Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-10-08
Views of ex-President Harrison.

| Harrison:
1T is part of our individual cove
| nant as citizens with the state that we
! will, honestly and fully, in the rate or
| proportion fixed from time TO time by law,
/ contribute our just share TO all public
| expenses. A full and conscientious dis
| charge of that duty by the citizen is one
| of the tests of good citizenship To
evade thai duty is a moral delinquency,
an unpatri0tic act.
Il want TO emphasize, if l can, the
thought that the preservation of this
! principle Of q proportionate contribution,
| according to the true value of what each
man mas, TO the public expenditures is
| essential 10 the maintenance of our free
institutions and Of peace and good order
! in our communities.
The pulpit, the press, every agency
| that deals with public, social and moral
questions should lend its help: There
should be committees OF public safety,
for fellow citizens, l do not exaggerate
when | say that the public safety is in
VOWED in more equal administration of
! our tax laws. Returns and assessments
must be equal and honest"
| How these noble sentiments appeal to
our loyalty to government! How they
| refresh and inspire us and purify the
| moral atmosphere, making clear and
| plain the obligations Of wealth. Let
them never be forgotten.
care not if some theoretical writer's
! Stdl4LiS Tie dCddtullC view De QQoleu Oh
| the other side, il some attempts to make
these t1x-dodgers pay up have failed in
| the past. The discussion of this ques-
! ton, the endeavor justly and equally 10
| tax this with every other class of prop
| erty will never be abandoned in Wlscon-
| sin until earnest, honest, persistent, in
telligent effort demonstrates its futility.
Assessment o. Intangible Property Not
! Failure.
| But such effort VIII not fail. 1t has
! not failed. Proceeding under the guild
ance of the tax commission, we are al
! ready making such progress that the
| people of the state who are paying the
| expense of this work will not tolerate
| any halt or turning back. The returns
| now in for thirty-sevcn counties show an
| average increase in the discovery and as
sessment of notes, bonds, mortgages and
| other taxable securities amounting to
| $665,50S to the county. This is a SPLEEN
| did showing for a beginning and strongly
| refutes the claim that this class of prop
erty canot be reached for taxation.
Ali but We are warned that interest
rates will be raised IL these holders of
mortgages and other securities are re-
| quired to pay their taxes. The loaners of
money viii always in the future, as they
| have in the past, secure as much interest
as they can from the borrower, but the
interest rate will not be controlled by
local conditions entirely. The fact is,
however, that this scare" argument of
| a rise in interest rate is always ad-
vanced by the mortgage owner who is
| opposed TO being taxed, or by someone
| especially solicitous of his interests, and
there are no statistics which | have been
sble to find supporting any such state
| ment. But supposing it were true, after
| all is not that just? Is 1t fair n order
to keep the interest rate down a little
lower for the benefit of the comparative
~.
| large wealth who borrow on large scale
| to make the men who do not borrow
| pay the taxes Of the rich mortgage own
| err But we are warned further that if
the state makes these tax-dodgers p9y
up they will send their money out Of the
state. Where will they send it? On
| every side the states are waking up to
the importance and the justice of making
| aM property carry its fair share of the
| tax burden and it will be a difficult mat
ter for these unpatriotic gentlemen, il
any such there really be, to find haven
where the tax-gatherer is not certain to
seek them out.
Escape of Mortgages from Taxation I'm
just to Other Property Owners.
10! No! He who urges that those
who have SO long escaped paying their
taxes should be allowed to continue so
doing Is unjust to the thousands of hold
ers of mortgages who do pay. He is I'M
just TO the tens of thousands Of other
taxpayers who have no mortgages, but
| who do own stores and factories, and
shops and farms and homes and must
pay on what they own, and, in addition,
| just so much more because these nil
lions of fat interest-bearing mortgages
| and other securities hide from the as
sessor He Is furnishing the railroad
and other public-serviee corporations
with a further excuse for putting oil
| L - yh0E Ahnx-
owe. The logic of such an argument is
as memorable us fate. If it is unjust
and "harebrained" to make the mortgage
owner pay who has heretofore escaped
upon the ground that the law as to him
has become Obsolete the rail-
roads will say that it is unjust to seek to
apply to them the principle of equal tax
alton which as to them has been inopera-
| tive long enough to be called Obsolete"
What a happy day for law violators in
| general when they may invoke the prece-
dent OF their own wrong-doing as a pro-
| lection for continued violation of the
| law on the score that they and a lot Of
other fellows have beat the law, until
they may now boldly declare that i is
Obsolete" Such an argument ought to
be Obsolete"
What is and What is Not Double Taxa
ton.
Further objection is made to assessing
| mortgages which have heretofore escaped
| taxation on the ground that 1t Is double
| taxation" Now double taxation is a
good term to employ in making a criti-
| cism. 1t carries with it a certain preju-
| dice and at once enlists support for the
| critic. But really, this criticism is SO
| specious that it would almost seem to
| have been made by someone In the inter
| est Of the tax-dodger. Let US examine
| il for Just one moment.
Who Is "doubly taxed" by taxing a
mortgage which has heretofore evaded
taxation? Not the tax-dodging owner of
| the mortgage, because he has not been
taxed at Ell on it before, and is taxed
| now only because he has been forced to
"dig it up" under law which has made
the assessor more vigilant. Not the own
| er Of the real estate covered ~ the mort
| capped taxation; it has always been found
| by the assessor and he has always been
taxed upon it in full, just as though it
| was unmortgaged. The owner of the
real estate then is not "doubly taxed"
or otherwise affected by taxing this mort
| gage, for his contract with the owner Of
the mortgage can in no respect be
| changed without his consent. Then, 50
far, no one has been ''doufiy taxed" by
| taxing the mortgage thai escaped taxa
ton before.
But we have double taxation" in this
state Not, however, as a result of any
| law enacted during the last session Of
| the Legislature Double taxation" is
/ au-lvr 1r,1A INF md 20