440 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



could only be done by allowing movable property to thrive, and by 

 attracting a sufficient amount of it to you to occupy additional 

 ground, and to pay additional rental until your rental would be more 

 than tlie tax. 



" I find, in submitting my views to intelligent men, that at 

 first they oppose me, and invariably say it is right and just for all 

 kinds of j^roperty to be taxed alike ; they all receive protection from 

 the laws alike, and of course they ought to pay alike. JSTow, this would 

 do very *well, and be good reasoning, if we had a Chinese wall 

 around a State; a wall that man could not scale to go out or come 

 in, and no railroad could go under, through, or over; and then I 

 would favor the tax of everything, for then it would all be fixed prop- 

 erty; it couldn't run away or come to you; but until that kind of 

 arrangement is made I am not in favor of it." 



Commenting on a rate of tax of three per cent imposed on all 

 property by various cities of the Southern States (at the time of his 

 writing, 1873), Mr. Ensley points out as one result of such a policy 

 that it offered " inducements to banks to carry on business with small 

 capitals, and rely upon deposits for their capital; in other words, 

 to undertake to do banking business without capital. A bank with 

 five hundred thousand dollars capital pays fifteen thousand dollars to 

 State, county, and city, being five times as much as a bank with one 

 hundred thousand dollars capital, when the bank with five hundred 

 thousand dollars capital does the State, county, and city, otherwise, 

 five times as much good in the shape of assisting trade, manufactures, 

 .and developing the various industries." 



Commenting also upon the tax rate of four and a half per cent 

 imposed at that time in the city of Memphis, Mr. Ensley further adds : 

 " If you will levy, enforce, and collect such a tax on the money, trade, 

 etc., of the great city of ISTew York, and charge no tax in Boston, 

 Philadelphia, or Baltimore, I will guarantee to transfer, in a short 

 time, hundreds of millions of the trade, money, etc., of ISTew York 

 to those cities; and, if she will continue it five or ten years, I will 

 guarantee to show you, in either of these cities, more trade, more 

 money, and more people than in ISTew York. I will guarantee to 

 depopulate her more effectually and more permanently than a plague 

 ever did a city, and impoverish her more effectually than ever a war 

 did. Yes, I will hurt her infinitely worse than a fire, that might 

 burn every house from Castle Garden, from river to river, to Central 

 Park. I will make it entirely safe for women and children to cross 

 Broadway at City Park, Astor House, Wall Street, or elsewhere, 

 without the protection of policemen. I will reduce the value of the 

 real estate of Mr. Astor from one hundred million dollars (it is said 

 to be worth one hundred million dollars) to twenty-five million dol- 



