The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-23

| Of personal property seem to have been al
most eliminated from the tax list.
In New York state the proportion Of per-
sonal property assessed for taxation Is only
| about IL per cent of the total amount of
| property taxed. Yet Controller Roberts, of
| that state, expresses the opinion that the
| taxable personal property owned in the state
| is at least equal to the amount of real
estate. Illinois and many other states present
| the same condition, differing only in degree.
| 1t is easy to see how this offense against
patriotism has grown to such proportions,
has promoted it. One man sees that his
neighbor is not making conscientious tax
return, and that if he returns his property
result is that his conscience finds a salve
in the saying, Everybody does it,
1t is probably also true that under the tax
laws of many of states double taxation
results, and tax payers take it upon them
selves to remedy this defect in the law, not
by the methods prescribed in the constitu-
ton. but by leaving off from their tax re-
turns such stock and securities as they sup
pose to be taxed in other states.
The most serious aspect of this state Of
things is the injury which results to those
who practice these fraudulent evasions. The
man who is robbed has not lost his character
or sef-respect; but the other man has lost
both Taxes are debt of the highest obli-
CATION and no casuist can draw sound
moral distinction between the man who hides
his property or makes false return in order
to escape the payment of his debt to the
state, and the man who conceals his property
more difficult to follow the defaulter in the
one case than in the other. If our taxes were
farmed out to individual or to a corpora
ton they would be collected fully as
private debts are now collected There would
be a vigilant and unrelenting pursuit The
civil and criminal processes of the law would
be invoked with effect, just as they were
against fraudulent debtors under the bank
When to this enormous and crying evil
Is added the corruption which it is alleged
has characterized the appraisements of real
estate, we have a condition of things with
which we dare not palter We must inaugu-
rate, and at once, system that shall eqUaliZe
tax burdens. The men of wealth in our great
communities should lead the movement. This
for loyalty and patriotic citizenship, should
hear a call loud and imperative as that
which came to it during the years of the
Civil war.
Mr. Lincoln's startling declaration that this
country could not continue to exist half slave
and half free may be paraphrased today by
exist half taxed and half free.
Sense of Inequality.
This sense of inequality breathes fierce
and unmeasuring anger-creates class:s, in
tensifes social differences, and makes men
willing to pay their debts in half-dollars.
The just sacredness Of these money obliga-
tions, the right of the holders to be paid in
money of full value will be clearer to these
angry men if they see that these securities
paying fully their lawful taxes.
Where is the moral distinction between the
act of putting one hand in a neighbours
pocket and clandestinely abstracting his
pocketbook and the fraudulently shifting Of
debt that is owed to another?
If there is not enough public virtue left in
our communities to make tax frauds discred-
table; if there is not vitality enough left
in laws and in the administration Of JUS
tice in our courts to bring to punishment
those who defraud the state and their neigh
bors; If crimes of fraud may stalk unre-
buked and unpublished in our streets; how
long will it be until crimes of violence make
insecure the fortunes that have refused to
contribute ratably to the cost of maintaining
social order?
The failures which have accompanied. in an
increased ratio, the attempt to collect the
personal property tax, have led many tax re-
formers to favor its total abolition, and the
substitution of other forms of taxation. The
failure of the wealthy holders of these in
tangible securities to pay their just proper
ton of the cost of government has stimulated
a demand for special forms of taxation and
for progressive taxation, with a view in some
measure to recoup to the community the
losses which are inflicted by evasive and
fraudulent tax returns These efforts should
serve as a warning. The people will not
consent that this state of things shall be
accepted as a permanent condition. If we