Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1903-09-23
NUMBER 43.
would pay three times it's proper
share of the state revenues.


The needs of the public are the
same whether the assessment is
high or low. The amount of tax
es to be raised is the same. IF
the assessment is high the rate is
correspondingly low, aud if the
assessment is low the rate is cor
respondingly increased.
Throughout West Virginia the
valuations are always lower than
they ought to be, aud the rate of
taxes levied ia too high.
One result of this is largely to
defeat the assessment of intangi-
BILE personal property, of notes
and bonds and claims.
FAILURE To ASSESS INTANGIBLE
PROPERTY.
Ii is not unfair to say that in
this state, at least in the towns
(and there the moe Of the intang-
ible property is held, the aggre-
gate of annual taxes of all kinds
is at least two and one-half per
cent. of the valuation. The rate
of income to be derived from first
class bonds or secure loans in the
same places does not exceed five
or at the most Six per cent.
Roughly speaking then, if the
holder of bonds and notes returns
them for taxation he must pay
one-half his income to the tax
gatherer.
PROPOSED PRIVILEGE TAXES.
1t is said the right to extract coal,
oil or gas from the earth is not the
kind of privilege or franchise au-
thoIized to be taxed by the consti-
tuition. The constitution says that
the Legislature has the power to tax
by uniform and equal laws all priv
ileges and franchises Of persons aud
corporations. What kind of priv
ilege is it that does not come within
the comprehensive phrase all privi-
leges and francbises2 Again it is
said hat this privilege or franchise
tax on the extraction of these min
erals is not made to apply to all
such privileges and franchises alike
as required by the constitution. 1t
is little doubtful what this state
ment is intended to mean. If il means
that like tax is not proposed for
all persons engaged in the business
of extracting these minerals, it is a
mistake Of fact If it is meant to
suggest that the legislature may not
impose such tax upon the privi-
lege or franchise of doing one sort
OF thing unless it imposes tax up
on the privilege or franchise of do
ing every other sort of thing, then
those who advanced this constitu-
tionsl objection did well not to ex.
press themselves any more clearly.
From time immemorial the state has
exercised the right of selecting those
occupations for which it would re-
quire license and from which it
would require license tax. As the
Supreme Court of the United States
says "license laws and all specific
taxes are universally imposed and
their illegality has never been ques-
y n Suppose all these cousti-
tutional objections were well taken,
that the arguments ia favor OF them
were just as strong as in fact they
are weak, something that would
make them inyihcible. But still
suppose that in the minds of the
people Of West Virginia it is right
and just and expedient to make
changes such as are proposed. How
long W uld the constitutional bar
riers which these gentlemen insist
on stand against that sense Of JUS
tice and right' No longer than it
would take by the constitutional
methods TO get rid of them. But it
is needless TO repeal them, needless
10 evade them; there is nothing in
them to make us pause, IL the ends
we seek are in fact just and right.
y -
LICENSE TAX ON COAL, OIL AND GAS
OPERATION.
The license tax on the production
OF coal, oil and gas is objected TO
because it is said to be tax on pro-
duction.
In one sense taxation on all per-
sonality is tax ON production be.
cause all such capital is simply the
stored up labor of the past. Yet
agree that no unnecessary taxes
should be imposed which a, e calcu-
lated to retard development and in
dustriai giowth. The trouble with
coal, oil and gas is that their pro
duction is not production IN the