Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-25
THE REvENuE BILLS.

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its duty unless it gives full weight to the
considerations which grow cut of the actual |
condition of the community. The evil
dences of depression and weakened conf
dence in the future of the State are too
abundant to escape attention, and they
ought to carry the lesson of conservatism
to those who are making the laws. Dur
ing the whole OF last year a warfare of the
most reckless and determined character
was carried on in California against capital
and capitalists, against the projectors OF
great enterprises, against all the agencies
which are essential to prosperity. If to-day
California alone in the Union feels no stimVT
ulating impulse from the wave of returning
business activity which has swept over the
rest of the country, she owes her isolation
and her continued stagnation to the ram
pant and malignant folly of her demagogues
and their credulous and purblind followers.
Sober-minded citizens have anxiously OBJ
served the course of this Legislature, hop
ing that the undeniable reality of the evils
induced by the recent reckless agitation
would convince all earnest and public
spirited members of the necessity for the
utmost caution and the utmost fairness.
1t is not possible to evade the i'll effects OF
the new Constitution altogether, but 1t Is
possible to mitigate some of its worst lea .
lures by judicious legislation. There is no
demand on the part of the interests which
have been so unwarrantably assaulted,
for anything more than that meas
ure of equal justice which every
citizen has right to insist upon. To
deny this equal justice at so critical
a juncture would be the most unfortunate
and fatuous policy State in danger could
pursue. Much has been done already to-
wards the driving of capital from the State.
If the present Legislature shows deter
mination to persist in that course, it will
incur very grave responsibility, and one
which no political party can afford to carry
on the eve of an important national con-
test. The Republican party will be held
accountable for the new revenue system.
1t is, therefore, for the representatives OF
that party to look well to their position
on the bills now before them.
OF these bills the one presented by the
majority most nearly meets the require
ments of justice and the provisions of the
organic law. 1t provides for the taxation
of all actual property. 1t allows nothing
which possesses real value to escape. If
the Assessors do their duty under that bill,
the burden of taxation will be distributed
as equally as is possible under any circum-
stances. The bill introduced by the mi
nority, on the other hand, undertakes to
establish different standard of assessment
for corporate and private property, with
the result of raising the rate of taxation
on the former, and thus creating an
injurious discrimination, calculated to
increase the existing depression, and
work infinite harm to the prospects
of the State. This result would be
brought about by the provision thu
corporate stock shall be assessed at its full
market value, and the excess of stock value
over other corporate property value be
taxed. In this case mode of determining
the value of stock is adopted, different
from the mode of determining the value OF
private property for purposes of taxation.
Such method of assessment could only be
justified by making its application univer-
sal. To apply it to stock alone is to intro
duce system of graduated taxation under
false pretense, which, however, can de-
ceive nobody. The anim,us of the minority
bill, in fact, is identical with the animus of
those other attacks upon capital which
have already produced so much mischief.
1t is an attempt to make corporations pay
higher taxes proportionately than individ
uals pay. 1t is therefore in the nature of
an impost or fine upon the association of
capital, and must be regarded as preiu-
dicial to the plainest interests of the
public. There is no demand for such
scheme of taxation. The people require
nothing more than that taxation should be
evenly and fairly distributed. The ma
jority bill fulfills this requirement, and the
minority bill does not. The Republican
party cannot afford to assume the response
bility of such law as the latter. The
effect OF the enactment of such a law could
only be to intensity the existing depres-
sion, and to hasten the exodus of capital
from the State 1t would produce such
results probably that the party held ac-
countable for it would go down beneath
the reaction of popular disgust and anger
at the next election, and it would entail
injuries upon the community compared
with which the worst political disasters
must sink into lnsignifcance.