The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1914-06-19

wish to place him in such a position
that his standard of living will rise
to yet higher plane.
Every argument in regard to more
white farm owners applies with equal
force to the town or city dweller who
does not own his home. There are
now about $4,000 white citizens in
our cities and towns who live in rent
ed homes. Aid them just as you do
the farm purchaser. Thus they will
become more permanent in their dom
icile, which will necessarily make
them not only more valuable to the
State at large, hut also to the town
or city in which they live. These be-
ing facts, let us so legislate that ev-
cry white man who so desires shall
be able to worship God under his own
vine and fig tree.
Defects in Our Personal Property Tax
and the Special Taxes Which
Should Be Substituted for 1t.
Our system of taxation is fifty
years behind the times, and while it
was well adapted to a purely agricul-
tural community, it works great hard
ships in our present state of develop
ment, and will continue to be more
and more oppressive as our civiliza-
ton becomes more and more complex.
The personal property tax for State
purposes should be abolished. The
laboring man cannot hide the bed
upon which he sleeps, or the stove
upon which his wife prepares his
meals; the farmer cannot hide his
work stock or is tools by which he
both feeds and clothes the world
Your tax laws at present says return
it, to the last mangey pig and lowsey
calf, we must have the revenue from
the worn out stove and the rickety
bed. But to the capitalist, who has
his thousands, and maybe hundreds of
thousands, invested in invisible per-
sonal property, it says-with an hum
BILE and deprecatory bow: "My dear
sir, we have no way of forcing you
upon the tax books; if, however, in
your great and overflowing generos-
ity, you desire to make donation, it
will be most thankfully received"
The gentleman makes a return of
about ten cents on the dollar, and
goes forth thanking God for his great
patriotism and generosity.
l have not the time today to take
uP III uSedii Cllt economic,
fiscal, and ethical defects of our per-
sonal property tax as | will do during
this campaign; neither have | suffi-
cient time to elaborate on the special
taxes which should take its place. In
brief, I think our personal property
tax should be abolished and that we
should put in it's place Q) a gradual
ed income tax, and (2) a graduated
inheritance tax.
We now pretend to have an inc ,me
tax law but we all know it is a farce.
a joke, and that as it stands, cannot
be enforced. But by following the
lead of our national government along
this line we can make our State in
come tax large revenue producer
and at the same time, just and equit.
able tax. The State incomo tax should,
in brief, be somewhat as follows: The
tax should be levied on the net income
of the individual. An unmarried per-
son with an income of less than 5000
and married person with an income
less than $500 should be exempt from
paying the income tax at all-and
there should also be allowed an addi-
tional exemption of $100 for each de-
pendent child which the citizen has to
support. This will prevent the man
with very small income from being
burdened with taxation as he now is.
All individual incomes above the legal
exemption should be taxed at a rate
of l per cent. Then there should be
an additional (or super) tax with the
rate increasing with increase in the
size of the income somewhat as fol-
lows:
That part of an income above
$1,000 and less than $4,000 at 1-2 of
1 per cent; that part of an incline
above $4,000 and less than $4,000 at
1 per cent; that part of an income
above $4,000 and less than $500 at
1-2 per cent; that part of an income
above $500 and less than $4,000 at
per cent; and all of the income
above $4,000 should be taxed at a
rate of 2 1-2 per cent.
A progressive inheritance tax is
one of the fairest taxes that can be
levied because it entails no sacrifice
on the part of the recipient of the
estate of the deceased, and because it
taxes the man who has great ability
to pay. Again it is one of the easiest
es collected. This is true because
all estates have to go through the
probate court for final settlement.
The judge of this court can collect
this tax as he now collects the probate
fees. The rate of this tax should be
progressive, that is, should be much
higher on large estates than on small
ones. The rate of the tax should also
vary in proportion to the kinship of
the recipient of the estate to the de-
ceased. That is, the rate on the in
heritance should be very low when
the property is willed to the wife, a
little higher when it is willed to
child, and great deal higher when it
goes to a cousin or some distant rela-
tive.
Defects in Our System of Taxing
Real Estate-Suggested Changes.