New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-31
STATE TAXATION.
ADDRESS BY DAVID A. WELLS

THE LAW.
A special meeting of the Union League Club
held at the clubhouse saturday evening the members
gathering for the purpose of listening to an address By
the Hon. David A. Wells upon his proposed new system
Of taxation for this state. Salem II. Walls the Vice
President, occupied the chair and introduced Mr. Wells
who was received with applause. t
desire to say Mr. Wells remarked at the outset that
do not propose to ask your attention TO that form of
taxation which, under the general name of local.
comes more directly under every mans cognizance and
with which the prosperity and material development of
the State Is intimately connected. State, in
order 10 exist must have sovereignty and in order TO
have sovereignty there must he jurisdiction over per
sons and property of all citizens embraced within the
territory which sovereignty is exercised That
state sovereignty extends persons even TO the tah
ing Of e and the compulson Of service for military
ana other duties need furnish no illustrations; Dutt
is not generally known and recognized that tne
power OF the State property equally eOe1tense
and absolute With the power Of the state over the per
For, ChiefJusIice Marshall remarked IN deny
the state OF Maryland the right to tax the Bank Oh
the United States the OF taxation Involves the
power 10 Destroy and further opinion gwen by the
same court where the question was at ISSUE ne
held that If right Of taxation existed IN any degree
e. from it's nature not susceptible OF limitations;
or in other words IL the right Of taxation exists In the
State 70 the of half one per cent 1t exists TO
the extent Of TO- 90 even, If the State so wills it. Of
taking the whole property.
somewhat curious and interesting fact, that be-
fore the adoption OF the Fourteenth Amendment there
power exterior to the States OF this Unon which
could IN any way eDjoin restrain them in dealing
with the persons and property of their citizens That
this must have been with regard to persons, will be
evident when you remember that no small part OF the
States before the exercised the right to hold persons
in perpetual servItude. IL be evident also that
YOU arTOgae for property any greater right or
power extended After the war it be-
IN
lion. In OF that contingency they inserted in the
Constitution the Fourteenth Amendment: "No State
shall deprive any citizen of life. liberty or property,
without due process oflaw" In enacting that law, Con-
Tcss buded wiser than they knew, for however effect
I'VE now will be an essential feature OF tax sys
In many in future The courts have over
and again decided that process of law means that
of the powers Of government which IN ao-
cordance settled rules Of society and with the
settled maxims OF law which the law authorizes and
sanctions.
Ineed give you no illustrations to convince you of the
tremendous power that is involved in the exercise Of
taxation and, therefore, will proceed to inquire in
what manner the State exercises that power aud
whether has exercised 1t she ought to in conso
nance,with the high principles Of justice and equality
Before entering upon that inquiry want to call your
attention to another point Taxation is everywhere re-
carded as an evil but IN itself taxation more
EVIL than any other class of legitimate and desirable
penditures In fact 1t is probably capable of demon
that there act which community can
perform which will bring large return TO the credit
OF civilization and general happiness as judicous eX
peuditure fair percentage of the public wealth col
lected under equable system Of taxation. And it
be also affirmed that there be no such thing as
high degree of civilization, that community can
not existin highly civilized state without very large
Of taxation; and in asserting this would not
course assert the of that proposition that
high indicate high civilization, for We know by
experience hereaDOut o contrary.
ABsURDrTIEs OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM.
let us proceed TO inquire what sort of system we
have the State Of NeW-York for exercising this tire
mendouS and responsible power The taxable property
is real aud personal and the law says they must be
assessed at their full and just value. real property
bracing under its head lands and buildings, &C.,
tangible and visible easy pass judgment upon. The
returns of the taxation throughout the entire of the
State Of NewYork present some curious features. In
Kings County the average assessment is 67 and New
York GO per cent but in other county do they rise in
excess OF 50 per cent and come down gradually until
we find the assessment in real estate in many parts Of
NeW-Yor State low Is per cent, and throughout
The OF the State the average cannot be presumed
20 be less than 40 per cent. This variation from
the law does not take place in the poor counties
but IN the rich counties, for example Weschester
where recent examination showed that the valuation
OF real estate was not much above Is cent The
same is true Of Dutchess County. will ask your aten
tOn to particulars in this respect In 1912 the real
estate of Oneida County estimated at Ss35OO and
IN 1863 It S95OO0 showing decrease OF value over
100000 In Monroe County, including Rochester, in 1885,
che valuation of real estate was I,6OO and in 1869 1t
was only s23O6OOO showing decrease in II years OF
over 100000. These irregularities in regard to the
of real estate are very great but those that
exist In connection with personal property infinitely
worse in the whole system OF assessing personal
property the State deserves no better name than that
Of chaotic For 1871 the whole assessed value of the
Gfata of NeW-YOrk about
S2OOOOnOOO of which personal property was re-
turned at about 2172 per cent During the present
wear the assessment valuation has increased from
$2O0OOOO 70 s2s 100000, while the amount OF the per-
sOnal return assessments is greatly decreased, and
now about per cent OF the entire valuation III we
take out NeYOrk City and lKings County from the as
sessent we find this relation Of 20 10 100 runs down In
the relation of to 100 that is for the whole STATE
Within the last days the sheets OF the census have
been issued They give the estimate made In 1870 OF the
United states officials Of the wealth OF the country and
having the sheets before since received your invita-
uon it occurred to that should compare the valua
ton OF some OF the counties Of in the census OF
the Government with the valuations returned for assess
ment during the same year by State officials And these
are some Of the results:
Albany County. in the valuation list, stands at
tOOOOO in the national census the valuation
is 1852 100000 Duchess County. under the State valua-
ton Is t ODO and under the United States valuation
isS90OOOOOO Erie al 10000 against S62OO0OOO Kings
County, s9lOOOOOo against s7OOOOoOOO; New-York,
s92sOOOOOOO against s34SlOOOOOO; Seneca, S9,o0oOOO
against s35,OOo,OOO
The THEORY OF TAXATION.
The theory which constitutes the basis OF the system
OF taxation at present recognized in HewYork, and
most Of other States, that, in order to tax
equtabiy, 1t necessary every item and de-
scrplon property, real and personal In the early
history of the country, when there was little compet-
,op among nations or sister States ascendency In
commercial and financial affairs; when negotiable IN