is this rea-
sonable? We would excite no unworthy
prejudice against capital or wealth. 1t is
the legitimate result of the industry of the
country and the representative of national
and individual prosperity. But there is
neither reason nor justice in relieving this
vast mass of private property almost wholly
from taxation and throwing it upon the
active capitalize business, and the real
estate of the country. u'~
We sometimes hear it said by the hold
ers of bonds that there is no injustice in
eXempting them from taxation, because
every one had an equal chance to invest in
them, and might have done SO if they
wished. But this is not so. All persons
can not invest their money in this way,
and never would have done so. The great
mass of the property of the people, espe-
cially in new commercial country like
ours, must always be in real estate or
employed in some kind of business
Some farmers may have money to in.
vest in bonds, and some merchants and
mechanics and professional men-but they
are small part of the whole number and
even these generally have much more prop
erty in other forms than they have in bonds.
But the great mass of the business and pro-
ducing classes of the country don't own
bonds, and can't. The man who carries on
farm, the merchant or manufacturer or
mechanic, who carries on business, have use
for all their means In their business and
have no surplus to dispose of In that way.
And are they to be told that their lands and
their homes and stores and shops and means
of business, are to be taxed for the benefit
of their more favored neighbor? g
But this system of ofexempting bonds from