The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-04-12
r,,m ,bcNY Tribune. March 81.
STATE TAXATION.
ADDRESS BY DAVID A. WELLS.
Radical Defects Of the Present system Of
Assessing Real and Personal Property
To tar Equitably Il is Unnecessary 10
Tax evorything---ProposOd Modih
cations Of the Law

Tax eVorythlnk---N hlVuAn-
cations Of the Law.
A snecil meeting Of the Union League
.lub was held at the club house Saturday
,ycpinr. the members gathering for the
rurpose of listening 10 an address by the
Hon David 4 Wells upon his proposed
NV system Of taxutiOu for this State
salem n Walls. the Vice President, occu- |
pied the chair and introduced MIR. Wells,
who was received with applause
desire ~ say, Mr. Wells remarked at
the outset. that | do not propose To ask
your attention ~ that form Of taxation
which. under the general name OF State or
local. comes more directly under every
man cnmizance, and with which the pros
perity and material development OF the
State is more Intimately connected. y
State. in order 20 exist must have SOW
creirutv. and In order 70 have sovereignty
there must be q Jurisdiction over persons
and propcrtv of all citizens cmbrace I'd with
I'm the territory oven which sovereignty l.
exercised That State sovereignty extends
over persons, even 10 the taking OF lite,
and 10 the c1mpulsion Of service for NH
tary and other duties need furnish no
Illustrations but it Is not 50 generally
known and recognized that the power OF
the State over property is equally cOeXten-
sivc and absolute with the power OF the
State over the person For, as Chief-Jus
ticC Marshall remarked, IN denying the /
State Of Maryland the right to tax the .
Bank OF the | nited States, the power OF
taxation involves the power to destroy
And IN further opinion given by the same
court where the same question was at issue I.
he held that il the right of taxation exist
cd in any degree, it. from it, nature, was
not susceptible OF limitations or, IN other
words, If the right of taxation exists IN any
State 20 the extent OF half or one per cent
IL exists o. the extent OF 10, ~, jO,Or even,
II the State 81 wills II. of taking the whole
property
IL is a somewhat curious and interesting
fact that before the adoption OF the -Four.
tccnth Amendment there was mo- power
exterior 10 the States Of this | mon which
could In any way eujuln or restrain them
IN dealing with the persons and property
of their citizens That this must have
been 50 with regard 10 persons, will be evi-
dent when you remember that no small
part of the States before the war exercised
the right tU hold persons in perpetual ser
yitudC 10 must be evident also that you
cannot arrrgutc for property any greater
right or power than Il extended 10 persons.
After the war IL became necessary o. res
train the States formerly In rebellion In
view ui that contingency, they inserted M
the Constitution the Fourteenth Amend.
mcut No State shall deprive any
citizen % life liberty or property,
without due process Of law In enact
Ing that law Congress builded wiser than
they knew for however effective It j. now,
10 will be- uu essential feature of tax systems
In many States in the future The courts
have over and over again decided that
process " law means that exercise Of the
powers ul government which is 10 accord
auap with the settled rules Of society and
with the settled mayims Of law which the
law authorize, aud sanctions
need give you u1 illustrations o. con.
vince YOU of the tremendous power that is
involved iu the exercise uf taxation aud
therefore ] will proceed 10 inquire IN what
manner the state exercises that power aud
whether she has exercised 1t as she ought
% I'M consouance with the high principles
of Justice and equality Before entering
upon that inquiry ! want To call your at
tcution o. another point Taxation Is
everywhere regarded as an evil, but IN II
self taxation is no more an evil than any
other class of ieri innate and desirable eS-
pguditres. In fact. it Is probably capa-
hiy Of demonstration that there il no one
act which community can perform which
will bring SD large o return 90 the credit ~
civilization and general happiness q, a
iudlri1u- expenditure of % fair percentage
Of the public wealth collected under an
eluable system Of taxation And it may
be also affirmed that there can be no such
thing a. q high degree of civilization, or
that a community cannot exist in highly
civilized state without a very large mca-
sure pf taxation and in asserting this
would not Ol course, assert the converse Ut
that proposition that high taxes indicate a
high gyilizetlou for we know 10y experience
hcreabout 10 the contrary.
ABsURDrrIEs or THE PRESENT SYSTEM
Let Us now proceed to inquire what sort
Of system we have IN the State of New
York for exercising this tremendous and
responsible power The taxable property
is real aud personal, and the law say, they
must be assessed at their full and Just val
No real property embracing under its head
lands and buildings. &c, as tangible and
visible easy T. pass Judgment upon. The
returns of the taxation throughout the en-
tire of the State Of New York present Gu
riOu- features. In Kings county the aver
age assessment is g. and New York CT
per cent but IN no other county do They
rise in excess Of 50 per cent and we come
down gradually until we find the assess
meut In real estate in many parts Of New
Drk state az low ~ 10 per cent. anC
throughout the whole Of the state the aver
age cannot be presumed 10 be less than a
per cent This variation from the Law
does not take place III the poor counties
but IN the rich counties, as for cXampl
W CstcheSter, where recent cxauinauo
showed that the valuation Of real estat
was not much above J or IT, per cen
The same Is true of Duchess county.
viii ask your attention 90 a few particular
In this respect In lS42 the real estate
Oneida county was estimated at ~ OBS. uu
an i'm 1869 il was So jOJ.OUl, showing
decrease of value over S4OU.OOO. In MOI
roe county including Rochester, In $50
the valuation Of real estate was $2l 361
uDO and in 1869 il was only $50. 10000
showing decrease in II years Of ov'
81 ,OUOUvU These Irregularities
regard ~ the assessment Of re
estate are very great but those tn
exist IN connection with personal propert
are infinitely worse in fact the whole ~
ten Of assessing personal property in Il
State deserves no better name than IN,
OF chaotic For 1871 the whole assesse
value Of the property Of the State Of Ne
York was about S2,OOu,UOU, 600 OF whic
personal property was returned at abor
PIP per cent During the present ye
the assessment valuation has increas,
from S2.UOO,OOU,OOJ ~ S2l2S,O O.W
while the amount Of the personal retu
FROM assessments is greatly decreased al
is now about ~ per cent Of the euti
valuation Ii we take out New York Ci
and Kings County from the ASSESSING
We find this relation Of 20 to 100 ru
down in the relation Of to 100, that
for the whole State. Within the last Il
days the sheets Of the census have he
issued They give the estimate made
1870 Of the United States officials Of t
wealth Of the country, and having {
wealth Of the country, and having {
sheets before me since ] received your
vlJau1u, it occurred to me that i Shot
compare the valuation of some Of
counties Of New York in the census
the ifUyarpt.,y,t ,..,th ba aluotiana