Evening star., 1915-01-09

4
| resentative were selected. They wers
| inventoried at $209,000. but they hat
been thought by their owners. wheI
Living. to be worth n ad for purpose & OF taxa AKA
| tomary to accuse Connecticut Yankees
| of a certain smallness in their deal
| tngs, but when we consider how muci
| poorer they are in their own judgmen
than in that of others we see that 1t Ii
easy to do them wrong.
Personal Tax on Estates.
when we consider the circumstances
Of bene1ciaries under trust created by
will. widows, infant heirs and such
helpless folk, whose property is ex-
posed to assessment through the pro-
bate records. we see that a man with
erly die In Connecticut without care
fully arranging his Investments. If he
should happen to be resident OF Hart
ford at the time Of his death, holding
say. 100000 In West Shore 4 per cent
bonds-which he would doubtless keep
In q deposit vault in the city of New
York, and omit to return for taxation
his representatives would find that the
net return from this fund would be re-
duced by taxation to less than per
cent-indeed,a aaking the census returns
of the rate of taxation In Hartford for
1880, to less than ! per cent. They
must either submit to the confiscation
Of more than SO per cent of their in
come or change their residence. With
out having any evidence upon this
point, we venture to say that most of
the notes and bonds that are taxed in
Connecticut are in the hands Of execu-
tors, trustees and guardians who are
unable to reinvest their funds. It Is
obvious that such persons must be
often tempted to resort to Investments
Of an illegal character
1T Is not to be expected that those
rural statesmen who are endeavoring
to establish inquisitorial methods Of
taxation in this state will pay much
cut. With all their ingenuity, they
will hardly be able to devise anything
more stringent than some Of the laws
Of that state. They will not succeed In
adding much personal property to the
list, but they may accomplish some
thing in retarding the progress Of New
York. If they should succeed in intro
ducfng their policy, and if the people of
Connecticut should at the same time
adopt the report of their commission
ers. the advantages of a residence in
the latter state would become obvious
to a multitude of New Yorkers, whose
expenditures would result in an addi-
tion to the value Of Connecticut real
estate much greater than the apparent
loss in personal property. Such an
exchange of policies would be an inter-
esting occurrence. and one that the in
habitants Of the respective states would
regard with very different emotions"
New York's Position.
Members Of Congress from the state
of New York well know that the en-
forcement in that state Of the law tax
ing personal securities is a ridiculous
sham, and that an enforcement of such
a law, in the manner proposed by the
law now pending in Congress, would
within two years or less depopulate
New York city Of the men who have
made it financially the metropolis Of
the world.
Not 1 per cent Of the securities held
by the, citizens of that city or of any
other city in the United States it
may, without exaggeration, be said Is
ey ane
are held by widows or by trustees for
the benefit of widows and orphans.
From that class of securities trustees
of an income will the widow and or
phans receive after paying tax of
IL per cent on the principal? Upon
what must the professional man de-
pend for his. own support and the sup
port of those depending upon him, who
tinue in the practice Of his profession,
by which, from the labors of a life
time, he has been able only to lay by
$4,000 or $4,000 invested in safe Sc
curities at the present price OF such
Or the widows OF soldiers,
in Washington, for whose maintenance,
to exc out the small pension of $25 or
$50 month, the husbands. through
the practice of the strictest economy.
had been able to invest in few bonds?
Such folk. cannot, as men OF means
can, move away nor can they AFFORD to
change the investment to government
bonds that pay only2 per cent.
Washington's Disadvantage.
In the matter of taxing personal securi-
ties in the District of Columbia one serious
under which its citizens Ia
Dor has possibly been lost sight Of Wash
Ington is not, nor is it desirable that it
should become, a manufacturing or COM
mercial metropolis. Hence necessarily,
and as the fact is, there are in the Dis
trict but few companies incorporated by
Congress. Whereas there are In every
state in the Union hundreds and in some
of corporations, the stocks of
which are, in the states where tncorpOr-
ated, exempt from taxation. 4.
This brings US to the consideration OF
the complaint made against men who, 1t
is said, have come to Washington to es-
cape from the tax laws of their respective
states. In the first place, it may, prob
ably without exaggeration, be stated that
the men who have for that reason moved
to Washington can be numbered by the
a >&