The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-06-19
PICKED TO PIECES
President Morley of Bankers AS.
ISOLATION Assails Tax Laws.
IN HIS ANNUAL ADDRESS
Believes In Exemption From, Taxation
of Credts-Lawmakers to Blame,
According to His Oplnion-common
People the Real Capitalists.

Pointe Aux Barques. Mich, June IS
The treat of Wednesdays session OF
the Michigan Bankers association was
the lucid, trenchant discussion and
criticism OF the states taxation sys
tenn by President George B. Morley
who has made a special study of the
subject. The bankers thought so well
of the suggestions made by their presi.
dent that a committee was appointed
to consider their submission for in
dorsement by the bankers as the views
of the association on taxation.
Congressman William Alden Smith
Of Grand Rapids was introduced by
President Morley as the one to respond
to the welcome for the Michigan bank.
ers.
1t was 10 o'clock when Boos' Sagi-
nav band marched briskly into the
dancing pavilion, playing a catchy air.
The bankers obediently fell in behind
and filed the hall, many ladies also at
tending the session.
Fred H. Potter of Saginaw gave
what the bankers declare was one Of
time most forceful, welcoming ad-
dresses heard in the fifteen years Of
Michigan bankers conventions.
President Morley followed with his
annual address. In part he said:
Perhaps no subject has ever oc.
ntInin1 tho paindc nf ctafocnonn and
students of political economy more
than that of taxation, and the study
Of no subject, think / am safe in say
ing, has resulted in a wider divergence
of opinion and a greater conflict of
conclusions.
"As the individual lives Of this po-
litical association are of equal value
in the eyes of the law, so the burden
of public defense rests equally upoI.
all, regardless of wealth or position;
but the burden Of public expense-as
individuals differ widely in the posses.
sion of wealth-is imposed, or is in
tended to be imposed upon property
itself, rather than upon the individual,
that is, to be imposed upon individual
possessions of property. The problem
is q plain and comparatively simple
one could this principle be constantly
kept in view-that is, of the aggregate
visible property Of a political COM
munity certain per cent of it is found
to be necessary for the protection of
all of it; in ether words, for the public
expense, and this percentage is so lev
led and collected.
THAT the purchaser Of a piece Of
property should be taxed on it's full
credit obligation or mortgage on the
property, should be required to pay
nothing, is a proposition that strikes
the average voter as one savoring of
the rankest inequality, so that in his
attempt to avoid this seeming injus
tice by taxing credits as though they
were actual property, instead of being
representing property al
ready taxed, he works a real instead of
an apparent inequality by doubling the
amount Of actual property in existence
in every such case, with the necessary
result Of double taxation to that ex-
tent.
at is one of the truisms of political
economy, that upon whomever or
whatever tax may be imposed, the
tax is ultimately paid by the con-
sumner.
1.-THE fault, as may be readily per-
ceived, Is not with the fundamental
principle underlying our system of
taxation, but with our lawmakers play.
ing fast and loose with this principle.
The Real Capitalists.
"It is an established fact that the
common people are the real capitalists
Of country like ours. 1t is their
small deposits collected in the banks,
vast in their aggregate, that the in
1ustrial world depends upon for sup
port; therefore, any measure that en-
courages these deposits directly pro-
notes general prosperity and an in
creased employment Of labor, and any
measure that discourages them, like
taxing individual deposits, directly re-
ards prosperity and decreases the |
of labor.
at may be asked what superior ad. |
vantage would result, either to the
bank or to the state, under the pro-
posed system, over that existing now,
when the total assessed valuation of |
money and other property in the pos.
session of the banks would promise to |
equal the amount assessed against the |
capital stock Of the banks under our
present system. My reply to this is |
That it would remove the confusion |
Ind inequality that now exists, by ap- |
plying the same system of taxation to |
corporations that Is now APP
olied to other corporations; that is
{ would make all or our measures OF |
.oxation conform to the one general |
,r fundamental principle of taxation"