Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-26

State or country where that wealth is in
vested and where it receives the benefit OF
the expenditures to meet which the taxes
are imposed, but to that upon whose
territory he resides. In other words,
thev contend for the taxation. not
of property, but of the person owning It,
and for taxation in proportion not to bene-
fits received, but to ability-to pay. The
foundation of the idea is evidently that SEN
timent of communism which is everywhere
latent in the human mind, and which de-
mands that the acquisitions Of the thrifty
and the successful shall be taken and
bestowed upon the unthrifty and the unsuc-
cessfuL
No one pretends that man worth slO,-
OOO, 900 shall pay ten times as much for M ms
clothes, his marketing and his fuel as the
man with 1000, 200, and yet when taxes
are in question, it is practically asserted
that the man with S1,000,000, no matter
where it is invested, shall pay 1000 times
as much as the man with only Sl,OOO'
Nevertheless, the conviction that rich men
ought to be taxed in proportion to tnelr
wealth is so generally prevalent that IL is IN
vain to try to overcome it.
Merely Some of the Inevitables,
Those who frame tax laws must recognize
it and defer to it, and those who suffer from
these laws must make up their minds to
submit to them up to the point were the
exaction becomes intolerable. They al
ways have the resource of putting their per-
sons beyond the reach of government
which imposes on them a burden greater
than they choose to bear, and short of this
remedy their ingenuity will always be a5le
to devise other means which will partially
relieve them.
That our people will ever be ssgacious
enough to adopt the system which was rec,
ommended by the late Isaac Sherman, and
which, am glad to see, was advocated be-
fore the Legislative Committee by the Hon,
Michael Coleman, formerly President OF
the Board of Tax Commissioners of this
city, of exempting from taxation all per
sonal property belonging to individuals,
and taxing only corporations and real es,
tate, 1 have little hope. 1t is too broad
and statesmanlike measure to be popu-
lar. and vet, by making this city
an asylum of refuge for the
rich people of the whole United States,
where thew could come and live and spend
their incomes without fear OF being har-
sssed by attempts to make them pay heaV-
lily for the privilege, it would so enhance
the value of real estate here, and so add to
the earnings of shopkeepers, tradesmen and
mechanics, tlat DOLu tue Otabc anu VIC SAsy
would gain by it more than they would
lose.
One Way to Drive Capital Elsewhere.
As it is, fear that Uhe present system
will be rendered even more odious tc
wealthy people than it is, and drive then
still more TO take up their residences else
where.
The same Mr.. Ellis, who estimates the
personal property in this State which ought
to pay taxes at 81, 900, 600, 900, proposes tc
verify his estimate by compelling every
resident of the State to make out, under
oath, list of his possessions and deliver il
to the tax assessors, and it is possible thai
our Legislature may be induced to enact
law to that effect The result would bs
that the small fry who could not escape
would be caught by the law, and the amount
of their assessable property would be some
what increased. The big fish, on the othei
hand, would either slip through the net ol
break its meshes, and the State and the city
would lose the whole Of the taxes which
they pay now.