Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-01-17


or individuals, who, as to the great
mass of personal property, assess
themselves: the percentage of as
sessed of market value of the rail-,
ways being 20 5-1O0 as against IL 9-l00
for all other personal property in
1899. In no case, however, should
the assessment be left to the tax
payer, whether corporation or indly;d-
ual, without some check or safeguard
for the state. If the railway compa-
MES are to be taxed directly by assess
ment upon the value of their property.
then | have no hesitation in saying
that the assessment should be made
by state board of the highest possi-
bic character and ability. If the pres
ent system of license fee, fixed at a
certain rate per cent upon gross earn
ings, is to be continued, then l recon-
mend that there be reposed in some
representative of the state, either the
tax commission or board of assess
ment, authority to increase the
amount of gross earnings, reported by
any railway company, to such sum as
will, in the judgment of the commits
sion or board of assessment, render
the amount just and equitable as rep
resenting the actual gross earnings of
the company reporting the same; that
such be taken as prima facie evidence
of the actual gross earnings of such
railway company; but that any rail-
way company considering itself
aggrieved by the sum so fixed as gross
earnings may appear before such COM
mission or board of assessment and be
fully heard, and produce witnesses
and evidence in their behalf in respect
thereto. The final determination of
the commission or board should in
some form be subject to the supervi-
sion of the courts. Authority to in
crease the amount or value of person
al property of the individual, as re-
turned by him, is now conferred upon
the assessor by statute. Like author
ity should be given the tax commits
sion or board of assessment with re
spect to the corporation, if taxed upon
it's own report of gross earnings.
with no other class of property is
there presented so fragrant an exam
pie of open disregard of the law as in
the case of bonds mortgages, securt
ties, and the average amount of
money in possession and on deposit.
; A conservative estimate, based upon
the latest accessible data together
with the census figures for 1890,
shows real-estate mortgages in Wis
consin amounting to $110,000,0 900.
This takes no account of unrecorded
. securities, computed at $685. ,000
1t is therefore safe to say that not
over five per cent. of the taxable
notes, bonds and mortgages in the
state pays any tax whatever. The
, average amount of money in posses
, sion and on deposit which the assess
or succeeded in finding and returning
as taxed in 1898 was only S7,163, 444
, On the first Monday in July, 1898, the
, state and private banks alone re
, ported to the state treasurer money
, on deposit amounting to $40,976, 5l2.7
The report of the United States comp
} troller of the currency shows that on
the 5th of May, 1898, the very month
in which assessments were made,
there was in the national banks of
Wisconsin s46,224 POI 43 Or in both
national, state and private banks on
these two dates In 1898 an aggregate
of sS7 1900, 513.50. More than S0,OOO,-
900 of this money wholly escaped tax
alton that year.
81 know well it is urged that any
attempt to place these Sinking mil
lions on the assessment rolls win be
wholly futile, and end in paying a pre-
MUM on perjury, increasing the inter
est rate, and driving money out of the
state. But we should remember that
no persistent, resolute, determined
effort has been made to enforce the
existing tax laws, much less correct
even their more manifest defects and
give to their provisions vitality and
force. In some states there have been
spasmodic attempts to reach some
classes of property, quickly discour
aged and discredited, however, by
those interested in having others pay
their taxes. 1t is only very recently
that real, thorough-going tax reform
has been generally inaugurated. And
when some adequate penalty has been
attached to an assessors failure to
perform his duty; when it is made
some ones business to see to it that
the assessor obeys the laws or pays
the penalty, when individuals and cor
porations are subjected to the same
searching examination as to conceal
ment respecting taxable property that
the fraudulent debtor now encounters
in trying to avoid his other liabilities,
when the attempt to make ones
neighbor pay ones taxes meets the
same public condemnation and the
same legal punishment that the indi-
vidual encounters in trying to defraud
the individual or the corporation. -
then the first of these objections will
be effectually disposed Of The so.
, called Intangible property-notes.
bonds and mortgages-will then be-
come tangible and assessable property.
Dat l..