Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-02-03
DISCRIMINATING TAXES.
Mr.. Crane Points Ont Some Instances wher
He Thinks Licenses Should be Abolished.

Mr.. Crane Points Ont Some Instances Wher
He Thinks Licenses Should be Abolished.
To the Editor of The Evening Star
While the question of increasing the license
Of commission merchants from $40 to $50 and
requiring them to give a bond of $1,000 il be-
fore the public and Congress, will you please
allow me to call attention to the high, discrimi-
mating and, i believe. unconstitutiona license
tax imposed upon about 600 hardworking mer
and women. mostly poor, or Of moderate means.
who are trying to get an honest living by re-
failing produce in our city markets.
During the stormy days of the rebellion.
when the expenses of the city were heavy, the
old corporation of Washington passed an act
approved October 81, 1854, which reads as fol.
lows. to wit:
III shall not be lawful for any per-
son or persons, residents or non-resi-
dents, to engage in the business of buck
STEERING or trading. buying, selling or
dealing in poultry. eggs, butter, wild game,
vegetables. fruits aud other market stuff, family
provisions horse feed, corn meal or any other
such articles except any description of fresh
fish within the limits of the city. unless such
person or person shall first obtain from the
mayor and register a license therefor, for
which license he she or they shall pay to the
corporation the sum of $50, which sum shall be
in addition to the cost. hire or rent OF the stall
or stand occupied and of the license paid for
the running the wagon or other business as
aforesaid, and which license shall authorize the
person or persons to whom it is issued to use
one wagon or other vehicle and to occupy one
stand in the Center market and one stand or
stall in one of the other markets of this city
not held on the same day as the Center market,
the selection of the market to be made by the
person or persons applying for and clearly
specified in the body OF the license. For each
and every additional stall or stand occupied in
either Of the several markets Of this city a
separate license shall be required"
As this did not apply to Georgetown or the
county the legislative assembly after the Dis
trict was consolidated under one government
In 1871 enacted a similar law, applicable to the
whole District, raising the license tax from go
to SIS per annum.
A fair Interpretation Of the old corporation
law makes the license applicable to every per-
son selling goods In the markets of the city and
1t was go construed, but various constructions
have been put upon IL since.
The license is now confined to butter dealers
and dealers In fruits and certain lines OF vege-
tables. Those who sold beans we're required to
pay a license up to year or two ago, when the
license tax was taken off, though the law con-
tinued unchanged. Beans are an article Of
farmers produce l.luch as potatoes, but they
now pay no license while potatoes are required
to pay a license tax OF S25. The tariff law of
1880 classed beans with potatoes under the
head of vegetables.
1t would be interesting to know under what
Interpretation of language they are separated
from potatoes under our District license law.
i understand that manufactured articles are
construed as exempt, and that beans take their
place with beef, pork, ham. lard, &c, as manu-
featured articles. while butter anu cheese.
which are clearly manufactured articles, are
classed with fruits and vegetables as articles of
farmers produce. My object in pointing out
this absurd discrimination In favor of beans is
not to have the license tax on beans restored
but instead thereof to have the whole produce
license tax repealed, it being in conflict with
Justice and common sense
In addition 10 being required to pay the same
tax on property. If they have any, other citi-
zens do. and from 80 20 300 per year rental
for stands, these 6OV or more Woodworking men
and women III our markets are obliged to pay
for the privilege of working to obtain an honest
living. know of no such license imposed i'll
any other city In this or any other country 1t
Is an outrage upon justice and should be
stamped out at once. So also should be the
tax imposed on the hard-working wagon men
who sell produce from house to house.
Hueksters In the markets are required to
confne themselves to selling one line of goods
on which each pays tax Of SIS per year.
though they may not have an average capital
of $40 invested, while outside of the markets
one person may open a store and sell every
markets, and a thousand articles not sold in
the markets, and pay no license at ALL only a
tax of ~ per cent on all over 300 worth of
stock. Ii the dealers in the markets were
taxed no higher than the dealers outside the
license tax on man with an average stock of
so would be put 10 cents per year, while now
it Is in many cases more than twice the
capital he has invested.
il is question whether this District ordi-
nance is not in conflict with the act of Con-
gress which exempts $40 in value of stock in
trade from taxation and seizure. But very
few men and women who retail produce in our
markets carry a stock amounting to 300. That
being the case, how can they be subject to a
license tax Of S25, or even tax of IL per
cent on'the value of the stock they carry?
The average Of the produce commission mer-
chants in this District do not realize IA net
profit of 81, 900 per year. Many a man who
after paying rent help and expense of horse
OF a long, hard days work, and yet the assessor
year. which is more than per cent on the en-
tire net profits of some of them.
The proposition to put the commission mer-
him to the humiliation of giving "a bond OF
simply outrageous.
chants do four times the business they do here,
they only pay a license tax of Sl2 per year.
In Philadelphia, New York and Boston 1 am
informed they pay no license tax whatever.
j. h. CRANE.