St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-04-03
DEBOER ON TAXATION
Discusses the Subject in Connection
With Conservation in Vermont.
By JosEPH a. DE BoER

/ (Hrepared at the request OF the
Vermont. Commission on the Con-
servation of Natural Resources.)
Conservation is the proper and
economical use of things in nature
which cannot be reproduced, like
minerals, coal and stone, and the
wise husbandry and use Of what can
be restored and reproduced, like
soils and forests, animal and fish
1 life and capital and wealth. The
conservation or equitable use of all
material thinge in nature or what
man produces for his needs, his hap
piness and his progress is surely
and permanently Influenced by the
government under which he lives,
it's customs and laws, its ideals and
activities and the extent to which it
makes practical provision for the
chance on the part of every man and
woman to share in a just exchange
or the results of work. For that
makes the opportunity, first, of OBJ
tanning a livelihood under comforta-
BILE and lasting conditions and, next,
of creating some property or COM
potency for the care of old age and
the family after death concludes
their work.
Recognized Principles.
Some specific principles are now
recognized as fundamental to all
Legislation by an equitable govern
ment.
Cd That the workman is worthy
of his hire.
Cd That good homes and care of
their inmates constitute the foun-
dation of lasting governments.
(3) That successful government
of any kind, especially of self-gov-
eminent of the people and by the
people, must respond to the test of
constantly increasing its service to
all the people as a real proof that it
is also a government for the people.
(4) That, inasmuch as the gov
eminent obtains it's power from
their consent, so too the people
must exercise it and demand it's res
toration where it has been lost or
impaired.
go That in concurrence, while
conservation of material things and
their increase should be constantly
sought, all causes and conditions
must equally tend as we'll to the con-
slant progress of mems intellectual
and moral life; and, finally,
CD That, while great talent and
honest ambitions for either power
or wealth should not be stayed, yet
all law should primarily safe
guard and promote the interests in
all things of all and not of a few.
The Blight of Dead-Letter Laws.
1t costs public money to place a
law upon the statute book. If ii
proves to be a good law, the return
upon the expenditure is great be-
cause everybody's interests are con-
served thereby. If it proves to be a
bad law and is so recognized, it at
least supplies public experience and
can be changed or recalled when the
legislature next sits. If laws eX-
list, however, which are binding up
on the courts, If called upon to in
terpret, but which are universally
ignored because they are out of date
or unjust or really unenforceable
their continued existence on the stat
ute book not only teaches disrespect
of law but also in the case of some
like certain of our unenforced tax
laws, breeds crime, and, further
through inequalities in the treat
lment of different classes of prop
erty, seriously interferes with their
A honest acquisition and natural use,
thus retarding Industrial develop
ment and expansion. The conserva-
ton of our progress as state govern
ment and of our chance to develop
our natural opportunities as a state
founded upon the prosperity of in
) dividuals, rests fundamentally upon
sound laws, and among these none
are of more Importance and none
will better advance conservation in
every one of it's forms than proper
and just tax laws, uniformity ap-
piled and perfectly administered
: just so far as that object can be cap,
ably achieved.
] The State Lives Upon its Taxes.
The existance of the state rests
upon it's power to tax and to collecr
the tax That fact involves the
power also to destroy or to retarC
the growth of property and the
4 power to discriminate unjustly be
tween different classes of propert!
and groups of men and between in
dividuals and corporations. Whel
: such unfair discrimination exist
and. when laws are not made to com
: pei men and property, according tt
; opportunity and kind and in jus
3 proportion, to contribute to thu
maintenance of government and it
legitimate public works, there ma.
be said to be condition which tend
to the nOn-conservative and abnor
: NAL acquisition and use of propert.
p and to a cOncealment of the state
: sources of income, which in the cas-
of many towns has led to it's SLOW
: decay. While the state taxes anC
4 the town taxes both property ant
r men and the income and property o
I corporations, it has done but littl,
4 by an adequate change in the ia,
laws to increase, foster and improv,
! the subjects of taxation or to Great,
! legitimate and wholly proper ad
: ditional subjects of taxation. 1t as