The Republican journal., 1915-03-18
,.,essment of Taxes.
Problem Which Does Not
rf Attention it Should.


&c pp, q few remarks on a re-
spec ting which | attended? At
NS1 ~ .;no there was a great ag-
psD lA' o,r. there were two tickets
@ir 4" ~ of Selectmen, one of
be DV I.rstand, proposed radical
~. .b an important matter as
he !" If taxes; and yet, unless
ls'''" .od heard about it before
tl'' street or in the stores, he
Of ' tove known that a contest
Epe" Nocandidate rose to state
goE there was no public debate
'a0'" ,ol question of tax assess
uord was said on either
spch a procedure, on so i'm
) Nv. ,astion. a symptom of some
~ adv IN the body of a town?
'D .,nn n Getting lost its function
y" discussion; has it come to be
D'' rstrument for the recording
ranged votes? The matter
s.-.d to had evidently been set
Ear As individual voters were
OUTSIDE the meeting. The
Don't voter. who came to his town
Nth mnd open to conviction,
a..,,v 4isregarded. The reform
D.fs.t that he might damage his
..bq sysasing; the opposition was
.,.ir tine tall grass, pretty conf
.s, result of the ballot. What
,ti~gs mean? Between these
,.s- itself, which was a real
.,.l issue, was allowed to fall to
Nothing was cleared up or
,r, was satisfied. And, there
n, ,.suq will rise again; it ought
sagao
.,rs -a- reform candidate did
later ~ the meeting, when the
.,-ms 70 speak had long gone by.
tack the schools; and no
E,r interested in the schools would
,,se, al argument with him at
.ns Listening to him then, | think
| rt, &. was hat he had not spoken
[,.t f.. his cause, when his name
.r -9r ballot. 1t was because
not been genuinely interested in
f. r1. ts-t. but only in the trouble
4trs s-rup. In a word, this man
i .sb And no wonder, for the
|sdor of the problem of taxation
4 he usr5 is hardly one to in
taao=st ard sincere faith which
h. poTe. 10 remove mountains. He
nj; srguaent. throughout, on one
H.. r5 i-1ruths which are the worst
tfaseh5od. Such man is purely
sruc-yr critic, and has nothing of
Enofer
one with any sense of justice, will
that under our present system of
bu, taxes bear more heavily on the
! than On the rich. This system,
Isto say. the assessment of taxes
pa proportion upon both real estate
| Es0al property, has come down to
El the early days of the country.
Ne avs there was comparatively
EE,mgib,~ personal property; if a
|Rrsl anything besides his land and
|hg It was a property invested
insIIps, or in some small, usually
| always langibIe, business. In
Fiays, to the returns from such
Fny2ts We're pretty generally large;
trs-e along the whole line was
|Hrsn the supply; mans industry
M begin to open up the natural
Fc5s which lay at his door. In other
capita was able to pay far larger
|lds than it does today, and was
Hasrg on an equality with real
Sc thar an equal assessment of
F@ooil these quantities was then
sSy IS just an arrangement as could
F9ee1 Effected, At any rate, little
II property was in the way of es-
Esyation.
genera, TINS state of affairs contin-
lall after the Civil War. Then,
"a began to grow up the great
pa fortunes, the corporations, the
PONIES and al the vast and compile
'alaa''a structures of the present
'4l-. Il would be beside the issue
1g lle CAUSES of this fundamental
'.l7.erated transportation, en-
d. Ti.rnationalized credits, in
''"s.- al such forces had their
t4Nerse loans were made,
'4efe bonds were issued and stocks
Increased; and an investment
'Prsafea, with money in hand, to
Wy l1ese securities. At the same
uSny CT those tangible forms of
property which made up the
''''h Of the land were suffering
I'll an opposite direction; ships
@' W one passing away, and no
"'FS were being built; most of the
Industries and businesses were
Ds merged into the corporations.
'igs item of personal property
'uv country was gradually shift
local to foreign ownership, from
To intangible control; snd this
''' Already grown out of all pro-
AZ, ~'le share of personal property,
will remains in a local and tangi-