Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-03-29
TX BRATTLEBORO, FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1912.
TAXATION.

prepared at tne request Vi uHe YER
mont Commission on the Conservation of
Natural Resources
Conservation is the proper and eco
nomical 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, ami
NAL and fish life and capital and wealth.
The conservation or equitable use of all
material things in nature OF what man
produces for his needs, his happiness
and his progress is surely and perma-
nently influenced by the government
under which he lives, its customs and
laws, it's ideals and activities and the
extent to which 1t makes. practical pro-
vision 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 obtaining a livelihood under COM
Portable and lasting conditions and, next,
of creating some property or competency
for the care of old age and the family
after death concludes their work.
Recognized Principles.
Some specific principles are now rec
ognized fundamental to all legislation
by an equitable government:
% That the workman is worthy of
his hire.
(2) That good homes and care of
their inmates constitute the foundation
of lasting governments.
(3) That successful government of
any kind, especially a self government of
the people and by the people, must re-
spond 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.
ca That, ina smuch as the govern
q moi
sent, so too the people must exercise IL
and demand its restoration where ii has
been lost or impaired.
go That in concurrence while con-
servation of material things and their
increase should be constantly sought, all
causes and conditions must equally tend
as well to constant progress OF mems
intellectual and moral life; and, finally,
(6) That. while great talent and hon
est ambitions for either power or wealth
should not be stayed, yet all laws should
primarily safeguard 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 it proves to
be a good law, the return upon the
expenditure Is great because everybody S
interests are conserved thereby. If il
proves to be a bad law and is so recog-
nized, it at least supplies public expert
ence and can be changed or recalled
when the legislature next sits. If laws
exist, however, which are binding upor
the courts, if called upon to interpret
but which are universally ignored be-
cause they are out of date or unjust Oh
really unenforceable, their continued
existence on the statute book not only
teaches disrespect of law but also in the
case of some, like certain of our unen-
forced tax laws, breeds crime and
further through inequalities in the
treatment of different classes of property
seriously interferes with their honest
acquisition and ma tural use, thus retard-
ing industrial development and expan-
sion. The conservation of our progress
as state government and of our chance
to develop our natural opportunities as
state, founded upon the prosperity OF
individuals, rests funda mentally upor
sound laws, and among these none are
of more Importance and none will better
advance conservation in every one of its
forms than proper and just tax laws
| uniformly applied and perfectly admin
istered just so far as that object car
be capably achieved
The state Lives Upon Its Taxes.
The existence of the state rests upor
| its power to tax and to collect the tax
| That fact involves the power also t
| destroy or to retard the growth of prop
| erty and the power to discriminate
| unjustly between different classes o
property and groups of men and between
| individuals and corporations Whei
such unfair discrimination exists an,
when laws are not made to compel mel
| and property according to opportunit.
and kind and in just proportion, to con
| tribute to the maintenance of govern
ment and its legitimate public works
there may be said to be a condition
which tends to the nom conservative AM
abnormal acquisition and use of propert
and to a concealment of the state
sources of income, which in the case o
many a town has led to it's slow decay
While the state taxes and the tow
taxes both property and men and tn
| income and property of corporations.
has done but little by an adequat
| change in the tax laws to increase
foster and improve the subjects o
| taxa ion or to create legitimate an
wholly proper additional subjects o
taxation 1t assumes that these matter
will take care of themselves, when 4
fact its true function is to improve 1t
own power and strength by charging an
increasing the wealth. the opportunity
the production and the thrift or its peo
| pie, since that course conserveS an
| builds up it's ways and means, while tn
reverse of that course leads to loss an
even in some sections to death and de
cay.
Taxation Problems.
Tax problems in Vermont. upon who's
solution depend the conservation of it
natural resources, their proper develop
ment and their applied use for the bene
fit of the people of this state, involv
among other things the following fac
| tors:
(1N Tho current iisa of many million
| of dollars of false offsets for debts owing
which do not conserve the income of tn
state equality of contribution to stat
support as between individual citizens o
general honesty and truthfulness.
(2) The repetition of recurring perjur
on the part of those who conceal person
atty or intangibles, so called, upon the ar
gument, self-addressed, that others do $
too and that in any event the propert