The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-05-02

What was probably one Of the most
interesting meetings ever held by the
recently organized Problem club" Of
the Y. NJ. c. A. was held, Monday
evening. when q large number of rep
resentative citizens heard Hon. w. II.
Smith discuss, briefly. his one per cent.
tax bill.
In the limited time allowed him,
Mr.. Smith was able only TO touch on
the more important features of the
bill, and explain in a general way It's
operation. But IT was mighty inter.
esting Information and Il Is to be re-
GREETED that more people who know
OF the bill only In a superficial way.
as "Blll Smiths tax BILL" were not
present A great white light was
poured on the subject and many In
terestlng facts hitherto unknown To
even those who have made a deep
study OF taxation matters. were de
veloped.
Smith explained that in 1861. when
the state constitution was adopted.
Ohio was necessarily almost entirely
an agricultural state. property was
tangible and as result the burden
Of taxation fell on the tangible real
and personal property. However,
since then Ohio has developed into
one of the greatest Industrial states of
the union and now the value OF the
intangible property exceeds by many
millions the value OF what Is In sight
and Is easily reached. But under the
present system of taxation the tangi-
BILE property is bearing the burden cf
taxation.
Honest Tax Returns.
The main idea back of the Smith
bill is to enable people to make hon
est tax returns and not be penali le1
for so doing Smith was honest IN
declaring that a man could not be
blamed for not making an honest tax
return. when. under the presen. 'ys-
tenn, such a course would leave hlnl
but a beggarly one or two per cent.
on his investment. "Hell Raising
Bill" handled the subject without
gloves.
He plainly stated that the bulk of
the property which should bear the
greatest burden, was now escaping
/
that men lodged and he couldn't
blame them. They were entitled to Il
fair and just return on their invest
ments and the only way they could
accomplish this under the present
| system. was to make false return.
He believed that the great majority
of people would be honest IL they
were not penalized for It. He thought
the great majority would prefer MAX
ing honest tax returns II the system
was changed, and they were assured
that all were taxed equally. "The
fault IL not with the people" yelled
Smith, but my state and my county
and my city are working under q
system that Is responsible for making
you, and me, and all of us, tax
| dodgers. It's the system I'm after
When we change the system, we get
back to that equality the constitution
assures us morally, but winks at le-
gally.
For years" declared the speaker
"and In fiat defiance of the consttu-
| ton of the state, tax returns have
been made upon a valuation of from
20 10 40 per cent. of actual property
values. You knew It.; / knew II, the
assessors knew II and the state gov
ernment knew II, but we all winked
at Il because we knew that under a
four per cent. tax rate, none of us
could afford TO, make an honest re-
turn"
How II Works.
by way of Illustration Smith pic
fttp MI In
vested or loaned ont on a proposition
that was paying him six per cent. in
lerest. If that man made an honest
return under the present system, he
would have two per cent. left, over
and above his taxes on that $1,000:
two per cent. left for the use of
that money for whole year. What
was the result? The answer was alb
surdly simple. he thought. That man
simply refused to return one penny
of the $1,000 for taxation, under the
four per cent. rate.
But under the provisions of the
Smith bill, that man could pay his
one per cent. and still have FIVE per
cent left And It is this condition
that he thinks will bring out the pro-
on the duplicate.
Smith is too wise to believe that all
people are going to voluntarily in
crease their returns, but the supple
mental legislation that win come, will
guarantee sufficient revenue under
the one per cent. plan. For instance,
one plan provides that where money
or property is inherited, 1t cannot pass
into the hands of the legatee until
the tax commissioner is fully satisfied
that proper taxes have been paid on
1t for five years previous to the time
1t was disposed of Another plan Is
to make notes void in a foreclosure
proceeding unless those notes have
been properly returned for taxation.
There are numerous such plans which
may be invoked to bring money out
of the dark places
The Tax Commissioners.
Another guaranty that more pro-
perty will be returned will come with
the naming or a tax commissioner.