The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-29

A State system of collecting taxes on a simple ad valorem basis reaching all kinds of property uniformly and equitably would look pretty good 70 the average man, but 1t wouldn't call for so many administrators, collectors, revenue agents, interpreters and sooth- | savers as the system of taxing fran oh hises, privileges, occupations and pur- suits. Hence we have chosen the sys- tenn that provides the most jobs and which insures the greatest good to the greatest number of officeholders. Even an apparently trivial trade or occupation which would cut no figure If taxed on It's mere stock in trade. It's visible goods, when taxed specially counts for considerable in creating or helping to create the need of new of- fcials to keep 1t and other similar calIings in the middle of the road. Take the sale of spectacles and eye glasses, for example.
 The ordinary citizen sees little in the business, but to sell the glasses and get the money; but in reality it's a double-barreled double-taxed corun- drum of modern commerce which eniists the greatest legal acumen and the sharpest guessing ability. with much phiiosophical and scientific aaddenda thrown in, to decide what has really been done and to what extent the state has been wounded In its revenue re- xiona when a sale of spectacles has been made without full investigation or the law. 1t may be only lodging the peddlers' tax, and then again, 1t may be the avoidance of the special opti- clans tax, which is a much graver or fense. But the more complicated the | law the more men required to admin ister and construe 1t, and the more the gayety of the pie counter is en- ! hanced.
 The State Comptroller has recently | been bothered about the eye-glass busi- ness. which struggled along in some crude haphazard way until the Thir- tieth Legislature got hold or It ana put | ii up on it's professional and scientific ptns--and taxed 1t to make an ad valo- rem holiday. The Comptroller applied to the Attorney General. and from the legal department comes this elucida- ton:
 | we are in receipt of yours of the Sd inst, in which you desire to know whether itinerant persons engaged in | selling and fitting glasses by the use of eye-testers and otherwise treating the eye are subject to the occupation | tax of $50 required of specialists un- der Section 2 of Chapter 35 of the Acts of the Thirtieth Legislature. We have given careful consideration to the ques- tion submitted and have reache ed the | COncluBlOu that SuCn pCESOHS WOui0 SO liable to the tax. provided they are | refractionists and hold themselves out as being able to determine scientifi- cally the kind of eyeglasses needed lby any particular person. There are as you know, graduate opticians and refractionists who, by the use of the re- tinoscope, opthalmoscope and opthalmo- meter, detect astismatism and other defects of vision and correct same with | rIa Cttnh aaFa0nH think
 clearly specialists within the meaning
 of the occupation tax referred to. If, however. such a person does not claim
 to be able to test the eye in scientific
 way. but simply sells and fits glasses
 to the eye in the ordinary way, that
 Is, by experimenting with lenses until
 one Is found to fit the eye, he would
 not be subject to the tax"
 Thus the general public gets some
 thing choice in the way of sesquip-
 edalia verba, finds out the difference
 between a commercial tourist for sci
 entifc nose glasses and a mere peddlel
 of proletarian specs" and Is brought to realize afresh its dependence or
 wholesome legislation for all sucf
 blessings as protection from imposterI
 by making them pay for the privilege
 of impostoring.
 One little discrepancy in the law
 should be noted, however, which nigh
 be funny but for the fact that taxa
 tion in all it's forms, is so serious {
 matter now in Texas that 1t recently
 threatened to change the official dy
 nasty.
 It will be seen from the Attorney.
 Generals opinion that the man who just sells glasses that may or may
 not it is merely charged Q peddler'i
 license. while the one who takes somS
 pains with the job is taxed $50. IT
 other words, the one who Is liable tC
 do an injury by selling unsuitable glasses gets off cheap, while the one
 with scientific apparatus and knowledg,
 of the business is made to pay high fol
 his style. This seems to be an anoma.
 ly, unless 1t can be explained on thC
 ground that the Legislature placed tht
 heavier tax on scientific treatment fol
 fear 1t would get out too generally
 among the common people" and as .
 result they would see too much anC
 too clearly.
 Anyway, it all shows how something
 can be done in oflcial circles every
 minute when the Legislature gives ui
 an abundance Of new laws, and serves
 them scrambled and not straight uI with both eyes open.
 Specially fitted glasses are not needed
 to see this.