The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-05-10
THE SINGLE TAX IDEA.
Mr.. Monroe Continues His Arguments in
Favor of Its Adnntion.


sonal property that it cannot be collected
except from the honest, the ignorant, the
tlmld, and that vast majority of people
being dishonest, intelligent and brave, es
pecially when de aling with the assessor,
the personal property tax is, therefore, i'm
practlcable and inexpedient. There are too
many avenues by which the assessor can be
deceived. Frequently the value Of goods
can be ridiculously underestimated,a and the
general Ignorance of assessors, which they
must necessarily have on many lines of
goods, makes them unable to protect them
selves against such imposition. How, for
example, can the average assessor ascertain
the value of 100000 residence finished by
woods from European forests, or the value
OF painting recently bought from famous
gallery? Even on the furniture, statuary,
etc., the value given depends entirely on
the truthfulness of the owner, and will be
regulated by
THE ACTIVITY OF HIS CONSCIENCE
at that moment. An assessor cannot be in
1alllDle, and 1t Is useless to expect him to
get any thing like fair valuation Often
the property can be hid away and as the as
SCISSOR mas not the power and seldom the
disposition to act the part of sheriff with
search warrant, large valuation of per-
sonal property escapes taxation. For ex-
ample, IN Hamilton county, Ohio, where
Cincinnati is situated, the population
largely Increased between 1892 and 1887, as
did also land values and the aggregate
wealth, but the number of watches de-
creased from $3.50 TO $3.50; pleasure car
rlages decreased in number from 13, no to
w fhan j
creased during the same period from
S2,o2l ,592 to 81, S33, 279 In Georgia county,
an agricultural county, however, where the
science of lying had either not been quite
80 highly developed or the people were not
possessed of the physical bravery to face
the pains and penalties of perjury" the
number OF watches increased from St5 to
922, while in pleasure carriages the decrease
was only from Z, 4S8 to 1717, and in money
from $685., 053 to $685., 118. 1t is a very sim
pie matter for our bankers and business
men with large bank accounts to convert a
large part OF their money into
NoNTAxABLB GOVERNMENT BONDS
for few days when the assessor is around.
Thomas u. Shearman, in his tract s'The
Menace OF Plutocracy," illustrates how
this ls done in the following edifying story:
lin San Francisco the assessment is taken
the first Monday in March. On the Friday
previous certain bank telegraphed its
New York correspondents: DO you want
gold! We are badly in want of government
bonds The New York bank telegraphed
back: Yes, there is nothing We want so bad
as gold. We have plethora of government
bonds The California bank telegraphed:
we want Sl,000,0O0 government bonds
New I ork bank telegraphed back: Done
The California bank telegraphed Tie up
those bonds and we will tie up the gold and
keep 1T for you All Right The New
YORK bank tied up the bonds, the Califor-
MIA bank the gold, marked it Property of
the New York bank, and put it in its own
vault. On the first Monday in March the
cashier swears to the statement that the
pank mad no money at all. The next We'd
nesday there was pressure for gold in Cal
lfornla and for bonds III New York Sew
eral kilograms passed, the bags were united,
the money and bonds restored to their re-
spectlve places and all,was serenen This
shows one of the methods for avoiding the
tax on stocks, bonds and moneys. In Den
Yer prominent business man with one OF
TIE MOST MAGNIFICENT HOMES
in that city of magnificent homes was as
sessed only 800 for personal property in
one year.
Two widows residing in Batavia. New
York, were assessed for more personal
property than all the individuals in the CITY
of Rochester with 10000 inhabitants.
In regard to minors, lunatics, ETC., whose
property is controlled by guardians and in
the hands OF the courts, the valuation is
easily ascertained, and they are, conse-
quently, taxed to the last dollars worth.
while the crafty and constituencies escape
and no law can be devised to get at a true
valuation that can be enforced
Let the farmer, the small merchant and
tue traGesmen consider the fact carefully,
that the rich are only taxed Cd an exceed
lngly small valuation, partly because the
value cannot be ascertained and partly be-
cause they have so much at stake that they
can resort to methods that the poor cannot
| afford to. On the other hand, the horses
and cattle, fences, houses, barns, nipple.
ments, grain, ETC., Of the farmer, the simple
stock OF the small merchant, and the home
OF the mechanic can easily be valued to
their full worth by man of ordinary in
| telligeuce.
ASK YOURSELF THE QUESTION.
Doesn't this show fundamental wrong
somewheres"
Let no poor man console himself that he
at present pays no taxes simply because he
owns no home, no lands, no houses.
Every man, rich and poor alike, pays
| taxes every time he buys tiny pair of
stockings for his baby, new hat for his
wife or a suit OF clothes for himself He
not only pays tax, but profit on the tax.
! All taxes on goods increase the cost as the
per cent. of profit must be figured On the
aggregate cost of the article. The tax is
part of the cost of every article. Every
man pays tax, though he may live in the
darkest room of ten story tenement
house. The tariff and other taxes added to
the cost of the Lumber and nails and other
material In the house, and even the tax on
the mechanics tools that constructed the
| place increased the cost 1t would be an
interesting mathematical problem for the
! poor fellow occupying the darkest room of
the ten story tenement when he pays his
rent, to quietly figure just how much his
rent is increased by tariffs and personal
property taxes.
THE HEAVIEST TAX
comes in this indirect way and is merely a
method of extorting the greatest amount OF
wealth from the people without making
them rebel; as Turgot put it, Taxation is
the art of pluching the goose without max
| ing it cry.''
| The time has arrived when the American
| people must be conversant with the exact
amount of taxes each one pays and the
exact purpose for which this is used
The day of paternalism is passed. Mon
archiai governments where the people
have little to say in regard to the control of
affairs and where money is constantly used
for improper and unpatriotic purposes,
must needs deceive the people by indirect
taxation. But in this country where the
people are the supreme power, it seems
ridiculous for them to try to deceive them
selves. 1t is like the ostrich in the desert
sticking his head in the sand and imagining
he is not seen because he sees not.
Among the many reasonable objections to
the present form of taxation, is the one that
to even attempt to enforce the system re-
quires
AN INQUISlTORIAL SEARCH
into one's private affairs that is tyrannous
and embarrassing. That ''every mans