The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-09
TAX SYSTEM
 ALL WRONG
Dean Rogers of Yale Law School Says it Lays Main Burden on
 Poor Man

| Before members of the Economic | Club. after the second dinner of the | season at the New Haven Lawn Club, ! last night, Dean Henry Wade Rogers | of the Yale Law School said that the 1 present system of taxation is wrong; l that a poll tax such as the personal ! tax in Connecticut is all wrong, and 1 that steps. should be taken to remedy the present system of a general prop ! erty tax. He based his conclusions upon the fact that the poor man still l bears the greater burden of taxat on. Dean Rogers favored an income tax Deputy Tax Commissioner Andrews of Massachusetts, also said that the must pay their share of taxation or serious questions might arise. The other speakers were Tax Com missioner William H. Corbin, of Con necticut, and Lawson Purdy, tax com missioner of the city of New York. 1 The first talked of the irregularities of assessment in Connecticut and the lat ter upon New York taxation. Dean Rogers said that in all times the tax collector was odious and that if Collector Hackett ever felt in the dumps he should turn back in the his tory of Connecticut to Jared Inger- soil, who was escorted into the city of Hartford by 1000 Sons Of Liberty.'' He was mounted upon Q, white horse cause of the odiousness of the stamp tax. IngersoIl sad he felt like death upon a white horse with hell strung out behind.
 Two Kinds of Morals.
 He quoted a story of Mark Twain in America, the Ch- istian private mor- als and the Christian public morals. The former were used upon 363 days of the year, and the latter on cleo ion day and the day upon which tax lists were sworn :n.
 He said that the power to tax was essential to the government, and it was the greatest power of the gov ernment The United States govern ment, urder the articles of cOmpensa- tiOn, failed because the government was not given the power to tax.
 'The power to tax is the power to destroy. That was in evidence when during the war the government taxed the State banks and crushed them out of business. Yet, in spite of the fact that taxation is necessary to govern ment, nobody likes to pay taxes
 T want to say that the present sys- tenn is wrong and unscientific. T. is just as true today as 1t ever has been that the burden of taxation rests mainly upon those least able to pay it. Adam Smith says that in the begin ming taxes were laid upon the weak and defehceless. That was the be- ginning and to a certain extent that class still bears the burden.
 Whole System Wrong.
 "Our taxation system in the United States was conceived in ignorance and maintained by the force of inertia and nil ultra conservatism. A system of general property tax is wrong, be- cause so much property escapes taxa ton. Only about 50 per cent. of real estate pays taxes and 20 per cent of the personal property and only per cent of the intangible personal prop erty-that in the hands of the rich pays taxes Most of the wealth of the country is in intangfb personal property and it does not pay taxes. That casts an unjust and an unequal burden upon the roor man. The tax on real es ate is also a burden upon the poor man. The assessor can very readily fix the price of a s1,500 house but he will not come near the price of $15,000 or a $25,OO0 or a $1O0,0 000 or a, S500.0O0 building.
 Temptation to Perjury.
 'HThe inquisitorial feature of the system is wrong because it offers d temptation to perjury The man who has the intangible property knows that O her men in his class do not pay the tax and he asks why should pay it?' He fears that if he pays it he may be ruined. Hence, the temp tation to perjury
 Several commissions, he said, had recently recommended the hab 'tation tax as a substitute which would pro- duce more revenue and reach all the people more equally.
 There is a poll tax lien but in near ly every State in the Union a consti- tutional provision forbids such a tax. Adam Smith was against a poll tax and so was Alexander Hamilton. Such tax is unwise and this condition ought to be corrected"
 Dean Rogers said that the inherit ance tax because of situations which arise is also unwise. He favored an income tax imposed by the govern ment but was opposed to a State in come tax