Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-17
IS IT DOUBLE TAxATroNq
The Question OF Revenue ana the Veto
Foley.


The following extract 10 made from letter
to Governor Perkins, on the subject of the
revenue bill now before him for signature
Within the past two years our State has
witnessed peaceable but radical political
revolution Within that time an agitation
growing out OF radical differences Of views
concerning questions Of political economy
eliminated in the entire overthrow of the old
organic law of the State, and the substitution
OF a new one in its stead. Within the same
year in which by an act Of the supreme
sovereignty this new Government was created
you were elected the first Chief Magistrate
under it. The party of which you became
the exponent gave voluntary assurances to
the people of this State, that in the dis
charge of the high prerogatives to which you
would be called you would afirmatively in
good faith seek to carry into effect the po-
htical doctrines embodied in the Constitution
of this new State Government, and mega
lively that YOU would not seek to subvert
those doctrines or nullify the Con-
stitution by the interposition of Executive
lntluence or veto against the legisla-
tlon necessary to carry it into effect,
Conspicuous among the theories embodied in
the new Constitution stands the assertion of
the right OF the State to tax the various forms
IN which property finds expression. The
mandatory provisions which in the most
lucid and forcible language commands the
placing of imposts upon actual tangible
property and the Representative forms Of
property were not the result of inadvertence
The doctrine established by the Constitution
is the affirmation Of well-defined principle
in the science of political economy which
has struggled for recognition against it's
opposite theory, The doctrine established is
declaration that taxation upon property is
the tribute which that property owes to the
State for the protection and security it re-
ceigss from the State. This protection and
security confers upon il ali the value it pos.
sesses. The holder of the representative
forms of property is protected in his right to
realize upon their value, and being protected
in that right by the State, the property owes
tribute to the State for such protection. The
doctrine embodied in the Constitution simply
recognizes the existence Of property in
stocks, Franchises, mortgages and unsecured
solvent credits This imports the duty of
those forms OF property to pay equitable
tribute to the Government which protects
them. In brief and concise expression. the
new Constitution Is the basis of a Govern
ment possessing the right to enforce the paw
ment of tribute from all valuable rights
which it creates and protects. AS against
this has stood the doctrine of taxing only
fixed, tangible, material property to the in
dividual in ownership and possession. 1t
was not an accident of suggestion, nor the
exuberance of rhetorical finish that dictated
a sweeping change from the old to the new
policy 1t was the deliberate, intelligent
purpose of State to establish policy which,
when compared with the old policy supplant-
ed by it. sweeps over q field as broad
as the science of government itself. The
question before the people OF the
State in the campaign which resulted
in your election, was VIII legislation con
form to the new doctrine of taxation or will
the party coming into power geek to reverse
the act Of the sovereignty by temporizine
legislation, eyasiVe if not wholly subversive
of the great doctrine embodied in the Consti
tuition? That question is now before Won to
answer a bill has passed which, following
the great theory of the Constitution, taxes
those separate rights of property which grow
out of the relations of tive persons to the
same tangible thing. These separate relations.
in the contemplation of the Constitution. are
distinct and valuable things. The relation
is entered into for the convenience and
profit of the parties assuming it. Each may
be owned and disposed of as separate proper-
ties without reference to the other; each Is
protected by the Government, and each owes
tribute for such protection The law ner-
ing the possessor in the right of ownership.
and enabling the creditor through It's forms
to collect his dues. The advocates of this
theory OF taxation held that to tax solver.
credit TO the creditor, and the propertv the
debt was created 30 purchase il the Lands of
the debtor, was not double h.xa-
ton; that to tax the stock of
a corporation to the individual owners
and the property of which such s5ocl, was the
representative TO the corporation was not
double taxation. The theory Of al that
sentatiyes of property are distinct aud, ,sepa-
rate properties capable Of private ownership,
negotiable without regard to the other that
q note given for the payment Of the purchase
price of horse was not another horse nor
the representative Of horse, but a separate
piece Of property having value, protected in
its value by the law. recoverable out
of any property of the debtor by vir-
tue of law, and therefore subject to
Just tribute to the Government for
the protection it enjoys From this these
advocates are charged with having borne
testimony against the power of double taxa
ton under the new Constitution. The asser-
ton is misleading. You may hold adversely
to the new Constitution on these great issues,
bat a veto Of the measures passed in pursuance
of that instrument viii not eradicate its doc
triues. If these doctrines are wrong they
viii still remain built into the very founda-
tions Of our State, a perpetual menace to the
interests you would seek TO protect by
the interposition of an executive veto If,
for illustration, it is argued that the
enforcement Of the law before you for sigma
ture will disorganize the savings banks
in the State, the reasoning loses all its
force by the plainly obvious consideration
that the doctrine of tne bill is embod-
led in the organic law of the State,
surviving your veto and remaining a per-
petual menace to these institutions Subse-
qnent Legislatures may enact aad subsequent
Governors may sign cognate legislation, and
unless the savings banks are prepared to
make perpetual defensive warfare in the open
field OF politics. they have no guarantee of
existence beyond the time when the Consti-
tuition can be subverted by failure to follow
its doctrines by appropriate legislation. This
reliance is not a sufficiently stable foundation
upon which to build monetary institutions.
1t follows that veto of the bill before you,
however it may serve to delay the application
of the theories of the new Constitution, will
not work any cure of their defects, but will
energize the adherents of these theories to
such renewed political effort as will secure
the effective trial of the theories so recently
and so signally indorsed by this common
wealth. Revolutions so sweeping and radi-
cal as that which has just eliminated in the
adoption Of our new Constitution do not ebb
n