Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-02-03
Tax.Dodging as a Science.

TaN-I1d ing seems u hc common
all over the country. 10 Neg York
State, which shon,d ct An example az
rectitulo, The his fish, financially. arc
nnt.rinus Tor their frol.csomc ti~p9>i-
ti"" . cNa1e t." taN!'ayer. !. : ia
ed that only twenty of the ni,!iouai,, :
anl uu!t: mil..o3air,s pay upon an
assessment Of hall a million o. personal
property, and tuat nearly all G.! these
are women. Right here, in Thuraton
county, t." same unjust inequality
has been apparent between the taX
levlos upon professional dodgers, found
only among the stcrner sex, and Of
those upon women whose innate in
tegrity had impelled them to make q
fair return, under full realization Of
the solcmnity Of an oath.
1t If further noted that the great
phi.anthropist Carnegie, is literally
rohblng Peter to pay Paul, in bis good
work OF distributing libraries. He is
assessed in the Empire State on per-
sonal property-showing OF five millions
of dollars, when it is known that his
holdings Of that character exceed four
times that amount. John ID. Rookie
fell:r l. down for two and half mil.
lions, and is notably the Cr~sus OF the
world. Russell Sage is listed for two
millions, which hardly covers his peck.
ct money for margins on speculation,
and the Vanderbilts claim that they
are worth only four millions, which
would indeed be high valuation on
everything connected with their indi.
viduality, except property, which GOV.
ers twenty times the amount returned
in personal estate left by William H.
Vanderbilt alone, that has since large.
ly augmented in volume and value.
j. Pierpont Morgan, lately called the
finance king OF the world, does not re.
turn even 100000, the maximum sum
that seems to be agreed upon by aris-
tocratic taxpayers, although it is re.
ported he made twelve millions value
OF personal property, as commission,
on single deal with the steel trust.
Neither are the Astors on the list,
when their monthly deposits from
rentals on realty are known to amount
to millions OF dollars.
The trouble of all this is that the
honest taxpayer pays his full share
and large proportion of that which
should be paid by those better able to
pay. The costs of the public service
require certain amount of revenue to
be collected, and nobody can shirk
without imposition upon his neighbor.
That the legality of a tax levy is i'm
paired by lack Of uniformity and equal
ity seems to be entirely forgotten or
ignored in these days of frenzied
finance, or may it not be under the
belief that the practice is so com mon
As to establish basis of uniformity on
established custom? If so, it is to sane.
ton false-swearing, especially when
the personality" may be in gold coin
which has been made the only and un.
improbable value OF all commodities,
and is an acknowledged violation OF
sworn duty to impose "cash value"
when three-fifths or two.thirds valu-
alton is placed on other sorts of prop
erty. The voter is generally given a
"tip" and acts accordingly and his
dollars in bank as we'll as flour in the
barrel is scaled to conform to the
secret ratio, but q widow. having no
vote admits that her husbands insur.
ance policy netted her $1,000 and she
has paid several hundred dollars for
furniture, and although she has fam
lily to support, it all goes down on the
tax list without any rebate, to make it
conform with the proportion paid by
others.
It is plain as an axiom that when
the amount of money to be raised is
ascertained, and q ratio established to
raise it, that the taxpayer assessed on
the gold-standard ratio pays from rs
to 80 per cent. more than the one who
has made his return in accordance
with custom.
ROOSEVELT AGAIN SHOWS HE Is IT.