Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-12-01
TAX REFORM DEPARTMENT.

The state grange committee appoint
ed for tEat purpose has recommended
for discussion by the members of the
order in New Hampshire the following
questions:
1. Shall the mortgagee pay tax
70 the extent of his interest and the
owner of real estate be exempt to that
extent? or, if not.
q Should money loaned on real es-
tate in New Hampshire be exempt from
taxation?
5. Should the tax, on deposits in saw
ing banks be reduced, as recommended
by the bank commissioners; or. If not,
f. Should the laws relating 20 taxa
ton be so strengthened that other
money at interest shall bear its share
of the burden of taxation equally with
that in savings banks?
5. Would a uniform tax of per cent
on all money at interest tend to equal
ize the burdens Of taxationo
&. Should the state levy direct in
come tax?
For various reasons there is a good
deal of dissatisfaction with our tax
laws among the farmers of the state.
These laws are substantially the same
and of course equitable as they have
been for twenty years or more, but the
farmers who have found little fault
with them until recently are growing
cause they are abstractly unfair as be-
cause the decline, and in many cases
disappearance, of the profits of the
farm makes it very difficult for agricul-
turists to pay their assessments An
other reason appears in the growing be-
lief that residents of cities and villages
get more in return for their taxes than
the people of sparsely-settled country
districts In more definite terms, it is
not SO much because . thousand-dollar
farm is taxed more than thousand
dollar city house as it is that the
farmer does not get the money to pay
his taxes as easily as the mechanic or
mill operative, and that after he has
paid them he does not have as good
schools, roads or other things which are
bought with the collections of the tax
gatherer. But, be that as it may. the
majority of farmers feel that the tax
laws should be amended and the pro-
posed discussion in the oranges is for
the purpose of bringing out some way
to amend them for the better, Or at least
SO as to make the farmers public bur-
dens less than they are now. AS will
be seen, all the questions proposed re-
late to the taxation of money at inter-
est, including that deposited in savings
banks, and in considering that subject
the following extract from an article in
the Manufacturer from the pen of
Prof. Robert Ellis Thompson, will be
found interesting and perhaps helpful:
.In considering what kind of prop
erty shall bear the burden of taxation,
it is safe to say that it should be laid
upon real or fixed property rather than
on movables; that it should fall on priv
LEGGED corporations rather than on
those which receive from the state little
more than it accords to all its people
and their interests: and that a large
part of the taxes should be collected in
the shape of royalties on the mineral
wealth extracted from the soil of the
state for the benefit of all parts of our
country, and even of foreign countries.
Taxation of real or fixed property in
preference to movable property and
capital has the sanction of every class
of economists, not the least notable of
its advocates being Mr.. Henry c. Carey,
our great Pennsylvania authority. In
his view, the English system of finance,
which lays the burden of government
chiefly upon movable property. is one OF
the worst features of her administrative
policy, and one in which she is far ex-
celled by France. In fact, the progress
of society is away from the taxation
of movables to that of fixed
property; but in England that progress
has been arrested by the body of land
owners who got control Of legislation
in 1861 and relieved the land of England
of feudal duties and fiscal burdens. at
the same time shifting the latter to ex-
cises Thus English taxation tends to
check the growth Of that movable capi-
tai whose increase is the chief means OF
a general diffusion of all well-being
through all classes. It tends to the ac-.
of land in the hands of the
few, and to make the poor poorer. by
the public burdens without
any reference to ability to bear them.
''Such taxation Of movable property
also tends to check the interchange OF
and todiminish the share OF
them that falls to each person in the COM
munity. It discourages the formation
of those centers of varied industry
which bring the highest benefit to the
farmer, relieving him of the heavy tax
of transportation in the matter of get
ting his crop to the consumer. 1t pre-
vents the approximation of the manu-
facturer to the producer OF food and of
80 w rnaforialc which would bring the
price of these nearer to that OF the
product. 1t finds its last
and worst illustration in the tax levied
by Spain upon every exchange made
within the kingdoms tax which goes
far to explain the prostration of the
richest and strongest OF European mon-
arches into the Spain OF our days.
This theory that taxation should be
mainly confined to fixed property. that
is, real estate, and the privileges of cor
porations is ono which has the approval
of most writer's upon the subject. but 1T
runs counter to the popular belief that
money, notes and other certificates OF
should be taxed at least
as heavily as real property. 1t is the
object of most legislation to provide
wa. by which such property which is
in itself valueless can be reached ana
taxed, and we suppose our granger
friends will scarcely consider anything
an Improvement which does not do
towards accomplishing this
in some states taxation foa-
lows very closely the lines laid down BY
Prof. Thompson with satisfactory re-
suits In Pennsylvania local taxes ere