The Colfax chronicle., 1890-06-07
WARMERS AND rHE slNcLErAx.


CN0 tU6 SINGLE TAX.
ny THOMAS q. sHEARwar
tFTrrer read before the Joint Committee on
o" VI ohio Legislature, Jan. Q, lSSe.l
tContinued from last week.l
THE EXPERIENCE OF NEW YORK.
now Is 1t In the State of New York?
one OF the most experienced assessors
an that State, Mr.. George H. Andrews,
addressing legislative committee on
october 8, 1874, said:
NO man and no corporation. banks
only excepted, need pay q tax upon per
eonal property. Widows and orphans
must pay. Upon them, in the extremity
vI tneir distress, the law lays its heavy
nand. 1t bereaves the bereaved. Mori-
ound itseif, 1t has an affinity for the ef-
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 q transfer of se-
cur1nes as would insure An exemption.
AS might we'll be expected, the State
Assessors, on January 81, 1874, reported
Eat less than fifteen per cent of the
personal property Of the State, liable to
AVIATION, finds place on the rolls Of
Up assessor, and that Of mortgages not
over five per cent of the value is as
sessed." In one town, the proceeds of
single auction sale of cattle, belonging
70 one resident, amounted to $3.50, 600,
while the whole assessment of personal
property In that town was S2s, $50, ga
sum very much less than that obtained
1or one cow" The assessors say: "A
large percentage Of ali the personal
property assessed is found entered on
tne rolls to women, minor heirs, luna
tics, who cannot watch with the eagle
eye of business men, or to trustees or
guardians" In some towns. these
GLASSES hold moro than one-half of all
the personal property on the assessment
roll. Two widows, residing in the viii
aage OF Batavia, were assessed for more
personal property than all the indi-
viduals in the neighboring city of
Rochester, with population of 10000.
In one town girl, mentioned in the as
sessment as a lunatic, was assessed ss,-
GOO 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"
Experienced Ohio assessors say that
the most honest returns of property are
always made by the poorer classes, and
the most inadequate retuns by million
aires, while widows, who have no expe-
rience in business, and trustees, who
represent widows and orphans, are taxed
upon every dollar that they own.
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 tanything like
an approximation to justice.
In 1879 new constitution was adopted. |
IT 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 40
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
svowediy and Intentionally subjected
TO double taxation, first, upon the cor
pofate property, and again upon the
,apital stock, which is merely their evil
lence of title to that property. 1t was
alike by the friends and ene-
mics of the new constitution, that un-
ler its operation, personal property Of
every description would be thoroughly
and at any rate, that whatever
vas by any chance overlooked would be
more than made up by double taxation
lpon that which was found. The actual
esult has been to falsify all the predic-
ions of both the friends and enemies Of
he constitution, for it has done no good.
md very little harm, except in promot-
ng fraud, for the reason that the ca
'acity of the patriotic taxpayer to COM
nit perjury, and the susceptibility of ,
SCISSORS to bribery, had been altogether I
Some Of the results I
re positively ludicrous. {
POOR CALIFORNIA! Il
II the assessment returns are to be ]
in nine-tenths Of California {
here Is not pound of butter; in four I
fths Of the State the sheep do not pro-
uce any wool; fifty counties have guam c
ties Of bee hives, but only four have ,
ny honey; personal property is van q
'hing from San Francisco; loans of |
loney are becoming unknown in the '
,st of the State; bonds of cities and v
Of all kinds are not held j
ithin the State. to an amount equal to /
ne-sixth of the county bonds outstand- a