The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-04-06

i
We are amazed to learn that by in
struction of the Auditor of Public Ac-
counts, the Assessors are required to en-
ter for taxation the articles of corn, meat
and cotton in the hands Of owners on the
LIST of January last. Heretofore these
articles have been considered exempt
from taxation, except when especially
enumerated By act Of the Legislature
elected in 1865. when cotton was almost
the only thing on which revenue could be
realized, temporary tax was imposed on
that article, but never In the history of
the State, have corn, the staff of life, and
meat, its auxiliary, been regarded as
proper objects Of taxation. We doubt if
they are so considered in any State in the
Union, even where they constitute the
chief staples of the producing classes. 1t
has been reserved for Radical ingenuity
and greed of plumber, to discover that
these articles of home production should
be taxed, and they have declared that
such is the meaning Of the law, whether
so designed or not.
The Assessor of Lee county, writes to
the Auditor that a great many tax
payers of that county decline to give in
" the corn, meat and cotton they possess
SO ed on the LIST of January" and asks
for instructions. The Auditor signif-
cantly replies that the only property ex-
empt g from taxation is enumerated in
(" section 20 of the Revenue law, and the
+" assessors duty, IN cases achere parties fail
g to give IN correct list, IS very clearly de-
" fined IN section 3rd of the same" BY
referring to section 20 it will be found
that "corn meat and cotton" are not
among the enumerated articles, and by
reference to section Sd, it will be seen
that a severe penalty is imposed on the
refractory taxpayer who fails to render a
full statement of what the Assessor by
direction ofhis superior may assume to be
taxable property. This is the rod which
the carpet-bag Auditor shakes ominously
ducers of GO corn, meat and cotton"
1t is not for US to say what was the in
tent of the authors of the present opPres-
sive tax law IF the wise man had look
ed through the vista of the future into
these degenerate times, he might have
added, "the way of the carpet-bagger in
search of other peoples earnings" to the
four things which to him were wonderful.
But we will venture to say that among
all the taxpayers in the State, not one
of them supposed that it ever entered into
the heads of the authors of the revenue
law to collect tax on 60 corn, meat and
cotton" by force of its provisions.
Sec. 3, art. III, Revised Code, declares
that certain property 4" and no other shall
be exempt from taxation" These staple
articles of production are not mentioned
in the list, and yet they were not held to
be property" in the sense of taxable OBJ
jects, and therefore were exempt. Sec.
Xxx, article 351, declares that "the
term personal property, when used in
this Code, shall be construed to include
goods, chattels, effects, evidences Of
: rights of action, etc. And yet no one ever
dreamed of classifying corn, meat and
cotton" amongst the goods, chattels and
effects, on which taxes were required to
be levied. Under the existing law, as in
the Revised Code, they are neither emu
merated nor specially exempted, never
theless the Auditor instructs his subordi-
mates that they must be marked for taxa
ton, and that if taxpayers do not come
squarely up to the line of duty prescribed,
they will be dealt with as section Sd di-
reefs in the case of refractory or delin-
quent persons.
In justice to the authors of the exist
ing law, small as is our estimate of them
or the merits oftheir work, we are COM
PEELED to affirm our belief that this con-
struction is unwarranted, and wholly ar
bitrary, as its operation will be oppressive
to the taxpayers. Iftrue, it reveals in it
a feature more atrociously hideous than
we had supposed it to possess. We had
never believed that it ever entered into
the minds of its authors to levy tax in
addition to the articles enumerated in
the law, on the provisions which tax pay
ers may have produced for subsistence,
and ON the cotton produced on their lands,
which are GENEROUSLY taxed, together with
their teams and implements. Never
theless, to all intents and purposes, this
construction is the law, unless set aside
by an appeal to the Courts or by special
interposition of the Legislature.