The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-11-22
Chr 9ailrr Atgas,
TAXING CORPORATE STOCK,
lContinued from Second Pag,

tContinued from Second Page.
Revenue law is the one under which this
whole assessment is made, and is as fol-
lows:
The capital stock Of ali companies and assoeia.
lions now and hereafter created under the laws Of
OF this State shall be so valued by the State Board
of Equalization as to ascertain and determine re-
speetivey the fair value Of such capital stock
including the franchise. and the
value of the tangible pr0prrty of such company or
association Said Board shall adopt such rules and
principles for ascertafning the fair cash ynln ~
such capital stock to II may seem eaaitabe and
Just and such rules aud principles when so adoui
ed IL not inconsistent with this act. ehaIl be as
binding and Of the same effect as If contained in
this act: subject, however, to such change allyra.
ton, or amendment as may be found. from time IN
time, TO be n cessary by said Board: Proutded
That. In all where the tangible properly or
capital capital stock Of any company association
is assessed undo this act, the shares of ca ral
stock Of any such comp ny or associati n
shall not he ssed or taxed / this State Thj.
ause shall not apply to tn capt al stock Of banks
,reanized under the Gem raj Banking laws of this
State.
have often heard complaints of the in
Justice of this statute, and, from what
had heard, was disposed TO Join in these
complaints, for | had been led to believe
that it imposed a double taxation upon
substantially the same thing Bnt, as
soon as | read the statute, l saw at once
that the injustice was not in the statute
itself, but in the construction put upon it.
BY THE STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION,
in which those complaining have acquiesc-
ed, without looking at the statute itself
Let us look at the language of the sta
tute, and we shall see it is not an outra-
geous Law, although it may impose some
slight burden upon these corporations
u,t.ab ,a,hx xF-an h.ua ha.n n,n,ftal l..
says the Board Of Equalization shall ascer
tain and determine the fair cash value of
such capital stock, including the franchise,
over and above the assessed value Of the
tangible property Of such company or as
ISOLATION" The error consists in their
| having construed the words "orer and
ADORE as synonymous with in addition
to-, when it is very manifest that they
mean no such thing. They mean an ereess
Of the value of the tangible property. and
it is only on that excess that we are to be
taxed for capital stock. Suppose your
Honor were to direct me to measure the
hight of John over and above the hight OF
james, and should find John to be 81
feet high and james 6 feet high; you
would expect me to report that | found
John to be six inches 0cer and above the
hight of james, and not 81 oper and a5ove
the hight of James; and what would you
think of the stupidity of my report OF such
conclusion upon such state of facts
Suppose you required your Master-in-
Chancery to report the value of an estate
ouer and dbore the amount of the debts,
and he found the estate to be worth s.
900, and the debts 81 900 You would ex.
pect him to report the excess-that is, the
amount of the assets oUer and dboue the
debts-to be $1,000; and, should he add
the $4,000 to the 81 900 and report the as
sets over and above the debts, to be So
100, you would be
AMAZED AT HIS PERyERsITY OR STUPIDITY
and yet this is precisely what this State
Concluded on next page.