The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-06
TAXING MANUFACTURERS.

the unjust taxation and assessments Of lands
town lots and improvements thereon, in Indi-
annapolis and Marion county, as compared with
other counties and cities in the State This
county board to a matter of vastly greater i'm
portance to the citizens of indianapolis and to
every resident and property owner therein, to-
wit: the manufacturing interests of the city
The future of indianapolis will depend upon
its manufactures. If they grow and increase
in number and capacity the city will grow;
! if they remain in their present number and
| producing capacity, the city will remain sta
tionary in population; and if they, for any
fuences or expressions, then the city must
suffer, and every property and material inter
est will suffer likewise. Surrounded as In
danapolis is by large commercial cities in
every direction, the territory that will be sup
| piled by our mercantile establishments Is
necessarily circumscribed But with our
present grand railroad facilities the market
for our manufactured articles is world wide,
and to manufactures must we look for growth
done to encourage the growth of those we
now have, and to bring new enterprises here
should be DONE We cannot expect new en-
! terprises to come and those already here to
grow and increase unless they have the moral
legal and active support of our people and Of
the public authorities. Other cities around
US holding out tempting inducements in
the way of donations Of lands for shops and
buildings, and exemption from taxation for
various periods of years, and proposals to per-
manently exempt from taxation machinery and
the manufacturing plant and manufactured
articles on hand. These offers have already
drawn away some manufacturing estab-
lishments, and the Journal knows of others
that ara considering the qestion as to whether
they shall 60 or stay. Now our County Board
of Equalization can do great work for the
city if they will pursue liberal course in the
assessment of those establishments in this
city, or they can do disastrous thing by i'm
posing heavy burdens in the way of high APP
praisements, thus causing heavy taxes. The
newspapers, and magazines, and public speak
ers are constantly talking about the tariff, its
benefits and IFS burdens; but to the manufact-
urers of Indianapolis this is mere bagatelle
as com pared with our local taxes. The tariff
is general, and is the same all over the coun-
try, bat our county and city taxes get right
down into the pocket of the individual. We
never see the custom house officer; but the
tax-collector with his long bill with an en-
| Enumeration of every conceivable item set out
in detail, and winding up with a general grab
clause covering all created things, animate
and inanimate, is semiannua horror to the
taxpayer. Indianapolis has grown, and will
continue to grow, if capital and labor will com
bine to make articles to sell, but it will not
grow if capital is put into houses that cannot
be rented. Every new manufacturing estab-
lishment that employs twenty grown men rep
resents twenty houses to be bought or rented
one hundred mouths to be fed, one hundred
bodies to be clothed, one hundred consumers
added to the population of the city.
There are many reasons in truth and jus
tice why manufacturing establishments
should be very lightly taxed. Everything ex-
| IL, 41,o4
make up mandatory perishes with the
using. Every fire that is built under its boiler
helps to burn it out; every revolution of the
| fly-wheel to the engine tends to wear out the
machinery; every lathe, every planer, in
short, every tool that is used, is worth less at
night than it was in the morning, by reason
of use. The amount of money invested in
mandatory established year after its in
vestment because of this loss and waste, is
greater than the true value of the plant to the
extent of that waste. Every boiler that is
burned out, every engine or machine that is
worn out, is replaced by a new one. that adds
to the cost and capital Of the establishment
but not TO its intrinsic value. The name or
! good will of an establishment cannot be taxed
AS we'll talk of taxing the air the owner
breathes; as we'll tax his health or his brain,
that created the good will. Labor ought
never TO be taxed, and the value of any man
ufactured article is nearly all labor. 1t is
stated that five dollars will cover the value, in
its native state, of every article that enters
into the composition of locomotive engine
worth ten thousand dollars everything else
being labor in one shape or another The city.
of Pullman, near Chicago is notable exam
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