Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-04-04
WHAT NEW YORK RICH MEN
WILL Do.
THOSE MODERATELY WE'LL OFF
EXPECTED TO PAY.
Tax Officials Say That the Million
aires will pay What They Choose
or Move out of TOwn-Fifty of
the Wealthiest Men in Gotham.

descend upon us 1t is interesting to
see how the rich will evade it and the
comparatively poor will have to pay
says the New York Press. The way |
the personal property tax works makes
it plain. If you are simply prosperous
you have to pay or swear to a lie.
If you are very rich you can defy
the tax department., pay a little and
smile. An honest tax department
under the new order of things may
insist upon honest payment. where
upon fifty ~millionaires may move out
of town.
Not fifty persons taken at random
from the New York city directory
the public would not mind the exit
of that many or a hundred times their
number-but fifty of the richest men
in town. men whose aggregate wealth
is a billion and a fourth of dollars.
We could get along without them,
but their going would create quite a
little hub-bub and a great many per-
son who are now very prosperous
would be left without any source of
income.
The absence of these fifty for a pc
Rod Of three months in summer mean
that "Del'' will lose 5000 at least
from them alone. Places where ia
pestry, china and paintings are sold
are all closed-because Croesus is
basking on the sands at the seashore.
The saI~oon-keeper the absence
of the 200 men servants, who would
buy many cool drinks on hot days.
The swell grocer loses $4,000 a month
in custom from each one Of the fifty
who is out of the city. Expensive
mixed drinks, which are bought at the
Windsor and the Waldorf in the winter
are bought at seaside hotels in sum
mer.
President Barker, Of the tax depart
ment, can send them out of town to
live permanently. He sent George
Gould out to Lakewood to live, and
if William Waldorf AstOr becomes a
citizen of Great Britain, as the Cos
sins say he will. the smooth faced and
Mr.. Barker may be said to be
also responsible for such an unpatriotic
act on the part of a gentleman whose
grandfather enjoyed such uneXampled
opportunities in this country that he
arose from a humble dealer liz skins
to be the greatest real estate magnate
in the land. The objection which our
New York CrOesuses have to Mr.. Bar
ker is that he taxes their personal
II t. commonly 90
cteDted fact that they are not taxed
nearly as much as they deserve.
They do not object to the real estate
tax. There would be no sense in that.
The land is there. They canno eX
press it out of the city as they can
a trunkful of bonds, and they have to
, take up whatever valuation the asses
sor places upon it unless they can CON
! vince the assessor that he has made a
mistake.
/ Whether or not the tax department
is ethically right in pursuing what
President Barker would cali a dipIo-
matte course is not q hard question to
answer. It is not. When Russell Sage
is worth 800, 900. 900. and that money
is in personal property almost entirely,
he should pay just nine thousand
times as much personal property tax
as his more modest fellow citizen who
is worth only $4,000. But he does
not. President Barker would look
upon him as Il philanthropist if he
paid two thousand times as much.
When your personal taxes are higher
than you think it is right or, per-
hapS, you want them to be-yOu go
before the tax board and-swear them
off. If the tax department thinks that
you have misrepreSented matters to
them they stick to their original as
sessment. In bridging over. the chasm
between the two ratings there is a
great opportunity for tax department
diplomacy.
Mr.. Sage does not swear off his
personal taxes. This eminent1y shrewd
old gentleman probably knew what
the amount Of his personal property
tax would be before they had his
name down on this years tax roll.
When he got a notice from the tax
department of what his personal tax
would be, he went up to see one of
the officials, and this is the nature of
the conversation that took place:
II got a little slip from you today"
says Mr.. Sage, and he rubs his chin
and winks his eye III the fashion Gus
tomary with him when he has clinch-
ed a loan at 6 per cent. you say I'm
worth twenty millions of personal
property" Here Mr.. Sage glanced
down at his ready made suit, and
looks very poor.
yes. sir, and we thought that a
very low figure"
you don't know as I'm worth ten !
hundred. How are you going to prove
it,"
"Well, Mr.. Sage, will you swear on
oath that you are worth Iess:"
II won't make any statements. But
I guess I will pay you about a thou
sand dollars this year. If you make
it any more III pull up stakes and go
out on a farm"
And that is how it happened last
year that Russell Sage. who is worth
Q 100000. and whose property is
known o be almost entirely personal,
paid only 500 personal property tax
toward the support of the government
Of the City of New York.
Those ~millionaires simply will not
pay any more than they choose said
Mr.. Mclean, of the tax department
They al say the same thing-that