RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN STATE TAXATION. 463 



savings-banks. Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania tax collateral 

 inheritances. In New Hampshire the courts recently declared a law 

 of this kind unconstitutional. Kine States derive part of their revenue 

 from a tax on the liquor-traffic. Eight secure a considerable amount 

 from licenses granted to trades and occupations by the State, instead 

 of by the local authorities, as is the custom in most sections. A few 

 of the oddities of taxation by States may be referred to here. Mary- 

 land last year obtained $110,050 from a tax on the commissions of 

 executors and administrators of estates, one tenth part of the sum 

 allowed them by the Orphans' Court being demanded by the State. 

 North Carolina derived 663,000, in 1884, from a license of 8100 on 

 drummers. The declaration of the Ohio Supreme Court, last autumn 

 that the Scott liquor law was unconstitutional, has deprived the State 

 of an annual revenue of over $50,000, and the cities within its borders 

 of half a million. Pennsylvania and Virginia have income-taxes. 

 Georgia gets $300,000 per annum as the rental of the Atlanta and 

 West Point Railroad, and Illinois has seven percentum of the gross 

 earnings of the Illinois Central Railroad, between 8350,000 and 8-100,000 

 a year, as a charter tax. In South Carolina seventeen companies paid 

 a royalty, for the use of the phosphate-beds, of 8154,318, which is about 

 one quarter of the amount raised for State purposes. The occupation- 

 tax in Texas covers a very extensive list of trades and occupations. 

 The total receipts of the treasury in 1884 were 81,539,918, and of this 

 sum the occupation-taxes furnished 8774,756. In Massachusetts there 

 is a law for the taxation of corporations. The levy is made by the 

 State ; but the amount paid in is redistributed by the State to the 

 cities and towns where the stockholders reside, and only so much 

 thereof as is from non-residents remains in the State Treasury. Penn- 

 sylvania, by some strange process of reasoning, thinks that a man who 

 owns a watch should pay a tax for the privilege. As only 45,596 

 watches are reported by a population of 4,500,000, the inference is, 

 that the Quakers either conceal their time-pieces in an inner pocket, or 

 regulate their lives by the town-clock or the sun. 



A glance at the laws of a few States which have secured the most 

 notable results in the direction of special taxation will show the scope 

 and bearing of the movement. Pennsylvania may, perhaps, be called 

 the pioneer. It has tried more experiments and probably reaches more 

 special classes than any other State. The tax on the capital stock of 

 all corporations, which yielded to the State 81,535,727.56 in 1884, is 

 one half mill for each one per centum of dividend declared, provided 

 the annual dividend amounts to six per centum or more. If the divi- 

 dends are less than six per centum, or if there are no dividends, the 

 tax is three mills upon each dollar of the appraised valuation, or mar- 

 ket value, of the stock. A further tax of eight tenths of one per 

 centum is imposed on the gross earnings of transportation and tele- 

 graph companies. This brought in last year 8787,929.20. Insurance 



