464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



companies are assessed eight tenths of one per centum on gross premi- 

 ums, and bank-stocks, mortgages, and loans of different kinds pay four 

 per centum on every dollar of the value thereof. These special classes 

 paid $954,843,59 in 1884. Collateral inheritances of over 8200 are 

 taxed three mills on every dollar. From this source $4G1,4G5.48 were 

 derived. Tavern - licenses amounted to $426,429.19, and retailers' 

 licenses to 8o01,393.42. Nothing illustrates better how effectively 

 this system of special taxation can be applied than the fact that while 

 the total receipts of the Pennsylvania State Treasury in 1884 were 

 $6,226,959.38, only $502,025.43 were raised by a direct general tax. 

 New York State, which is first in wealth and the amount of revenue 

 collected, has not pushed the system to such an extent, although it is 

 rapidly following in the course of its neighbor. The tax on the capi- 

 tal stock of corporations is only one half of that levied in Pennsyl- 

 vania, namely, one quarter of a mill for each one per centum of divi- 

 dends if the dividends equal or exceed six per centum, and one and 

 one half mill upon each dollar of a valuation of the capital stock 

 when they are under six per centum or nil. The tax on the gross 

 earnings of transportation, navigation, telegraph, and telephone com- 

 panies is one half per centum. This yielded in 1884 $1,603,612.75, 

 insurance companies paying on their capital and premiums $241,676.15 

 of the amount. In Wisconsin, where special taxes have also worked 

 well, the plan is somewhat different. The license-tax, as it is called 

 there, applies to railroads, insurance, telegraph, and telephone com- 

 panies. Railroads are taxed from five dollars per mile of operated 

 road to four per centum of gross earnings, as follows : If the road 

 earns less than $1,500 per mile, it is taxed five dollars per mile ; on 

 those earning more than $1,500 and less than $3,000 per mile, the tax 

 is five dollars per mile, and two per centum on the excess over $1,500 

 per mile ; on those earning $3,000 or more per mile, the tax is four 

 per centum on gross earnings. Telegraph companies pay one dollar 

 per mile for the first wire, fifty cents per mile for the second, twenty- 

 five cents per mile for the thii-d, and twenty cents per mile for the 

 fourth and all additionah Telephone companies pay one per centum 

 on gross receipts, and insurance companies two per- centum on gross 

 earnings. This tax or license is in lieu of all other taxes, and amounted 

 in 1884 to : Railroads, $754,269.44 ; telegraph, $4,568.85 ; telephone, 

 $1,169.26 ; insurance, $64,904.75 ; or a total of $824,912.30. Vermont, 

 which pays nearly its entire expenses out of the special taxes, has a law 

 somewhat similar to that of AVisconsin. It levies two per centum on 

 railroads on the first $2,000 of earnings per mile. The rate increases 

 one per centum for each additional $1,000 per mile up to $5,000, and on 

 all earnings over $5,000 per mile it is five per centum. Insurance com- 

 panies pay two per centum on gross premiums, and life-insurance com- 

 panies in addition one per centum on all surplus over the necessary 

 reserve computed at four per centum on existing policies. Savings- 



