The Republican journal., 1915-03-18

not paying this indirect foreign tar he
would be getting higher rate of inter.
est on his investment, and could .fford
TO turn that amount over into local taxes;
Out that to apply the local tax rate to the
full value OF all his foreign securities
would come near cutting his income IN
half, and would be the worst form Of
double taxation. Accordingly, if he is
an honorable man, he declares proner
amount of his intangible property for
taxation at the regular rate and let's the
rest go untaxed
The evils of this situation are manv. IF
man ls dishonorable he finds fairly
open opportunityto. escape the large share
OF his just taxation. Few men are so hon.
orable as to be their own best Judge of
what they ought to pay. As things are at
present some arrangement fixing small
er proportional tax rate for intangible Sc
curities, would undoubtedly be productive
OF better results; larger share of intan-
glble property would be declared, and hu-
man seltishness would not have to bear
the added strain of palpable injustice as
a reward for right action. But until such
a system could be put into effect through
out the country, it would he relatively
Intellectual. At present, tax laws are
being defined from day to day in the law
courts; and the system is growing in a
| hanhazar6 mappor ooob C+,+,
from its neighbor on some important
point. The country is changing rapidly
the present social conditions are ex-
tremely mutable; and the tax laws of to-
day have not yet caught up with the
changes OF ten or twenty years ago.
There IS the general law, coming down to
US from old days, that all forms of proper
ty shall be equally assessed for taxation;
but this is a law which could not be alb
solutely enforced without destroying the
value of every security on the market
and paralyzing credits throughout the
county. With this old law as basis,
the courts are trying TO modify the sys-
tenn according to each individual case
which comes up. If town attempted
to levy taxes on any large body of Sc
curities, the owner of same could at once
take the matter to the law court; and the
case would there be determined, wheth-
er or not such body of securities was SUBJ
ject to local taxation.
With modern socialistic ideas a new
factor has arisen to govern the feelings
of many towards the question of taxa
ton. | refer to the factor of labor.
Men are claiming that while the farmer
or laborer works hard for his income, the
man who owns securities does nothing
but cash his checks as they come in. In
the case OF the man who has inherited
his property, this is indeed true; but
apart from the inheritance tax there
seems to be no provision which would
work with universal justice, to get at the
evil of inherited property. Considering
those men who have earned their own
property, the above outlined way of
thinking springs from the popular fall.
lacy that socialism proposes to level all
heads, and arrange an absolute equality
between man and man. True socialism
proposes no such thing. 1t merely pro-
poses method by which individual abil-
ity and personal initiative shall be more
free than they are today; and it also pro-
poses to reward these qualities more
truly than they are rewarded today.
What it proposes to do away with is in
herited wealth, and wealth acquired dis
honestly by men without ability or mi
tiative in a true direction. whose only
asset is their unscrupulousness. True
socialism is long way off yet; hu
man nature is nowhere near prepared
for it. For the present, who is to de-
termine the quality and quantity of our
labor? There are lazy farmers and la
borers; and there are Woodworking men
of the Office chair. Some men work with
their bodies; some men work with their
brains. Which is the harder labor?
Every man privately thinks that he
works harder than anybody else. Take
the case of the retired sea captain, for
instance. He is not working very hard
these days; but it will not do to forget
by what hard life he won his compe-
tence. Men made good money in the
old days, both on the sea and on pioneer
enterprises on land but no one will de-
ny that they served a tougher appren-
ticeship for it, worked harder and longer,
suffered greater discomfort and danger,
and bore heavier responsibilities, than
the same general class of men do either
afoat or ashore today.
Personally. feel that the whole sys.
tenn of taxation at present in use is VIC
ious one; there is some right and good
deal of wrong on both sides, and the I'M
ravelling of the tangle seems well-nigh
hopeless task. The main fact stands
out that under this system private
wealth has begun to usurp almost auto
cratic powers; and while it would be I'M
just,,to lay at the door of the tax system
an evil into hich'political corruption and
many other factors enter, nevertheless
the tax system is largely responsible. If