The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-03

- tNNi9 new iutd LIdL pttDN ~ Hbi
I. through crack in the fence and as lit
!, tie patience with reformer who would
! reach his destination by cross country
G run without taking account of hedges
: and bitches We have no sympathy fol
Lord Peterborough weeping over reform
, laws that released his country from 9
, feudal past, nor with Lord Palmerton
who dismissed the reform Of the lane
laws with the catch word, the tenants
, rights are the landlords wrongs But
every legislator who would interfere with
the mild and equable rule of the magis-
trates' should proceed with caution in
every attempt to impart the impulse OF
speed to the machinery Of justice, that
on the whole has worked so smoothly
for more than a century. The mills of
the gods grind sure because they grind
slow.
Taxes are subject of general inter
est. They are as sure as death but come
oftener They were as important in
early days as at the present. Lawmak-
ers necessarily had to deal with them
at the very beginning of our government.
If the first attempts were not satisfac-
tory, we would naturally expect that
subsequent attempts would be made to
remedy any faults. But when we come
to compare the laws as they stood in
1897 with the present day, we are met
with disappointment in the amount OF
Improvement that has been made. There
| has been mass of enactments and bills,
but the improvement is found in almost
negligible quantities. Our early legisla-
tors attempted more specific taxation,
and to a moderate degree applied the
scientific principle of taxation, namely,
the levy of taxes on ability
Enclosed lands that had been improved
for two years were placed in the list at
sl75 per acre. The surveyors chain
alone established the quantity to be
taxed. Dwelling houses, stores and
sheds, actually occupied or rented, except
| log houses and like buildings, were placed
in the list at 2 per cent of valuation if
that did not exceed one thousand dollars;
| if it exceeded that sum, at per cent.
This graduation of the tax was evidently
for the purpose of taxing ability. Spe-
citie taxes were freely applied to tan
gibe personal property. An OK of four
years or over was set in the list at ten
dollars bull steer, heifer or COW three
years old or upwards, six dollars and
fifty cents; but il only two years old,
at five dollars. A gelding horse, mare or
mule three years old and upward at thir.
teen dollars and fifty cents, and all horse
kind, under that age down to one year
old, at six dollars and fifty cents and
below that at three dollars. Stations up
to three years old. fifty dollars; four
years old and upward at one hundred
and fifty, and iaekasses at thirty dollars. |
This specific system of taxation had the |
merit at least of simplicity. Farm ami
mails may not have varied in value as |
much as they do now and some may |
think that il was as just to let values |
vary with age only as with the Judgment |
of listers, which has a reputation for .
some infirmities. The exemptions were |
not so extensive as ours. Intangibles
like notes and credits, were listed at six
dollars for every hundred. Doctors. law
yers, merchants, traders, owners of mills,
mechanics and some Others were assessed |
in the list in proportion to the gains Of
their respective professions, employments
or business, according to the best judg
ment of the listers
Here we see a system of classification
and specific taxes that in rough way
attempted to make those pay who were
able to pay, which now is acknowledged
everywhere, excepting in our country, to
be the scientific principle of taxation.
I'VE have discarded this principle TO a
large extent. While in our inventories
there are certain classifieations made of
we set everything in the list on
and subject the total to gen
eral tax. This is not an improvement.
To apply a general rate of taxation to
all species of property in disregard of
their essential differences is the height of
folly.
"All scientific authorities on the sub
ect denounce it. One distinguished for
,ign economist who visited our country
'or the purpose of studying our taxation
system declared long ago that our sys
EN- of local taxation was an 'absurdity
lue TO inertia or ignorance For the
iske Of pride let us ascribe it to inertia.
t is difficult to ascribe it to ignorance.
The report OF the special tax commits
ion in 1908 sufficiently shows the evils
# our present law of taxing intangibles.
That legislature refused relief, although
did not lack enlightenment upon the
ubiect Both houses of the legislature
# 1910 passed bill providing for a sew
n-mill tax on all credits and were met
" veto. In 1912, one house repassed
he bill, but the other succeeded in inn
losing upon us the law of exemptions
or certain loans. The legislature of
9l5, after some vacillation, did nothing
kept to make clearer and perhaps more
Extensive the law of its immediate pre-
ecessor.
"There we stand in the mud and mire
( dishonesty, thicker and nastier than
he contents of an 'Augean stable That
It'll has been self-appled or cast upon
he garments of our highest officials.
We have sent one citizen to the govern
RS chair and another to the United
tates Senate, who have been rightly or
accused of violating our tax
Tvs respecting intangibles.
ut is not our purpose to enter upon
n argument of exculpation or conviction
any one, but to point to the evils of
fstem that exaets toll from the wild
", the orphan and the conscientious,
nd permits the INSCRIPTIONS to escape
readily as water flows through a sieve.
hat our law of exemption is benefit
} the buyer, as its sponsors claimed it
ould be, can be proved fallacious by
'ery farm trade in the state. Listen to
lie negotiations; the seller puts up his
ice. and then belabors the buyer to