Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-02-11

already pay a. real estate tax. The new |
law, with Its habitation tax would be
! equivalent to double taxation in these
cases.
| At this point Mr.. Otis depressed to !
/ speak Of the effect of taxation on busi- |
| ness. He said three-fourths of the COM
| plants Of increased valuations in the
| business section OF the city came from
| tenants, who knew that increased valu- |
atoms meant increased rents. He said |
| it was a fact that business rents were
| going up in this city, while house rents
were coming down. He accounted for
this by the statement that the business
centre was congested while the ease in
| the money market encouraged the
building of dwelling houses beyond the
| demand.
The taxes upon corporations was the
next topic to call for calculation. Mr..
| Otis said it was the custom of the as
SCISSORS to tax the franchises of all Mass
achusetts corporations at at least 800
per share, for no corporation was al
| lowed to organize and do business under
& Massachusetts, charter unless all it's
capital was paid in. Beyond that the
assessors fix the valuation according to
| their judgment Before the recent in
| crease of the capital Of the Washbu1m x
Moen corporation It's stock was taxed at
$3.50 a share. After the increase the as
sessable value was fixed at $120. That
was the rate at which it was taxed last
year Boston and Albany railroad stock
was last year taxed at $216. There is a
| growing class Of corporations which do
business in Massachusetts under char
| tiers obtained in other states, Maine,
Rhode Island, West Virginia, for in
| stance. All the local assessors can tax
| on these corporations is the real estate,
machinery, stock, etc, unless they can
get hold of the holdings Of the individu-
al stockholders. They are able to do this
as regards Maine corporations, but can
not get lists of stockholders from the 9TH
er states named. His idea was that the
principal reason why Massachusetts,
men went to other states for corporation
| charters was that they might be able to-
water stock. He illustrated his point
| by saying that the Maine records
showed that there were Worcester stock
| holders in corporations chartered in
Maine who held stock to the par value
of SO, 463 go; while this stock, according
to current quotations, was worth but
1929. 1870. He contended that the differ
ence between these amounts was chiefly
water.
Mr.. Otis paid considerable attention
TO the contention of the Anu-Douole
Taxation League now before the state
legislature, and showed that he was
thoroughly opposed to most of its OBJ
jects. He illustrated by telling of
case within his personal knowledge,
where a man came from Manchester,
n. H., to live in Boston BE owned
/, $100, 600 worth of the stock of the Amos
keag mills, and brought that with him
The property of the mills were, Of
: course, taxed in New Hampshire, yet
the Boston assessors got after him and
made him pay taxes on the 100000 Of
personal property represented by his tax
certificates If they had not, he would
have had the privilege of educating his
six children in the public schools of
Boston for nothing; while his neighbor,
a childleSs man, owning 100000 worth
of real estate in Boston, would have had
to pay the bill Mr.. Otis insisted that
taxing property in foreign corporations
could not rightfully be called double
taxation
Mr. Otis argued that certificates of
i stock in corporations was really proper
ty, and should be taxed as such. regard
less of the taxes already paid on the
real and personal estate of the corpora
ton. He said that much Of the real es-
tate of railroads is exempt. Each road
has right of way five rods wide
which is absolutely exempt. Most of
the station property is on this strip. In
this city, for instance, two-thirds of
the land covered by the Union station
is exempt from taxation, as is five
siXths of the land covered by the little
station at Lincoln square. Not one town
in ten in the state can get any taxes
| from railroads.
AT this point the meeting resolved it.
self into an open parliament Of ques-
tons and answers. Senator Crane
wanted to know if Massachusetts, cap
| ital did not seek foreign corporation
charters to escape taxation as we'll as
to water stock; and Mr. Otis admitted
that might be the case. He said the
only tax on such corporations in Maine |
was a tax for recording, which did not !
amount to more than 5000 in any case, |
and was usually but $40 paid at the
time of taking out the charter. If it had |
not been that the assessors were able |
| to get hold of lists of Maine corpora |
| ton stockholders. there would doubtless
have been considerable evasion of tax
alton He admitted, in answer to an
other question relative to double taxa
ton, that there might seem to be some
| hardship in case like that of Grafton !
| q Knight, the nature of whose bus
mess compelled them to maintain ware |
! houses in Chicago and elsewhere. They |
We're taxed here and again in Chicago
ON the same property; but he contended |
that it was only fair that they should |
| pay in Illinois for the advantages they |
! enjoyed in the shape of a market there |
for their goods
Turning again to the report of the tax !
COMMISSION Mr.. OtlS said 1t would have |
the effect to relieve the national banks |
Of the state Of all local taxation, for the |
United States law, under which they
are Incorporated, says their stock /
shall not be taxed higher than any
other moneyed securities, and the COM
missions bill exempts all personal prop |
erty from taxation. The effect of the |
bill would also doubtless relieve the |
| savings banks of the one-half per cent
tax on their deposits, for they ought not |
to be taxed if other personal property |
goes free. incidentally Mr.. Otis made |
| the remark that he could make more
money If he should open an office to tell |
people how to evade taxation than he
did in his present position, and the au-
dience laughed.
Mr. Otis said there were favorite
towns in the state, where rich men go
for their health about the time the as
SCISSOR comes around. He would get rid
of this evasion of taxation by making
the taxation of personal property the i
same all over the state, say SIS per
thousand. This would leave the rich
tax dodger no excuse for leaving his I
comfortable home. He would also have
the assessors appointed instead of elect
ed, so they would not be afraid to dis
charge their whole duty. If all the per-
sonal property could be reached the
tax rate would go down to $40 on the
$1,000 And If the law on taxing mort
cages could be changed the tax would
be 50 less He claimed that the anti
double taxation of mortgages law was
failure. At this point Hon. T. j.
Hastings, who was the author of the