The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1882-10-13

The earnestness and vigor with which
our legislature starts off is due to the
fact that 1t has something before 1t on
which every man has formed opinions
which is conceded TO need attention, and
which every man is eager to take hold
Of OF course there is the usual roti'
tine of little business, the screws will
be frightened q little In the liquor laws
the normal schools will get some atten-
ton, and the fish and game law will be
tinkered but the attention of the state
as well as our representatives is almost
wholly absorbed upon two measures
the Judevine highway law, and the tax
law. As to the former. intelligent SEN
timent is overwhelmingly in favor either
of its repeal or of some amendment
which shall require our roads to be kept
in repair If the latter is adopted it will
require great ingenuity to frame an ade-
quate measure. None has been propos-
ed yet The difficulty with the law now
is the red tape with which it is endlessly
wound up.
1t looks as If the tax law was to be
overh uled pretty thoroughly and though
it needs some amendments, there is quite
as much danger that it will be hurt as
improved by the way it is being handled.
Not less than half-dozen amendments
are already proposed. Lynde of Dunn
merston, Monday, introduced bill pro-
viding, in the case of wilful neglect OF
citizen to make out an inventory, the
listers shall estimate his worth rs best
they can, add the estimate to his visible
property, and then double both for
taxation. Woodland of Halifax pro-
poses that the taxpayers list in
previous years be the one that is taken
for doubling. Judge Thompson has bill
to cease allowing "offsets" ag ,inst the
personal list for debts. A determined
effort will be made to pass this measure
and there is some argument in support
of it, 1t would cut off an immense
amount of fraud. 1t would have in
creased our last list by 100000, and
would have reduced taxes enough to be
benefit instead of a damage to poor
men. But it is based on a wrong princi.
pie it is double taxation just rs much
as that of mortgaged property. If the
rich man is taxed on the money
which he loans, it is mani
fest injustice to make the debtor
paw again on the same money. Our tax
system is certain to defeat itself when,
to increase the list, it goes to hunting
round for chances to tax property twice.
A more sensible bill is that already be-
fore the house to divide the tax on mort
gagged property between the mortgagor
and mortgage. DR. Butler has bill to
guard more closely against selectmen
and civil authority changing false re-
turns or wilful Misrepresentation
There has not been a single move yet
towards remedying the greatest defect of
ALTO provide an adequate or just tax
alton for corporations. 1t is time simply |
FILTERED away to patch up these little
places in the law while millions upon
millions of the corporate property of the
state goes free or practically so. Every
body is insisting that the law for rail-
road appraisal, which has been rendered
such travesty and fraud under Roswell |
Farnham's administration must be |
but no one seems to be NOV
ing towards it. Col L. X. Fuller had a
thoughtful article on this question in the |
Phoenix last week. Massachusetts, the |
most heavily taxed state in the Union,
has made her burdens endurable by her |
AK of 1t per cent on all her corporations.
This measure was at first met with the |
nonsense of "unconstitutionality" that
was 80 loud against the Page bill two
years ago, but the difficulty was met
by making it franchise tax. There is
property enough in Yer
mont to pay every dollar of our
state taxes and without assessing |
it in any higher proportion than the other
In the state. There is no reason
in good morals or law why it should not be
made to pay directly to the state as it does
in Massachusetts. 1t would end the strug-
gle of the towns and counties to over
reach each other, capricious and uneven
values would not be adopted in 241 towns
as now, and national bank stock for in /
stance would not be assessed as now, lao
in one town, 100 in another and 80 in still |
another.
The tax on savings banks ought clearly |
to be increased. BY making it unjustly |
small we are inviting capital from out of |
the state to come here to escape taxation |
and inducing our own rich men to hide |
their money in these institutions. Inspec-
tor Du Bois' report shows that only 81 |
D96 of the depositors were of the $3.50 or
less class for whom savings banks are
devised. Their deposits aggregate
little over $4,000, 900, while 1887
lepositors, mainly rich ones, have
SIC, 100000, which is taxed about one
bird what other property averages.
Sheridan of Highgate mas bill to go
back to the old system of taxing depos-
tors but that has been proved to work
poorly. Instead the tax ought to be col
ected as now and raised to at least three
ourths of one per cent.
Instead of Lynde's or Woodlands rem
dy for men who refuse to make inven-
cries, New Hampshire's quadrupling
lause, "by way of doomage." would be
lister, safer, and more efficient. Then a
eqairement of an oath, from selectmen
nd civil authority as iron-clad as that
f listers before they listen to ap-
eals, and for the regulation of equaliz-
ng boards, if they are not abolished en- ,
rely, will afford our law all the amend
lent and guarding it requires.
AND still they come. Sherman S. Rogers,
ominee for acknowledgement of New