The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-04-01
TAX REFORM DEPARTMENT.
Common Hard Sense and No The.
cries."


written Specially TOR TAX REroRxl
inns Is what busln sss men and blair
people want rihe cautious man turn,
"Pon the Proposals of the Reformer the
same co.u light of commercial interes,
n.oi he uses in buying and selling.
IL the plan, however plausible, seems
revolutionary, impracticable, expert.
mental, or in other ways fails to stand
TINS test he promptly rejects it
IL Is to this intuitive sense that the
advocate of the straight tax on land
values appeals From this point OF
view the taxation of personal property
Is universally condemned as applied to
any ones own case. Like boil or IN
aneome tax Il II considered wholesome,
only when borne by some one else.
conservative economists have exhausted
the dictionary in denouncing the "in-
justice" 'futility," ''injury," "demor-
aiization" and oppression" of the gen.
eral property tax.*
1t Is enough to say here that TO 1T
temPt to collect such tax is CONNER.
clal suicide and economic idiocy.
Inc progressive income tax is beau
tiful theory, and might do nicely il it
could be fairly collected and did not re-
quire particulars of a mans private af-
sairs, which only his wife should ask,
and which only the Lord could answer
However attractive or possible such a
TAX may seem to those who would them
selves be exempt, the American people
VIII have hone of 1t.
Taxes being merely the expense of
running the government concern as ex-
cises as taxes will hardly commend
70 business common sense. Suppose
your manager We're to state in his re-
port that the part of the gross receipts
used up for expense was estimated at
forty per cent; that it was uncertain
when, how, or in what proportion this
expense was borne. or how much would
go for collecting it, or whether it might
not be doubled or halved by change
OF system which was intended not to
infect taxes, but to help morals; that it
was even disputed point, whether
this concern paid it at all. Would not a
business man say THAT Is too compli-
Gated; / must know just what, when,
and how much pay and what pay it
Tor AS moral agents, or as punish
ments, excuses may do, but as taxes
they are dead failure.
Well, if you are so precise, says our
manager we can fix it this way; every
one who puts up a machine, who fur
nishes work, or makes food and cloth
ing cheaper, or works hard. or saves,
shall pay fine and If any county does
not give up enough. we will have a
Board OF Equalization to add to its
share. II any one has a fine horse OF
smokes nice tobacco or wears pretty
dresses, tax him or her. If people have
luxuries or comforts make them pay
for them-pay for them twice, 1 mean
then they won't have so many luxu-
ries or pleasures, and we will all be
much richer and meaner and idler than
we are now, and
Does that look like sound business?
You say you would kick him out
Now our business plan is this: Don't
upset anything; but don't tax anything
that can run away or be hidden or dis
couraged by the tax
Whoever has any special privilege
over others. let him pay the value of it
to the rest. whether it is franchise or
license.
Tax what lies out of doors; what
everybody knows what it is worth;
even the farmer knows that his part is
worth next to nothing compared to city
real estate.
Well! If that seems like good sense, a
smart man would look to see what sort
of men advocated this plan; he would
find out in whose interest it is, he would
read and fully inform himself about
the tax on real estate alone
BOLTON HALL.
sSee General Property Tax, by Prof e. r A.
Seligman (Ginn Coz. for a scientific account
of this tax, and "Who Pays Your Taxes, pub
lished by the New York Tax Reform Associa-
lion (Putns m's) for popular one.