16 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the entire taxable property of the State. In 1865 it was about 

 seven and one half per cent; in 1875 a little over five per cent, 

 and in 1885 about three and three quarters per cent; and yet dur- 

 ing the period covered by these statistics it is probable that the 

 amount of State, railroad, municipal, and farm-mortgage bonds 

 owned by the citizens of Connecticut increased to an extent equal 

 to at least one half the valuation of all the other property in the 

 State returned and made subject to taxation. In 1855 the inhab- 

 itants of eighty-one towns of the State did not own a single mortgage 

 bond. ]STot a bond was returned as owned in the rich city of Meri- 

 den. The twenty thousand inhabitants of the thriving city of 

 Waterbury by their united efforts managed to scrape together only 

 seven hundred and fifty dollars in bonds. So far as cash is con- 

 cerned, there was never a community since mankind emerged from 

 a state of barter that got along with so little. In 18S9, how- 

 ever, the Legislature of Connecticut modified her former statutes, 

 and provided that the owners of all notes and bonds who would 

 register them with the State Treasurer, and agree to pay in ad- 

 vance a tax of one fifth of one per cent per annum for a period 

 of five years, should be exempted from all further State or local 

 taxation on the same. Note now the results. The law in question 

 went into operation on the 1st of August, 1889, and between that 

 date and the 1st of January succeeding, something over $30,000,000 

 of bonds and notes were registered under the modified assessment,* 

 of which the treasurer in his report to the Legislature says, " Prob- 

 ably at least three fourths have never paid any taxes whatsoever." 

 Here, then, within five months was uncovered to the taxing power 

 a quantity of what the law makes property in excess of $22,000,000, 

 and returns are still being received in large volume. The conclu- 

 sion, therefore, seems to be that there is a good deal of conscience 

 in the highly moral State of Connecticut which can be induced to 

 cheat an forswear on a two-per-cent tax, that can not be bribed on 

 a tax of one fifth of one per cent; or that a tax of from one to two 

 per cent on bonds and notes in Connecticut is sufficient to nearly tax 

 out of existence all conscientious scruples of its people in respect to 

 the violation of law and the perpetration of fraud in respect to mat- 

 ters of taxation. \ 



* For succeeding years the amounts registered with the State Treasurer were returned as 

 follows: 1890, $33,654,335 ; 1891, $24,792,509 ; 1892, $39,473,988; 1893, $12,418,673; 

 1894, $20,507,396 ; 1895, $18,533,543 ; 1896, $21,159,161. Why the large difference in 

 the receipts of the above years occurred has not been satisfactorily accounted for by the 

 State officials. 



•j- In 1897 the Legislature of Connecticut, not satisfied with the unexpected large 

 amount of notes and bonds returned for taxation at the rate of one fifth of one per 

 centum per annum when voluntarily paid in advance, doubled the rate of tax to two fifths 



