The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-23

we are to admit that the obligations of pub
lie duty and of personal veracity and integ-
rity are so little felt by our people, and
that our administrative and judicial pro-
cesses are so inadequate that tax frauds
cannot be measurably restrained, hope for
the country is eclipsed.
The failures which have accompanied, in
an increased ratio, the attempt to collect
the personal property tax, have led many
tax reformers to favor its total abolition,
and the substitution of other forms of tax
alton. The failure of the wealthy holders
of these intangible securities to pay their
Just proportion of the cost of government
has stimulated demand for special forms
of taxation ard for progressive taxation,
with view in some measure to recOup TO
the community the losses which are in
fiicted by evasive or fraudulent tax re-
turns. The people will not consent that the
present state or things shall be accepted as
a permanent condition.
The spirit of discomfort is rife. The far
mer, the man of moderate circumstances.
has unfailingly and unfalteringly rallied to
suppress mob violence and to preserve the
peace of our communities. These men are
not agrarians. or Socialists, or Anarchists,
or covetous of other mems goods but they
will not. and they ought not to permit the
tax burdens upon their smaller properties
to be doubled by the evasions and frauds
of the holders of these intangible securi-
ties.
Professor Seligman, of Columbia Univer-
sity, a very eminent authority on political
economy, says: THE farmers here, like the
landlords there (Florence, italy, complain.
with justice, that, owing to the failure OF
to pay not only their share but the share Oh
others. The townsman's personally
practically escapes. Hence the unrest of the
present day: hence the dissatisfaction OF
the rural districts; hence the continual ef-
forts made to enforce the taxation of per-
sonalty by the system of sworn returns
known as the listing system. =
The personal property. tax, he thinks,
does not secure equality, but incites 10 dis-
honesty, and does not respond to the Amer
lean sense of justice. He. however. repre-
sents the farmer as responding to the sus-
gestion of the abolition Of the personal
property tax thus: IF the state succeeds
in collecting only part of the tax, is that
any reason for our abandoning the whole
tax and saddling ourselves with the re-
mainder?"
A very great difficulty in the proper ad.
juStment of the state laws is forcing itseiI
upon the public mind. growing out or our
federal organization. &ef0re the adoptlOn OF
the Constitution when each State made its
own tariff laws, the power to levy lmpostS
was practically nullified By the competitions
between the States. They underbid each
other. The solution was found in contiding
the tax upon imports wholly TO the national
government which could establish and
maintain equal rates in all parts of the
United States. In a measure the same en-
barrassment is now being felt in the franz
ing and administration of the tax laws or
the several States. Real or simulated
changes of residence are made from one
State to another with view to finding the
most favorable tax conditions, OF the most
pliabe assessors.
Professor, Seligman suggests the neces--
sty of the spirit of interstate comfy,
with view to arranging for substan-
TALLY identical treatment of these compl1-
Gated tax questions, and adds: If the
American attempts at voluntary cO-Opera-
ton be not successful, the time may yet
come when these will be replaced by COM
pulsory cooperation. In a, community
where the pressure of economic forces has
made us primarily citizens of the United
States. and only secondarily citizens OF the
separate States, Il system of taxation,
based upon the idea of separatism and
mutual jealousy rather than of unity, can
not permanently endure.
SEEKING A REMEDY.
1t is not easy, however, to see how fed
eIal control of these questions can be es-
tablished. The States are not likely to sur
render such important powers to the ma
tional government. Yet / think it would
be quite well to assemble a convention of
tax commissioners from all the States to
discuss this intricate and exigent problem
Possibly some general principles might be
agreed upon that would remedy the just
complaints of double taxation, especially in
the case of corporate properties and secur-
tiles.
| cannot believe, however, that it is i'm
possible so to stir the cOnScienceS of our
people, so to stimulate the independence
and courage of our assessors and of our
courts and prosecutors as to secure fairly
general enforcement of the personal prop
erty tax. l know that men hesitate to call
a neighbOr to judgment in this matter. We
have too much treated the matter of a
mans tax return as a personal matter. We
have put his transactions with the State
on much the same level with his transact
tons with his banker. but that is not the
true basis. Each citizen has q personal