The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-03-02
FROM WEST VIRGINIA.
The Constitutional Convention
Revenue and Taxation.

Special Correspondence Of the Enquirer
CHARLESTON, February "a.
The State Constitutional Convention
has during the past week devoted
much time to the reports OF the special
committee on Taxation and Revenue.
This matter being under discussion,
Hon. W. K. Pendleton delivered a
most logical and eloquent address IN
advocacy Of the report, and Ia giving
the course Of reasoning by which the
conclusions contained in it had been ar
rived at. The principal objection to the
report was urged against that portion
of it which exempts live stock, grain
and farm products from taxation while
they are in the hands Of the producer.
Mr.. Pendleton met this objection most
effectually. He argued that this was
necessary in order to arrive at a purely
advaLorsm method, OF deriving revenue.
Ia no other way could the real interest
OF such system be reached, for if a
tax is to be levied on the same capital
every time it changes form it will be
required to pay three or four times over,
and would in truth be tax on not onl ?
the capital but on the labor required
to bring about these several changes.
The various changes through which
capital passes may neither diminish
nor increase its amount, and should
not make several objects of taxable
property. From thi., stand point it was
argued that capital was,the only proper
subject OF taxation, and true system
OF al v1Lrem revenue could only be
derived by levying the tax on capital
without any reference to its changes OF
form. Money, stock, grain, are alike
capital, aud the conversion OF grain into
live stock, and live stock into money,
may bring no increase Of capital at all,
AID certainly should not be subject to
three separate assessments when il
would be subject to but one if it did not
change in form. The speaker urged
that these exemptions were no protective
tariff for the benefit Of the farmer, and
were not intended as an encourage
mrnt To agriculture, but were regarded
as matter OF justice TO the agricul-
tural community, and only placed it on
an equal footing with the rest OF the
State. In short, it must be regarded
as an effort to tax the accumulated
property and not the labor OF farmers.
The argument urged against the report
that the exemptions would be so great
as to cause an oppressive tax on the
landed interest, was met by the showing
OF the small tax paid by the real estate
OF the State, amounting, in most cases,
10 not over one and half cents per
acre-and this under system Of ex
emptions practically the same as that
advocated in this report. After advo-
eating the al vaZOrem system of taxing
capital at considerable length, Mr..
Pendleton concluded as follows:
The State cannot act more unwisely
than to adopt a system OF taxation
which would be felt to be unjust !;
which would involve almost necessarily
the consequences OF a double taxation
in many cases of identically the same
property; which would introduce a
complex mode OF assessment that
would render the al valOrsm system i'm
practical or unequal; which must
necessarily operate with oppressive
liscri ~, IN tom ayaipst rhat clasS " n n
are truly called the bone and sinew Of
the land, and which in its general
bearings must prove injurious to the
tone OF respect and veneration for the
law which it is the part of the states
manship to cultivate in the people, and
on which in the time of trouble the
State must rely to defend her lie, it
need be, by pouring out their life-blood
upon the field of battle" KARL.