The Colfax chronicle., 1890-05-31


Ohio ...-............. ..........2 .2a.sls 224.446
naMi0on- n---.-----..-....--.....- iS.9 ssSa
Geauga-- 24s5 1,S7
Here one finds some slight rel. IF, not,
indeed, in the increasing prosperity of
any part of Ohio, but in the fact that
the poor farmers of Cincinnati do not
seem to have given up any larger pro-
portion of their pleasure carriages thar
the Shylocks of Geauga; while desc
lsting wave of poverty has swept over
the entire State, resulting in the loss OF
nearly one-eighth Of all the carriages in
the State. Let us look at
Money on hand. 1ss2. 1887.
Ohio 50, l6p.s29 s.. 139 I3l
Hamilton. .------.. -. ?.Slbe lt3l.N
Geauga. 362.t53 2S.11s
Here, again, wave of poverty has
flooded the whole State, in tolerably
equal proportions. Honey is evidently
rapidly vanishing, for the total stock OF
the State has fallen of sl1 900, 900 in Ave
years, diminishing neenty.frs per cent
in Hamilton, but only twenty per cent
in Geauga. We now look at
CredIts 1sG 1881.
Ohio ........ ef0t.6ssa3s S10s, Ia, ,sY
Hamilton ---..-....... essl,Ss s,Iy,sG
Geauga. .-......--.-. otu6B 554.47
Here we see that Ohio, as State, is
money lender to the extent of one per
cent more in 1887 than in 1882. But
again the poor agriculturists of Cincin-
natl come to the front, with loss of
$3.50, 900, or 121z per cent. of their total
stock, while the loss in Geauga county
is only about one-third as much, or q
trifle over per cent.
THE MooN-sTRUcK THEORISTS.
Figures like these might be collected
not only from the statistics of Ohio, but
from those Of every State and country
under the sun, where statistics are kept
and personal property is taxed. They
are the moon-struck theorists, who, in
contradiction of all the facts and all the
experience Of the world, persist in the
vain endeavor to tax personal property,
and in the absurd assertion that this
form of taxation tends to reliye farmers
Farmers cannot conceal their sheer
and oxen, their plows and implements;
and they have enormous difficulty in
concealing their wealth in any form,
because their affairs are SO well
known to all their neighbors- II they
have any money in bank, all the vii
lage knows it. If they have loaned
money or sold goods ON credit, their
debtor is pretty sure to be some one in
the immediate neighborhood; and all
the circumstances are known to fifty
people. The average farmer, when
making his returns to the assessor Is
afraid to understate his wealth very
greatly, because he could hardly look
the assessor in the face after doing so,
being conscious that, If the assessor
does not already know the truth, he can
with very little difficuity find it out for
himself. But in large towns and cities,
scarcely any man knows, intimately, the
affairs of his neighbor, and the assessor
knows least Of all. People are reputed
to be worth 81 zoo, 900, who in reality
are not worth $4,000; and others are re-
puted to be worth only 500, 900, who in
reality are worth $1,000, 900. Even il
the amount Of any mans wealth is ap-
proximately lmown, none of his neigh.
bors know how that wealth is invested,
unless it is put in real estate. The as.
SCISSOR therefore has absolutely no means
Of ascertaining the value Of any mans
personal property, except by returns
from that man himself, or from the cor
porations with whom he may happen to
invest. II an Ohio man makes his prin-
cipal investments in corporations out
side of the State, the assessor is entirely
at the mercy of the taxpayer. He can
tell any number of lies with impunity.
The assessor rarely or never examines
his books of account; and, il assessors
once began to make such an examina-
tion many rich men would cease to keep
books of account at all, as it is notorious
that they did when the income tax was
in existence. All things combine to
make it easy for the assessor to reach
the farmers personal property and dif.
icult for him to reach that of the mer
chant. banker or city capitalist.
Ito be continued.