The Portland daily press., 1893-02-28
THE LISTING ELL.

The doctors of taxation at Augusta are
now trying to evolve something like Or
der out OF chaos ofso called listing bills
that have been submitted by professional
grangers, and few demagogic politi-
clans who think there is some political
capital to be made out of them in the
rural districts. Our advice to the taxa
ton committee is to abandon their at
tempts to bring order out of chaos and
cast all the bills submitted to them into
outer darkness. There is no general de-
mand for any listing system. An appar-
ent sentiment has been worked up for it
among the grangers who have been
given to understand that the proposed
system would enure greatly to the bene-
fit Of the country dis tricts. But it is
more apparent than real, and when the
country fully understands the inquisito-
rial nature of the proposed measure,
when it comprehends that it will compel
every resident to make full and detailed
exhibit of his financial affairs to the
assessors, which exhibit will later on
become the theme of general gossip in the
community, the country will without
doubt be as mad as March hare.
This listing system, wherever it has
been tried has proved fraud and delu-
sion. The men whom it was hoped
would be squeezed by it have always es-
capped, and persons of small means,
widows and orphans whose estates are
held in trust, have always been the peo-
pie to suffer by it. It has never for any
considerable length of time increased the
amount of property disclosed for taxa
ton. In the state of Illinois the amount
of personal property retained steadily
decreased under it and that too during a
period of prosperity unparalleled in the
history of the country. The only thing
it has been known to promote for any
considerable length of time is the art of
lying. That it has been very successful in
that direction there is no doubt. AS it
Furnishes men for being honest and re-
wards them for being dishonest that is
its natural and inevitable effect.
1t is utterly impossible to enforce
it. Merchants in our cities rather
than submit their accounts to the asses
sors once year-and that is what the
proposed bill virtually compels them to do
would abandon their business and flee
beyond the State. Indeed such disclo-
sure as the bill proposes would even
tually compel large per cent. of them
to abandon business whether they
wanted to do so or not. The income tax
which the government enacted as a war
measure proved so obnoxious that the
government was soon compelled to
abandon it. Such measure as the COM
mittee on taxation is now discussing
would prove infinitely more obnoxious,
and would be sure to overwhelm the
party or the men responsible for it,.
sh ould any genuine attempt be made to
enforce it. As matter of fact evidences
of debt, which is the property that the
listing system is designed to reach, are
bearing all the taxation they can stand
The average return on such property is
little, if any, in excess of four per cent.
To tax it one half of that amount, as
would be the case in most Of our cities,
is simply robbery. The revolt against
such taxation would be SO general and
so violent that to collect the tax the
tax gatherer would have to be supported
by an army. The Gear of Russia could
not Iexact any such tribute from his
subjects.