Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-03-13
FARMERS AND THE SINGLE TAX
BY THOMAS G. SHEARMAN.

III anything in human experience, as
| applied to methods of taxation, is set
tied, it certainly is the fact that taxa
| ton upon personal property never can
| be made a success. Taxes caa be raised
from personal property, no doubt, for
large sums are thus raised, but that
they cannot be levied with any reason
able approach to accuracy or equality is
demonstrated, not only by conclusive
reasoning, but by the more conclusive
fact that they never have been thus
levied. II is not for want OF earnest
and long sustained effort that the
failure of this system of taxation has
come to pass. For centuries the effort
has been made, and for at least six
centuries it was backed by all the
/ power of a government which COM
handed the whole civilized world and
which armed it's taxgatherers, not with
the paltry weapons of Oaths and pen
altieS, but with the more substantial
powers of indiscriminate search, the
lash, the rack, the thumbscrew, the
gridiron and the cross. The Roman
empire fell to pieces under the pressure
of this vain effort to reach personal
property by taxation. The same thing
was attempted, at a later period, in
dealing with the Jews. 1t failed with
them. They could be robbed and muir
dered, but they could not be regularly
taxed.
That which all the tremendous power
of Rome, in its grandest days, failed to
accomplish, that which the Internal tor
lures of Spain could not accomplish,
when it beheaded hundreds, burned
thousands, and massacred tens of thou
sands, letting loose "a brutal soldiery
in the vain struggle to tax the Meth
erlands, the American people are still
apparently convinced that they can
accomplish by distributing blank forms,
administering long oaths and threat
ening penalties of fifty per cent.
How far they have succeeded the
present Governor of Ohio has set forth
in repeated messages, as the Governors
of New York have for many years set
forth in theirs. Their complaints have
become monotonous in their uniformity.
Nothing, indeed, has been added to the
sum of knowledge on this point, since
the calm and detailed report of David
a. Wells to the New York Legislature in
1871, III which the experience Of that
State and many other States was lumin-
ously set forth, and it was made clear
that taxes on personal property were
nowhere equally assessed or efficiently
collected.
TAXATION BY OATH.
The result of the widespread main
tenance of these taxes is to fill the land
with liars and perjurers. In some States
the business of perjury is mostly con-
fined to the assessors, who regularly
make returns which they know to be
false, but cannot make true. In others,
such as Ohio Vermont and Connecticut,
perjury is the business of the taxpayers
Their scrupulous consciences, in many
cases, find a way of escape by emitting,
in fact, to take the oath which they
sign, and they are innocent of every
thing except lying. The delicately con-
scientiOuS get some one to sign for
them, and where an oath is absolutely
required, considerate notary certifies
to the oath before it is taken; after
q
On surveying the whole field. however,
ones faith in American truthfulness is
cheercd. and we entertain larger hopes
for the future of humanity. For it APP
pears that, where the blanks are dill
gently circulated and the oath insisted
upon, the average man will return ten,
il not fifteen per cent. of his invisible
property; whereas, in the absence of this
appeal to piety, he will return nothing
at all. This touching proof of American
reverence for the sacredness of the oath
reminds one of the famous Yankee who,
hearing his father accused of having
falsely warranted the quality Of a trifie
sold for twelve and a half cents, replied:
''No; the old man would never tell lie
for ninepence; though he would tell
eight of 'em for dollar
TAXATION ON PERSONALITY UNEQUAL.
Of course there are some forms Of per-
sonal property which can be seen and
appraised by the assessors, almost as
readily as real estate, though not with
so correct an estimate of value. The
objection to taxation of chattels is not
that none of them can be taxed; it is
that SO many of them can be and are
reached, while so many are not, that the
tax is necessarily unequal and unjust.
The important question, therefore, is,
upon what class does this tax bear most
oppressively? If taxes were levied only
upon land values, or upon the values of
land and buildings, would the smaller
property owners, and especially the
farmers, pay more or less of the whole
taxes than they do now?
TIE EFFECT ON FARMERS.
Farmers generally have been long
convinced that the rigid taxation of per-
sonal property would relieve their bur-
dens; and it is by their votes that the
existing system is maintained. This IS
all theory on their part. They have not
studied the facts and know nothing
about them. They assume that lit
must be So"
But let us study the facts, before dis
cussing any theory. The Assessment
returns from Ohio furnish all the facts
which are needed in order to determine
whether taxation on personal property
is of any benefit to the agricultural COM
munity.
Any attempt to separate the commun-
ity into two distinct classes, one of which
is taxable only on real estate, and the
other OF which is taxable only on per-
SODa1 iS n