The San Francisco call., 1898-04-03
THE TAX-PAYING CLASS.

\ HEN Benjamin Harrison Washingtons \N| birthday delivered in Chicago his address on the evils of tax-shirking by the rich and uttered his famous warning that this country cannot continue half taxed and half untaxed his statement of facts was generally accepted correct and that basis his conclusions widely approved and com nended.
 It appears, however, that there was at least one in the nation who did not accept the statement of the ex-Presdent. This was w. w. Baldwin of Bur lington, Iowa. Not having any data ready to his hand by which to refute the premises of the emi- nent orator he set about gathering them from the tax7ros of his city, and has recently made pub lie the results of his search in array of statistics which show that in Burlington, at any rate it is not the socaed poor people, but the rich, at least the well-todo, who pay nearly the entire cost of the mun cipal government.
 According to Mir. Baldwin the city of Burlington, by census taken in 1885, had population of 25246, of whom I3,ooo adults 684o being men, and of these 6653 voters. The records show that the general taxes of the city paid by 4o3S persons of whom 83o women Thus more than half of the voters paid tax at all, and out of the whole number of adults more than twothrds, or over 71 per cent, paid no tax.
 Among the taxpayers there were 1896 whose prop
 
 aggregate taxes amounted to less than per cent of the whole amount raised. Thus it appears that about per cent of the adult population pay virtually the whole amount of municipal taxes Even among these, moreover, the taxation is very unevenly di- vided. The twenty-two largest taxpayers, together with three national banks and six corporations, pay fully one-third of the whole amount and the re- mander IS paid by some 2ooo citizens who represent the prosperous wel-to-do business men of the com munity.
 Mir. Baldwin claims that Burlington may be taken fairly representative American city and that the conditions there not widely different from those in other cities of the country. He therefore main7 tans that three fouts of the adult urban population of the United States pay no taxes and that these n clude all that be called poor Hence he concludes that the dctum of General Harrison was not founded upon truth and that the conclusions drawn from his statement of facts were unwarranted . ;.
 The argument, of which we have given but sum- mary, is good one but it does not fairly meet the point to which it addressed. Mr. Harrison did not say that men of moderate wealth like the good citizens of Burlington do not pay their share of taxes nor did his words carry any such implication His charge directed against the giant corpora tions, monopoes and putocrats of the larger cities of the Union. If Mir. Baldwin will transfer the scene of his studies from Burlington to Chicago and find the records there that the greater mlonares pay in proportion their wealth much as the average citizen of means, he will have refuted Mir. Harrison but not until then In the meantime, however, he has made an interesting study of municipal taxation in an average American community, and for that he merits the thanks of all who are interested in such subjects