TAXATION. 57 



and reduce its percentage in a manner that would be surprising 

 even to the assessors themselves. 



It is said that custom makes the law, but custom does not make 

 the statute. The statute exempts household furniture " not ex- 

 ceeding two hundred dollars to any one family." The law of cus- 

 tom in many towns exempts household furniture to five times this 

 amount. The statute demands a tax upon a gold watch ; custom 

 generally exempts the watch. The statute in exempting "farming 

 utensils, mechanics' tools necessary for carr^'ing on his business," 

 " mules, horses, neat cattle, swine and sheep less than six months 

 old," discriminates in favor of the man in limited circumstances, 

 and with propriety. Custom discriminates, by permitting larger 

 exemptions in favor of the wealthy; not designedly so, let it be 

 understood, but so difficult is it without a most rigorous " inquis- 

 itorial" system to keep trace of invisible property, as money, 

 notes and mortgages, that assessors are wont to allow large 

 amounts of this class of property to evade taxation.* 



Massachusetts has pressed the taxation of personal property 

 more vigorously, and perhaps with greater success than any of 

 her sister States ; and yet her commissioners on taxation (referred 

 to above) admit the complete impossibility of reaching all the 

 property subject to assessment. They say: " That personal prop- 

 erty in Massachusetts, declared by her laws to be subject to taxa- 

 tion, does in some degree escape assessment, it is impossible to 

 deny. The most vigilant of assessors cannot find it all, and there 

 are not wanting those in every community willing to invoke the 

 name of their Creator to the truth of a statement which is a false- 

 hood and a fraud. There are not wanting officers who shut their 

 eyes to the facts they have sworn to observe, in the supposed in- 

 terests of the locality of which they are residents, and help the 

 possessors of wealth to act the lie they dare not utter." 



The Maine statutes, chapter 6, sections 65, 66 and 67, furnish 

 to assessors essentially the same method of ascertaining the per- 



* A gentleman, who is a shrewd observer, and who has given much thought to this 

 subject, furnishes the following statement: 



"The aggregate value of personal estate is largely underestimated. The amount in 

 bonds, bank stock and fire risks shows this to be the case. Now the personal prop- 

 erty of the State is estimated at about fifty per cent, of the taxable value of the real 

 property, whereas reliable data show that the two are equal, so that at least $70,000,- 

 000 of personal estate escape taxation." 



This difliculty is by no means limited to our own State, but obtains wherever such 

 property is subject to taxation. 



