Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1869-04-22
OUR STATE TAXEs ON BUSI-

Taxes should be laid upon wealth It is |
the accumulation of property that should |
bear the burden of supporting government.
This Is, we think, plain proposition. 1t
may be made palmer. The Legislature of |
Delaware has laid a tax upon Sales. Every |
merchant in Wilmington who sells two
thousand dollars worth of goods must pay
one dollar tax, and if he sells forty-one
thousand, must pay forty dollars
tax. Yet the mere fact of selling these
goods does not necessarily prove wealth.
They may have been sold at small profit,
consume; or, as has been the case with
many merchants during the past two years,
they may have been sold at no profit, or ut
loss. Why, then, should you tax the
transaction We say, again, business is not
wealth; they may, and usually do, accom-
pany each other, but they are not identical,
and to tax business, under the pretencc that
wealth is thereby indirectly reached, is as
bad plan as to kill the goose that lays the
golden egg.
eminent taxes sales. But while the principle
of that may be no better, the result is very
different from that of our State tax The
United States ia K falls on the whole country
New York pays it, as well as Philadelphia.
Philadelphia dealers pay it as well us those
Of Wilmington. If one suffers, all do. But.
cur Legislature has added to the burdens
upon the trade Of our Wilmington merchants
weight which the Philadelphia men do not
carry, at all, and in this, have deliberately
struck a blow at the business prosperity OF
the city. They had no right, under any
circumstances, ito thus lay burden on trade :;
they had no right to assume that trade was
wealth they had no right thus to overload
our merchants when their competitors in
Philadelphia totally escape; and at asy
rate, the time for such n tax was most inop-
perfume During the war, it might have
been easily borne; at this time, it csn
scarcely be borse at all.
The whole error arises from the mscun
ception of the men who framed The iaX Law :.
They sought to tax the different 'gu'ercsfs.
a folly and absurdity which scarcely leeds
explanation. They want to reach mauuisc
lures. Yet they seem to overlook tic lat.l
that the real-estate, upon which manufar
turing industry is conducted, is already tax
ed, tie same as the real estate,o which the
farmer conducts his operations. The ma.
chinery and tools are not taxed neither arc
horses and ploughs. Ii there is propiieiy il
laying a tax on manufactured products, why
not on farm products If you tax the wheel
wright work, the marble work, the bread
and the boots and shoes, that our mechanic.
and bakers turn out, why not tax the bushcl,
OF corn, or wheat, or baskets Of peachc,
that the farmers and fruit growers produce
II may be said that the latter cannot bea
taxation. Why nots Simply for the reasol
that we have been explaining. They hay
not made, or may not make, any profit
after all their years labors. Very we'll; 8
1t is with the merchant, and so il is with III
manufacturer. lie may have accumulate
profit, and he may NOT. If lie has, it wi
be evidenced somewhere-in larger stor,
or factory in larger dwelling; in a ro
oil new houses; in an improved farm;
bank stock; in railroad or goyernmcl
bonds. And Mis-the accuD,ulc,tiou-N
,0ealh-is what should be taxed.
Through the resolutc purpose of the lie,
tslature, that New Castle County, and esp
cially the City OF Wilmington, should
made to pay the great bulk of the Stu
levy; through the narrow. selfish noiio,,