The morning call., 1893-06-12
WILL PAY NO TAXES.

The contention of Mr. Alexander Center
that the Pacific Mail steamships should
pay no taxes in San Francisco because
they are registered in New York cannot
be reconciled with any intelligent concep-
ton of the principles of taxation. Prop
erty is taxed. not where it was created, but
where it is used. 1t pays taxes as an
equivalent for the protection which it re-
ceives from the community; it is protected
where it is, not where it is not. A house is
taxed where it stands on its foundation,
not where its owner lives or where the
stones and lumber of which ii is built were
procured. AS to the registry of a ship,
that is a mere formality adopted for the
purpose of identifying the vessels nation
ality, and has no Significance so far as her
obligations are concerned.
Mr.. Center's employer knows perfectly
well that the New York Assessor would
not assess the Pacific Mail steamships for
taxation, simply because he could not find
them in his district. He does not go to
the CustOm-house to overhaul the record
of registers issued to vessels with a view
to assessing them all wherever they may
be. He assesses those which he finds at
the wharves of New York at some time
in the course of the year. If the San Fran
cisco Assessor should allow Mr.. Center to
persuade him not to assess Pacific Mail
steamers because they are registered In
New York the result would be that they
would escape taxation altogether, W hich IS
what the president of the Pacific Mail
wants. The disiugenuOusness of his con-
tention is made conspicuous by his recent
statement that the Pacific Mail Company
is going out OF the steamship business on
the Atlantic side in order to confine itself
TO the business on the Pacific side.
II was bad policy to raise the, contro-
versy. Every one knows that very rich
people manage in some way or other to
evade taxation, and that the bulk of the
taxes are paid by persons of moderate
means. Every assessor will admit that the
mIlliOnaires of The day escape their share
of the contribution which the State and
the city expect every man to make toward
the support of the Government according
to his means. How it is done is not gen.
orally known. Most assessors are prone
to be lenient with rich men. 1t pays to
make friends with the wealthy class
Again, there are devices by which money
and securities are placed ont of reach Just
at the time the assessor calls round. When
United States bonds were more plentiful
than they are now private bankers and
capitalists put the bulk of their money
into them before assessment day, so that
they could swear they had no property
subject to State taxation. Other tricks
have been devised to attain the same re-
suit. and thus it often happens that on the
real estate roll and the personal property
rcll men who are known 10 be millonaires
appear to be possessed of little taxable
property.
AS the world grows older and the weight
OF taxation presses more heavily on people
of moderate means, these tricks and de-
vices will be exposed and the rich will be
made to paw according to their means. 1t
is obviously unwise for them to provoke
investigation. They ought to let sleeping
dogs lie. In this very Pacific Mail case
the assessments on the steamers which,
according to Mr.. Huntington, ought to pay
no taxes are singularly moderate.
The Pacific Mail Company is the type of
a class. Men who could lend half million
on satisfactory security pay taxes on fifty
thousand; buildings which are worth a
quarter of million escape with taxation
on quarter of that amount. But when il
comes to applying the present rule regard
ing assessments 10 small dwelling nouses
the assessor is apt to take a sanguine view
of the value and prospects OF real property.