The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-01-16
MYSTERIOUS SHRINKAGES

The apparent shrinkage in valua-
tions of personal property through
out the United States is becoming
more and more a matter of sur
prise and comment. About three
years ago the San Francisco Chronicle
published some astonishing statistics
showing that while one of the largest
private corporations in this state had
been adding enormo asly to its personal
property. the assessors books revealed
a great decrease in the value of that
company's personal holdings. Similar
cases are reported from all directions,
and especially from large cities. An
example of shrinkage in rural district
is furnished by San Joaquin county, in
which the total assessment of personal
property for 1895 was 1927 900 less than
for the previous year.
But one of the most striking illustra-
tions of this kind was recently fur
nished by William Stead in his book
on Chicago. In 1878 the assessment of
Chicago property, real and personal,
wac $3l2072,965. In 1898 the total was
only $685. 79O351. Thus there was an
apparent shrinkage in twenty years of
about $700O0000 And yet it is a
notorious fact that during those two
decades the amount and the value Of
property in that city enormously in
creased. The great fire which devas-
tated Chicago occurred near the close
of 1871, so that beginning about the
first of 1878 the burned city was hav
ing a building boom such as no city
had ever before experienced. Land
values grew very rapidly and improve
ments and all kinds of personal prop
erty increased in quantity at an un-
precedented rate. Yet, after such a
growth had been going on with slight
relaxation for twenty years, it was dis
covered that values had shrunk as
above stated. An idea of how assess
ments were there made in 1898 may be
obtained from the fact that Marshall
Field, the multi-millionaire mer-
chant prince, was assessed at
only $4,000 for all his i'm
provements and personal property;
P. d. Armour, the equally wealthy
packer, on $4,000; Geo. M. Pullman,
who owns most of the city of Pullman
and its three or four thousand wage
workers. $4,000; and Potter Palmer,
the hotel prince, on $4,000.
Now the fact is there have been no
such shrinkages of values on personal
as the assessors books indi-
Gated in the cases mentioned. The key
to the apparent mystery is the fact
that the assessment of any kind of
except land, is farce. It is
not assessed fairly, uniformly and hon.
estly. It never was thus assessed and
it never will be. Moreover, hundreds
of millions of dollars worth of prop
erty other than land escapes taxation
every year. That this is the case no
person who investigates the subject
can doubt.
A few illustra tions in California as
sessments may be offered in support of
this statement.
According to the report of the state
board of equalization for 1894 it ap.
pears that on Me-ch LIST # that year
Main and Santa Barbara counties con-
tanned 1914 horses, but we're destitute
of oats, barley and hay. San Fran
cisco county had nearly two thousand
fewer horses than Fresno county. The
counties of Glenn, Kings, Lassen, Ma
rim, Santa Barbara, Suffer and Yolo
had not pint of whisky, wine, nor any
other liquor. Del Norte, Lassen, Mo-
doc, Plumas, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou
and Tuolumne had neither wood nor
coal-a condition calculated to make
chills creep over the frame of every
person who thinks of it. Amador
county had not single firearm. In
1872 there was nearly $220,000,000 worth
of personal property in this state,
which shrunk to $l65,O00,000 in 1894.
And yet the assessed value of land iu-
creased in that period two and one-half
times.
The taxpayers of this country can
not too soon open their eyes to the alb
surdities, incongruities and rank injus-
tice of our existing taxation system.
It is wrong and rotten. It violates
natural laws, trenches on natural
rights, invites perjury and bribery, and
lays the heaviest burdens on those
least able to bear them. There must
be such thing as natural, scien-
tific, an easily collectible tax, which can
be levied just where it belongs, will
work injustice to none, and will raise
all tho public revenue required by any
government, large or small, that is
managed honestly and with reasonable
economy.
A SLUGGING DETECTIVE
Detective 7. Il. Goodman of the local