The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-10-29

gage, or will take up his loan. But
it is proposed to make contract that
the mortgageor shall pay the taxes set
to the MORTGAGE usurious transac-
ton, and, on conviction, compelling
the restitution of double the amount thus
fraudulently obtained" A "twister -
such as this can have only one effect
BY foreclosure or otherwise, X will
take up his loan without delay, and he
will make no more loans on mortgage in
the town of A. He will put his money
where he can get the market rate of in
terest unhampered by laws that take
the control of his money, if he loans it,
out of his own hands. When X demands
the payment of his note Y goes to u,
his own townsman, to borrow the money
to pay Y. Y can loan his money in the
town of b where the tax rate is only
one per cent, one-half of the rate in A,
and so netting him correspondingly
higher rate of income. 1t is clear that
Y cannot borrow even of his own towns
man so long as he can lend in towns
where the tax rate is lower than it is at
home, even if the law should work as
its advocates desire to have it. If, how
ever, the mortgage is allowed to agree
with the mortgageor that the latter
shall pay the taxes on the full appraised
value of the real estate, laws have been
multiplied only, as we have shown in a
former article, to exempt the money
lender entirely and to add his exemp-
ton to the former burdens of the Dor
rover and the public. The transactions
of X, Y and Y multiplied indefinitely,
represent the transactions in the state
at large. The money-lender will loan
his money as the farmer will sell his
butter, where he can get the largest net
price, and neither can be compelled by
law to trade to his manifest disadvan-
tage. The grip this bill proposes to
apply to mortgages held outside the
state would tend to the foreclosure of
foreign mortgages and stop the invest
ment of foreign capital in real estate in
Vermont. Some of the provisions of
the bill plainly need perfecting to carry
out the evident purpose of the Trainer
The section we have quoted, emitting
the mortgage to exemption from taxa
tiop IN his narSono1 ,1,onor+,- nc
pecially defective. AS drawn it would
give the mortgage exemption in the
town of his residence, not only for his
mortgage but for an equivalent amount
of personal property. We have men
toned only some of the most obvious
objections to this bill. There are minor
considerations which will suggest them
selves to any one who will give the
matter little thought, that confirm our
judgment that the measure is wrong in
principle and impracticable in applica-
ton. In reviewing similar measure
two years ago we made the point that
it is good policy to have the mortgageor
pay the taxes on the real estate he
holds. 1t conduces to prudence If he
is partially or wholly exempted, as he
would be if the theory of this bill were
made the practice, he could vote very
liberal taxes for building bridges, making
roads, erecting school-houses, etc., and
his liberalty would naturally be infiu-
enced by the extent to which he has
himself been relieved Of the burdens of
taxation, and the mortgage, who is
quite likely to be a resident of another
town, saddled with those burdens. The
mortgageor would have all the benefits
of ownership without its burdens. This
bill, if it should become law. would 90
very far to undo the salutary work of
the last four years in the reformation
of the states system of taxation. In
stead of tightening the burdens of the
farmer, it would add materially to his
burdens and to the burdens of the gem
eral public. In the last year of the OPP
CIdllOu VI lllc NhtSsdCHuStllS law, WHICH
is so often quoted by the advocates of
this reform, more than two million dol
lars in taxes were taken from the shout
ders of money-lenders and laid upon
the backs of borrowers and the general
public, and this amount will grow larger
every year. A similar result would fol-
low the exemption of mortgages in this
state; but law like that which this bill
proposes to enact embodies other fea-
lures besides exemption which are so
repugnant and impracticable that it
would drive money out of the state for
investment, prevent capital from coming
in and so embarrass the borrower on
domestic mortgage security that under
its provisions, like the man in Scripture,
the last state of the Vermont farmer
would be worse than the first
Lake Champlain Fisheries.
Many citizens of the state have
L