The Topeka state journal., 1900-12-27

ard of value. The supreme court Of the
United States has sustained a rule of val
debt to the cash value of the shares say
ing that this fixes the value by the action
difficulty in applying this standard, how
ever, is the duetuating market value OF
The other states enforcing the tax upon
value, there is no fixed standard, but the
assessors, and their finding as a rule is
not revleWable by the courts Assess
has been found impracticable, and the
system has been very generally establish
state by a state board, who apportion the
same to the different counties and cities
Judicially sustained, IS open to the OBJ
lection that it discriminates against cities
where valuable terminals are located. and
that value IS distributed over the state
This assessment BY state boards Sc
cures uniformity of valuation as between
but a very serious difficulty is in secur-
ing uniformity with other classes Of .props
erty- II IS notorious that property IS NOT
assessed at its cash value, and in some
states this practice has been recognized
by statute In Missouri a careful investi-
cation disclosed that railroads were as
sessed at about 81 per cent of the fun
mileage in that state. while average as
sessment of farm property was consider
ably less, about 30 per cent, and the as
sessment of city property in St. Louis was
from so to 10 per cent The difficulty
which the courts find in dealing with the
recognized practice of assessing property
at less than its cash value is Illustrated
in a recent case in the United States cir
cult court from Tennessee where it is
held that the habitual assessment of rail-
road property at a higher valuation than
other property justified equitable relief,
although the statute required all property
to be assessed at its full value
THE law should provide a judicial rem
edy for inequalities In assessments, the
sources of state and municipal revenue
should be separated and the entire reve-
nue. from the assessment of the roadbed
and rolling stock of railroads should be
"A definite standard should be estab-
lshed of value by capitalizing the net rev.
sIlueS unueT me inIieage RUE, or the Tax
should be levied upon the net earnings.
Thus the company would pay according
to its. ability from the income available
would share in the profits so realized.
The taxation of companies holding mu-
the exaction of conditions by municipal
tiles in the form of charges upon earn
ings, which are taxes in effect. The New
York franchise tax law recognized this
chise tax IN such cases These princsples
of taxation look to the taxation of all
property tangible and intangible Of these
corporations, but justice is violated by its
being taxed more than once, just as by its
escaping taxation The value is taxed ir-
respective of the residence of the stock
and bondholderS whose securities repre-
sent mat Value Justice in taxation can
only be secured by exempting the citizen
other state or country Practically, such
holdings escape taxation except in the
and the result is a scandalous inequality
in taxation which is as repugnant to
common honesty as it is to economic tax
ation
Following the reading of the papers
there was lively discussion of the sub
Jec- matter participated in by Prof F.,
r. Seligman, of Columbia university:
James B. Dill, New York; Arthur j.
ley, of the Massachusetts institute of
technology and others.