The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-11-05
Aud1cGc,all,5
NO.. 20.
WHY EXEMPT!

A case is now before the Supreme
Court of New York which has more
than local interest, for an important
principle is involved affecting tue peo-
pie of every State in the Union, and
raising question which must sooner or
later be fought out where the school
question is in course of being fought
out-in the Legislatures and at the
polls.
The Catholic Female Seminary of the
Sacred Heart owns fifty acres of land in
the heart of the city of New York, lying
between Avenue st. Nicholas and South
avenue and One Hundred and Twenty
sixth and One Hundred and Thirty sixth
streets, and being within few streets
of Riverside, Morningside, and Central
Parks. On this large tract are the SEM
mary buildings, occupying with the out
buildings and enclosures a space of five
acres; a garden covering eight acres;
ard a cemetery of one acre; making a
total of fourteen acres used for the pur-
poses of the seminary, the remaing thir-
ty-six acres lying waste and awaiting the
time when it will be most profitable to
sell, cut up into allotments, or be con-
verted into other uses best serving the
interests of this Roman Catholic institu-
ton or the church to which it belongs.
The statutes of New York exempt from
taxation ''every building erected for the
''use of a college, Incorporated academy
cor other seminary of learning; every
building for public worship, every
''school house, courthouse, and Jail,
''and the several lots whereon such
buildings are situated, and the furni-
''ture belonging to each of them" Civ
ing liberal Interpretation to the ex-
emption clause, the Commissioners of
Taxes allowed seven acres as the lot on
which the seminary buildings stood, be-
ing two acres more than the seminary au-
thorities claim to be actually occupied;
the remaining forty-three acres were
assessed at a valuation of S417, 900,
which is admitted to be very far beneath
the actual value of the property
Last April-about the time when the
Roman Catholic Church was making an
active push simultaneously in the Legis-
latures of New York and Ohio; obtain
ing the passage of the Grey Nuns Bill in
the former and the Geghan Bill in the
Iakk ha A. q
Heart applied to the COMMISSIONS. of
Taxes for the exemption of the forty
three acres from taxation. The appli-
cation was refused. Then they request
ed reduction OF taxation, which was
granted, and reduction of S152, 500 in
the assessed valuation made. This did
not content them, and the case has been
brought before the Supreme Court upon
an application that the action of the
Tax Commissioners may be set aside and
the land wholly exempted from taxation
The only ground offered for the appli-
cation to exempt is that the land is used
for purposes of recreation by the stu
dents of the seminary, that ''the lot on
(which the buildings are situated" ac-
cording to the statue, should be taken
to mean the entire enclosure, irrespee-
tive of size, within which the buildings
stand, and that other colleges in the
State, mentioned in the application,
have been so exempted. The answer
made to this last was that tha colleges
mentioned had considerably more than
double the number of students attend
ing the Academy of the Sacred Heart,
and that all these colleges combined did
not possess a fraction of the amount of
real estate on which TINT Academy
claimed exemption from taxation.
The bold impudence of the claim put
forth by this Roman Catholic seminary
should arrest the attention of every tax
payer in every State and set them think
ing. There is not shadow of legality,
or justice, or morality, or common sense
in this demand, and yet, under some tax
official, and under some judge who have
sat upon the Bench in New York, that
outrageous demand would have been
granted. Nor is it certain that it will
not be granted even now. Supposingit
to be granted, where will these demands
be likely to stOp2 If it is necessary to
have forty three acres for the recreation
of.students why not four hundred and
thirtyi If school building may have
fifty acres of untaxed lot, why should
not an equal liberality be shown to all
churches'and school houses? When that
is done, there will soon be a general con-
version of property into school end
church lots, and the burden of tax
alton on other property will become un-
bearable
The census statistics of 1870 place the
valuation of all the church property in
New York State at over sixty six million
dollaIs, of which over one-eight belongs
to the Roman Catholic Church. The
total Church property in Ohio, in that
year, is placed at over twenty i've and
half million dollars, of which the Ro-
man Catholic church holds one-sfxth.
The proportion owned by that church,
not only in those two StatOs, but in all
the states, is rapidly increasing, as shown
by the successive census returns, 10 say
nothing of the evidence under the eyes
of every dweller in large cities. The
ecelesiasties of that church exhibit the
shrewdness Of the keenest real estate
operators in their selection of property,
and in this way large amounts of the
most valuable real estate are gradually
withdraw from taxation, to the serious
damage of those who are compelled to
pay taxes. Isl not about lime 70 put
an end TO ,thisl Is the hour not come
for a movement TO make church proper
tY bear Ihe same burdens as lay proper
/ tyl We think it Cgeceldnd Ledder.
CCMISG from the Mansfield Liberal,
the following tribute to General Hayes,
is Of more than ordinary significance,
while not whit more than just: ''Du-
ring all tbs time during the canvass) it
! should BE- remembered that Governor
| Hayes was the eommanderin-e chief, and
he acquitted himself with consummate
skill. He neveI lost his balance, never
/ stopped over, never made false move.
| I,-or, fha ba0innfnor 70 tha and aIfbo,,,.I