The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1921-12-09
Taxation in Tennessee.

| SFeSSlVe measures nave resulted. IL
order to provoke further discussion
offer the following:
During the past eight years have
been in position to observe intimate
ly the operation of our taxing sys-
TEN. l have made a careful study
of the laws and the attitude of the
courts toward them as reflected in
decisions. 1 have also exchanged
views with public officials and lis
tened to the opinions of several thou
sand tax payers.
There is widespread dissatisfaction
with the system as now operated
chiefly because the tax burden is not
equitably distributed. There is also
a well defined conviction that under
the present system, politically con-
trolled, equitable distribution of the
tax burden cannot be had. Further,
the people seem to be aware that the
provisions of the constitution rela-
tive to taxation are economically I'M
sound. Proof of this is found in the
attitude of the public toward the as
sessment of personal property. Tax
assessors make no effort to carry out
the provisions of the tax laws rela-
tive to the assessment of personal
property. Any proposal to enact
laws to enforcement and collection
of taxes on personal property meets
with very active and hostile oppo-
sition.
This sense of economic needs ex-
presses itself also in the proposals
to exempt from taxation new dwell
ings, the plants of industrial enter
prises and bonds, regardless of Ar
ticle 2 Section % of the constitu-
tion which states that all property
shall be taxed, and that no species of
property shall be taxed higher than
any other species of property of the
same value.
In short, the people press on while
the law adopted in 1870 remains
fixed, and where the laws fail to
measure up to the economic needs,
they are ignored, evaded, held in
contempt, and become the cause of
friction between the officials and
tax payers. Any attempt to enforce
them in the spirit of 1870 results in
injustices to certain individuals and
classes. These laws give unlimited
opportunity to political schemers and
grafters. l am convinced that no
progress will be made until our tax
laws are made to accord with the
ideas now prevailing.
In this connection it is interesting
to note that in France about one !
hundred and fifty years ago the
school Of economists known as the
Physiocrats entertained the same
views relative to the taxation of per-
sonal property which now seem to
be predominant among Tennesseans |
This group founded the science of
political economy. Among them was |
Turgot, the greatest constructive
statesman that France has produced;
and with him were associated names |
like that of the elder Mirabeau,
Gournay, Morrellet, Mercier-Lari-
Were, Quesney and Dupont. 1t was
from this group that Thomas Jeffer-
son learned his trade of statesman
ship; he invited one of them, Dupont |
de Nemours, to come to this country
to plan and organize a national sys-
tenn of education Mr.. Jefferson
project could not be carried out but
nevertheless Dupont came, and his
descendants, curiously, drifted into
the gunpowder business and have
now become prosperous in that pur-
suit.
The Physiocrats did not launch a
theory; they did not formulate 4
mere body of opinion. Far from it;
Monies, just as Newton did in phys
les. Their formula of taxation is
precisely formula, and as precisely
not theory, as Newton's formula
that mutual action between masses
of matter varies directly as the mass
and inversely as the square of the
distance. 1t is of the utmost i'm
portance to bear this in mind This
formula of taxation is universal, in
and inevitable as any other
arising from observation and
experiment in the real of natural
law. One of the best expositions of
this formula is to be found in the En-
cyclopedia Britannica, as follows:
"The private occupancy and use of
land are right and indispensable.
Any attempt to divide land into
equal shares is impossible and unde-
sirable. Land should, and practical