202 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" The system as it is actually administered results in debauching 

 the moral sense. It is a school of perjury. It sends large amounts 

 of property into hiding. It drives capital in large quantities from 

 the State. Worst of all, it imposes unjust burdens upon various 

 classes in the community: upon the farmer in the country, all of 

 whose property is taxed because it is tangible; upon the man who 

 is scrupulously honest; and upon the guardian, executor, and 

 trustee, whose accounts are matters of public record. These bur- 

 dens are unjust because by the system as administered these people 

 pay the taxes which should be paid by their neighbors." And the 

 commissioners finally add that " these conclusions are in accord with 

 all current authorities on the subject." 



That this claim of accordance on the part of the Ohio commis- 

 sioners is fully warranted, attention is next asked to the conclusions 

 of other State commissions which within a comparatively recent 

 period have also officially investigated and reported upon this sub- 

 ject. Thus, a tax commission of New Hampshire in 1876, after 

 recognizing the inefficiency of the existing laws for the taxation of 

 personal property and " their corrupting and demoralizing influ- 

 ences," " frankly admit that they are unable to frame any law to 

 which a free people would submit, or should be asked to submit, that 

 will bring this class of property under actual assessment more effectu- 

 ally than it now is." An Illinois commission in 1886 asserted that 

 the existing system " is debauching to the conscience and subversive 

 of the public morals — a school for perjury, promoted by law." A 

 Connecticut commission in 1887 reported that " the results of an in- 

 vestigation of nearly three years into the workings of our tax system 

 have brought us to the conclusion that all items of intangible prop- 

 erty ought to be struck out of the list. As the law stands it may be 

 a burden upon the conscience of many, but it is a burden on the 

 property of the few, not because there are few who ought to pay, 

 but because there are few who can be made to pay." A West Vir- 

 ginia commission in 1884 asserted that " the payment of the tax on 

 personalty " (in the State) " is almost as voluntary, and is considered 

 pretty much in the same light, as donations to the neighboring 

 church or a Sunday school." 



In Massachusetts, where the law admits no offset of debts against 

 visible and tangible property, and is regarded as complete, and where 

 its execution is acknowledged to be most arbitrary and inquisitorial — 

 some towns publishing each year every known item of each man's 

 personal property, even down to the family pig and a string of 

 sleigh bells — the most intelligent officials admit that their system 

 is a comparative failure; and almost a complete failure as to reach- 

 ing evidences of indebtedness, which, as before shown, constitute in 



