The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1882-08-24


seriously damage the person making il.
This charge was pretty generally made
when The Law frs, went into effect, bot
nov. after ivo years acquaintance with
,be Law. The charge is generally denied.
AZ na person is requlrcd TO give the am.
cunt Of his liabilities. and only allowed an
exemption 10 Ear as hc is willing TO dis
close debts actually owing, Il IS difficult 10
see hos be can he injured ia any way ex-
cept by exposing bis property to taxation.
As the JouKSAL has maue this charge
sgainst the Law. viii the JornssL please
give its readers case and fully explain
the how and the why and the wherein a
person is injured, or can be injured, by al
honest inventory. except in exposing his
property 10 jus, taxation.
Tax PAYER.
In reply 20 the above 1t is well 10 state
that We do not oppose the present tax law,
certainly not on the ground that there
may be instances where man cannot give
in his list without injury to his business
although be is Willing TO ray his Just pro-
portion OF taxes; because il is impossible
TO frame law that will hit every case, aud
exceptions are so few that sufferers cannot
reasonably complain, because in almost
every case il works well aud entails no real
hardship on the tax aver All we claim
is, that where a person is placed in this
position and exhibits willingness to pay
taxes on as much OF more property than It
is apparent to everybody he owns, he onght
not to be put under the unjust stigma OF
being tax dodger
We know that listers have held in some
cases that man need not include his in.
debtedness 10 his schedule, provided he
claims no deduction, but il exemption
should be made in case Of one man who is
owing debts il should be made in all. BE.
sides, the chief object Of putting indebt-
eduess in the schedule is to "catch the
other fellow. In other words, if one man
is owing another debt it follows that the
second man should include it in his sched-
ule TO be taxed thereon, and il he doesn't
so include il the listers can see at once that
he has made a false list BY thus includ.
ing ones whole Indebtedness on every
schedule an absolute check is placed on
every man who has money at interest, and
he is compelled TO make out an honest list
or get caught, unless his money is loaned
without the state. This seems to us, Is
one OF the best and most effective features
Of the law, and ought to be enforced IN
every instance. 1t is true the oath says;
81 have set down only such debts as am
nconditionally bound to pay, to the am
cunt of deduction claimed" but tins only
strengthens our theory OF the matter. OF
course no one should have exemption for
debts he is not so bound to pay, and they
should not be put in the schedule, but all
others should, or the person making the
list does not answer the questions and con-
form to the oath.
As to the instance our friend calls for,
it is not very hard to suppose case and
one, too, which has come under the obscr,
walton of every man who has had much
acquaintance with men and business.
Take trader who is engaged in pros
porous and paying business. He has met
with unexpected losses, which have taken
all, or nearly all his capital. His credit is
still good, and he is very certain that il he
can 90 on unmolested by his creditors he
can pay all and save his business, but he
has one or two enemies who would like to
witness his failure. A tax schedule is pre-.
sented which requires him to make sworn
statement as to his property and liabili-
ties II he makes il out fully and correct
ly, one IN see at glance that he is owing
as much as he is worth, his enemy gets the
information and his credit is ruined. Ev-
en- il he is allowed to omit his debts, when
the fact is well known that he is owing
money this would be very strong ground
for snpposing thst he was trying to bolster
up his credit and would be quite as detri-
mental US to include the whole in his list.
We have in mind several men who are now
well-to do, who il their actual financial
condition had been made public at a recent
period would have been forced into
hopeless bankruptcy. There are nndonbt-
edly instances where man who is nncom-
monty conscientious will refuse to swear
to tue amount Of solvent debts due him
FROM the fact that he is not snre himself
and cannot tell In our own case we have
many dollars dne US from people IN sew
eral states whom we do not know. Some
are good, and some not, and we cannot
tell how much we sbal finally get out oil
them, but we put It in as nearly as we can
and swear TO it, yet it is partly "guess
work, and we have no sort oil doubt that
there are people so prescriptions that
,hev would not swear TO such list as we
haye made. Our only excuse is, that the
law does not require impossibilities, and
having doue all we can to ascertain the
truth, aud having made it certainly large
enough, we take the oath aud sleep the
sleep Of the just.
STATE NEWS.
IA ,o.,n ~ <. Alhans hos n lon1el