Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-04-08
Constitutional Chat.
Some Sparks From the "Argonaut' and
"Postp-Fun and Argument Combined.

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The San Francisco papers have
started out to be both facstious and
anent the new Con-
stitution. The last Argonaut ac-
quits itself CT the following:
A has q horse; B has nothing,
but is honest and industrious. b
buys AS horse and gives his prom
isory note for one hundred dollars.
The horse previously taxed as prop
erty In AS hands, is now taxed as
property in BIS hands, and A is
taxed-just as much as he was be.
fore-on BIS note, which is proper
ty also. That is to say, the new
Constitution holds that by a mere
stroke Of his pen, b, who has
nothing, and can give himself
nothing, Can instantaneously
create as much property for others,
as others may happen to think that
he will some day be able to ac-
quire. Truly the performance of
the man who causes two trees to
grow where but one grew before, is
of so little comparative benefit that
he might be justly censured for a
sin or omission.
Let us suppose that B had given,
not written but an oral promise.
Ought not A to be taxed oil that?
If not, why not? Because an oral
promise is not an evidence of debt?
not "credit?n But how if there
were witnesses? Oral promises are
credits, however; nay even implied
promise are. You have to pay-the
courts will make you pay-your
bridesmaids account whether you
have ever passed your word or not.
Now a "credit," be 1t promissory
note, mortgage, certificate of de.
pOsit, or what you will, is not only
not property, but is proof that the
holder has parted with property
that he once had. His paper cred
it's, which merely certify that in
consideration of certain advan.
tages Interest, freedom from cares
of management, etc. he has sur
rendered his property to another,
have no function but that of ena-
bling him at some future time, not
to resume his own, for it is no
longer his, but to acquire its equiv
alent from the present owner. The
more u man has of these things,
which the new Constitution pro-
poses to tax as property. the poorer
he is-not necessarily poorer than
a man with none, but poorer than
himself was before he got them. 1t
Is only by surrendering them that
he can become again as wealthy as
he was.
Is he then to escape taxation,
living at his ease on his interest,
while the man who pays it bears
the expense of government for both?
Let US see II under the present sys.
tenn the latter does anything of the
kind. K wants thousand dollars
of 2, for which he can afford to pay,
say sixty dollars a year. But If the
State government is going to exact
from him ten dollars, he Can afford
to pay z but fifty, with which that
person must be content, or x will
either get the money from another
or not take it at all. 1t Is clear,
therefore, that the lender really
pays the tax, the borrower being
unaffected directly; what he pays
to the State he would otherwise
have to pay to the lender. Indirect.
ly he Is affected thus: Taxation of
the principal, by reducing the in.
terest, reduces also the volume of
borrowable money by driving o
part of 1t into more profitable in.
vestment, and the scarcity SO cre-
ated tends to restore the rate of in
ing its own effect-as the slacken-
ening in the speed of a steam en-
gine is the agent that increases Its
velocity.
This is not the whole problem;
there are factors omitted; but II
enough has not been said to make
1t clear that under the system of
not taxing credits the money lend.
ers help to pay the taxes l must,
with ell Difference, and in default Of
the Sibylline Books and the
Delphic Oracle, refer the reader to
to that eminent authority in
finance and political economy, Col.
j. P. jackson, of the Evening Post,
whose peculiar pesitiOn-in the po-
litical interest of his employer
favorab BILE to all that the Working.
men attempt, in his material in
terest hostile to all that they ac-
c0mplish-enables him to speak
with the two-fold authority of a di-
vided miud, the parted responsible
ity Of a double tongue.
Reverting to the matter of the
horse, we find that quadruped in the
possession of B, a note for one hun
dred dollars in the possession of A.
Relying on BIS payment Of the
note, A purchases hundred dol
lars worth Of flour from G, giving
his note. G knows that A is good
for the amount, and gives his own
note for q hundred dollars for bar
rel of whisky to D, who then feels
rich enough to purchase thousand
cigars, at ten dollars q hundred,
from e, satisfying him with q note.
At the end of month DIS hospita.
BILE friends have burned all that
gentleman's cigars; G, in one pro.
tracted, solitary revel, has gone
through his barrel of whisky like a
rat through water-pipe; AS FAM
lily and retainers have consumed
his flour like q flame in flax; and
BIS charger, broken by the weight
Of the financial structure reared
upon his patient person, lies dead
wise on the plain, with dsises at
his head and at his feet. But he
has left legacy of taxable "solvenl
credits" that does honor to his
memory better than monument
of brass
"Nothing beside remains round tha
colossal wreckr'
Working for dead horse ia pro
IA