The Republican journal., 1900-03-15
The Question Of Taxation.

we can never nope TO see satisfactorily
solved. The best we can expect is a com :
promise. OF the agitation in this direc-
ton the Portland Press we'll says: 1.-THE
public have reason to distrust about
equally the corporation and the profes :
sional agitator in this business. Neither
of them is likely to devise system of
taxation that will be fair and equal
The question of taxation has just been
Investigated by joint committee of the
Portland city council, and the foregoing
quotation is from an editorial review of
their report. The situation in Portland
can hardly differ from that in other Maine
cities, and, relatively, in the smaller
places. In Portland it is found that real
estate and visible personal property, such
as stocks of goods, bear their full share
of public burdens, while bonds and stocks
succeed to considerable extent in evad-
ing the assessors and the tax gatherers.
But the most glaring cases of property
escaping taxation are found, the commit
tees say, in the electric railroad, electric
lights and telephone companies. "Assum.
ing their conclusions correct, and, that is
by no means violent assumption" says
the Portland Press, "what is to be done
about it. The first thing that must be
done is to improve the laws. The next
to elect assessors who will have the cour-
Il
pressure" The Portland Advertiser calls
attention to the fact that in order to
elect the assessors by the people, and
make them directly responsible to the
people, a change in the charter will be
necessary; and the Press says that ''for
this reason and many others the charter
ought to be changed. Nothing is more
absurd than attempting to manage city af-
fairs in 1900 on the same lines as in lS4O''
THAT city as progressive as our in
most things, should still be trying to
to manage its municipal affairs under d
charter made when the city was a small
village, is ridiculous.
The efforts of Portland in this direction
will be watched with interest Mean
while New York State has entered upon
what Gunton's Magazine terms ''the task
OF reforming its crazy quilt taxation sys-
tenn" Some of the reforms proposed
seem to be far worse than the evils they
are expected to remedy. For example,
it is proposed to levy special tax for
State purposes on mortgages. "Tbis,"
says Gunton's Magazine. practically
makes real estate owners who are in
debt contribute TO the State revenues
and let's those that are not in debt 90 free
Thus the Astors and other millionaire
property owners will escape the State tax,
while every struggling owner of mort
gagged house viii have to pay. 1t is said
that for local purposes mortgages are to
be exempt from taxation, but what of
that; the mortgaged property is to be
taxed for local purposes at its full value,
regardless of the mortgage, just the same
as the unmortgaged property of the mil
lionaire.'' In short, this is double taxa
ton for the poor and single taxation for
the rich. Another bill introduced in
the New York Assembly proposes to
make the amount OF the State tax in each
county proportionate to the amount ex
pended for local purposes If the people
OF given county are especially energetic
and progressive and spend literally for
schools, highways, and other public i'm
provements, their State tax will be pro-
portionately incre ased. To illustrate: If
some tax reformer should introduce and
the Maine legislature should enact such
measure. Waldo county would have to
pay an increased State tax for the court
house extension and the improvements on
the South Primary school building
These illustrations only serve to show
the difficulties in the way of real tax re
form. Ia these, and in some other direc
lions, the proposed remedies are worse
than the disease. But whatever may be
accomplished in the future, the Portland
Press is undoubtedly right in the asser-
ton that nothing can be expected from
the professional agitators or from the
corporation or its representatives..
The question of tariff for Puerto
Rico involves a more important issue =
that of the status of Pnerto Rico and the
Philippines; and since this has been made
manifest the matter has assumed differ
ent light. Those who are contending for
free trade with Puerto Rico claim that the
Constitution extends of its own force to
this and the other islands acquired; and