Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-08-10
Grange Lessons in Taxation.

Granger-What are taxeso
Master-Moneys extracted from your
earnings and the earnings of all the
rest of the people to pay the expenses
of governing us
O. How is our government usually
divided?
A. Into local, County, village or city,
state and national government.
Q. From what sources does govern
ment try to draw taxes?
A. From real estate and personal
property.
Q. What is real estate?
A. Land, buildings and improvements
attached to the land.
Q. What is personal property?
A. Things not included in real estate,
such as cattle, horses, hogs, and all
other animals; potatoes, turnips. cab
bages, and all other vegetables, ap-
pies, plums and pears and all other
fruits, wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley,
buckwheat, and all other grain; coats,
hats, boots, shoes, dresses and all
other kinds of wearing apparel; wag-
ons, plows, harrows, mowers, reapers,
forks, shovels, sewing-machines, and
all other tools and things which indus
trious people use to get living; notes,
stocks, bonds, mortgages and other
pieces of paper like in character; and
money. Such things are personal
property.
Q. Upon what kinds of personal
property do taxes bear most heavily?
A. Upon the necessities of life, on
food, clothing, and things of that
character which far outvalue all the
stocks, bonds, etc. Personal property
is not mainly as has been supposed, in
the hands of the wealthy.
Q. How much personal property
escapes taxation in New York state?
A. Report of the state board of asses
sors says the amount thus escaping taxa
ton in this state is over two and one-half
billions of dollars, and the amount un-
taxed is increasing every year. A fair
estimate fixes the value of real and per-
sonal property about equal.
Q. How happens such an immense
amount of personal property to go I'M
taxed?
A. On account largely of the conceal
ment of personal property by the
owners thereof, and in some degree
because of the inefficiency and igno-
rance of assessors.
Q. Where do assessors most readily
find and assess personal property?
A. Among the farmers, who are un-
able to hide the most of their personal
property; a farmers neighbors, as a
rule, know just about how much he is
worth.
Q. What keeps an assessor in Of
fee?
A. Good will of the voters, which he
would lose if she should tax what they
wish not to have taxed.
FARM PROPERTY EASIER VALUED.
Articles of personal property that can
be seen and touched and hence.reached
by most honest assessors are what is
called visible and tangible things
such as animals, stock on hand of mer-
chants and manufacturers, household
furniture, implements and carriages
Farm implements and animals are
always readily open to inspection and
their value is generally about the same
and can be more readily fixed by the
assessor.
BUT HERE rs HARD JOB.
Very different is the case of mer-
est, can personally and correctly value
the stock of the grocery, dry goods
and drug stores. In one store there
are hundreds of different articles at
different prices. Goods lie side by side,
some worth two or four cents a yard
and others two or four dollars and only
the eye of an expert can detect the diff
ference. All the assessors of a great
city can do is to take the word of the
merchants and manufa cturers.
AN EASY JOB.
Farmers also have a certain average
quality of furniture which can be as
certained far more readily than the
value of furniture belonging to we'll
TODD city residents, some of whom use
furniture worth $4,000 a set and such
high cost being marked by few outside
indications.
Thus it will be seen that the efforts
to tax personal property result in dis
covering more of the farmers than of
others.
Income Tax on Natural and Artificial
Monopolies.