MTNICIPAL TAXATION — WHY AND HOW. 47 



These difficulties pertain more particularly to the taxation of per- 

 sonal property, for the following reasons, among others : 



I. Taxes cannot be assessed on o;oods, chattels, money and effects, 

 wheresoever they are or on all obligations for mone}' or other personal 

 property, money at interest and debts due to the persons to be taxed 

 more than they are owing, public stocks and securities, &c., with- 

 out inquisitorial process of some kind, instituted for the purpose of 

 ascertaining that which is not open to public inspection, and which 

 the tax-payer, except under compulsion of such process, would not 

 consent to disclose. 



Few persons will voluntarily make a complete exhibit of their 

 affairs to the public, and still fewer, perhaps, have their affairs in 

 such shape that public officers can make an inventory of their per- 

 sonal possessions without the assistance of the owners in prepar- 

 ing it. 



Our statute has recognized this difficulty, and provided for a list 

 to be presented b}'' the tax-payer, subject to an exhaustive examina- 

 tion, in writing, under oath, or has allowed the assessors to tax every 

 person according to their own judgment, leaving the person taxed to 

 reduce the amount by his own oath, if he shall see fit, and be able 

 so to do. 



This is objectionable not only as taking away a desirable privacy 

 in business and family concerns, but also in holding out a strong 

 temptation to false swearing in matters where a false oath would be 

 difficult if not impossible of detection. 



II. The assessment of personalty holds out constant and very 

 powerful temptations to defraud, by concealing the knowledge of 

 everything which the tax-payer believes cannot easil}' be discovered. 



This is so well understood that it is scarcely expected that citi- 

 zens will voluntarily state what the}^ possess, or that officers will 

 make much of an effort to discover it. Indeed, it is estimated that 

 at least three-fifths of the personal property in this State never gets 

 to the knowledge of the assessors. 



III. Such taxes are, and must be, unjust in their discrimination 

 between residents and non-residents who enjo}^ the same protection 

 of the laws. 



For example, a ten per cent loan, by a non-resident and resident, 

 to an inhabitant in the State — one gets his interest, net ; the other, 

 less the tax. 



