Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-03-27
FARMERS AND THE SINGLE TAX.
by THOMAS G. sHEAEMAN.
[PaDer read before the Joint Committee on
Taxation of JhIo Legislature, Jan. ., Iosa.l

PAPER rpad before the JOINT IOmmCtS2 ON
Taxation OF Jhlo Legislature, Jan. .. losa.I
[ContinHsd from last iceek.
THE EXPERIENCE OF NEW YORK.
How is it in the State of New York?
One of the most experienced assessors
in that State, Mr.. George H. Andrews,
addressing a legislative committee on
October E, 1874, said:
No man and ne corporation. banks
only excepted. need paw tax upon per-
sonal property. Widows and orphans
must pay. pom them. in the extremity
of their distress. the law lays its heavy
hand. 1t bereaves the bereaved. Mori-
bund itself, it has an affinity for the eff
fects of the dead. The records of the
surrogate furnish the schedule. and the
machinery of the law used in adjusting
an estate is not sufficiently flexible to
regularly permit such transfer of Sc
curiUies as would insure an exemption.
As might we'll be expected. the State
Assessors, on January u. 1874, reported
that less than fifteen per cent Of the
personal property OF the State, liable to
taxation. finds place on the rolls of
the assessor. and that of mortgages not
over five per cent of the value is as
sessed.' In one town. the proceeds of a
single auction sale of cattle. belonging
to one resident, amounted TO S360.O00.
while the whole assessment of personal
property in that town was S2s.S50 "a
sum very much less than that obtained
for one cow" The assessors say: "A
large percentage of all the personal
property assessed is found entered on
the rolls to women. minor heirs, luna
eye of business men. or to trustees or
guardians. In some towns. these
classes hold more than One-half of all
the personal property on the assessment
roll. Two widows. residing in the vii
lage Of Batavia. were assessed for more
personal property than all the indi-
vldualS in the eighboring city of
Rochester, with population of 10000.
In one town girl. mentioned in the as
sessment a; d lunatic, was assessed So
300 for personal property, which the
assessor stated was the full amount of
her personal estate. All over the State
the amount of assessments depends
more on the will. craft. conscience tor
want Of conscience of the party assessed
than upon the law or its enforcement"
EXPERIENCE OF CALIFORNIA.
The experience of California furnishes
perhaps the latest example of the utter
failure of all schemes for taxing per-
sonal property to work out anything like
an approximation to Justice.
In 1879 a new constitution was adopted.
Il was carried through solely by the
farmers votes. merchants. bankers and
capitalists, whether large or small.
voting almost unanimously against it.
Under this constitution and these laws.
not only are bonds, money and credits
taxable. without any deduction on ac-
count of debts. except from credits, and
then only such debts as are due to resi-
dents of the State of California, but
holders of stock in corporations are
avowedly and Intentionally subjected
to double taxation. first. upon the cor
pOrate property, and again upon the
capital stock. which is merely their evil
dence OF title to that property. 1t was
supposed, alike by the friends and enc
mics of the new constitution. that I'M
der its operation, personal property of
every description would be thoroughly
Itdtut-tl anu tG dill Itbt-- blIdb " Whatever
was by any chance overlooked would be
more than made up by double taxation
upon that which was found. The actual
result has been to falsify all the predic-
tions of both the friends and enemies of
the constitution, for it has done no good.
and very little harm. except in promot-
ing fraud, for the reason that the ca
pacity of the patriotic taxpayer to COM
nit perjury. and the susceptibility of
assessors to bribery, had been altogether
underestimate. Some of the results
are positively ludicrous.
POOR CALIFORNIA.
If the assessment returns are TO be
believed. in nine-tenths of California
there is not pound of butter: in four
ffths of the State the sheep do not pro-
duce any wool; fifty counties have guam
titles of bee hives. but only four have
any honey; personal property is van
ishing from San Francisco; loans of
money are becoming unknown in the
rest of the State: bonds of cities and
municipalities of all kinds are not held
within the State, to an amount equal to
one-sixth of the county bonds outstand-
ing alone: and, finally, money has been
smitten by pestilence, two-thirds of
all that there was before the adoD-
ton of the constitution having already
taken to itself wings. and the remainder
being evidently on the way. One of the
great objects of the new constitution
was to tax railroad. telegraph and tele-
phone companies. to the last cent of
their value. The actual result has been |
that telegraph and telephone companies |
are now assessed for the cost of less than /
their bare poles. or about S65 per mile. /
The railroad companies resisted tax
alton for one or two years. at the end of
which. by a singularly simultaneous i'm /
pulse of virtue. some thirty boards of |
supervisors directed their district at
torneys vigorously to prosecute the rail- |
road companies to the uttermOst of the /
law. Thirty district attorneys forth |
with hauled the railroad companies be- /.
fore the magistrates of justice. With |
equal promptness the thirty boards of |
supervisors met. and, without any con-
sultatiOn with each other, passed resoIu- |
tions. directing the district attorneys to |
compromise all suits at sixty per cent |
of the amount claimed; and the thirty !
districts attorney obeyed, before the |
State officers could put in protest.
CITIES RELIEVED; FARMERS BCRDENED. |
The following table will show the /