FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 207 



MORAL EFFECT OF THE SYSTEM. 



The last objection is found in the moral effect of our system. It is said 

 that judging from tax returns, the clergymen are the greatest property 

 holders of the country, they being too honest to falsify their statements. 

 Most men desire to pay their full share of State expense, but no one 

 wants to pay his neighbor's. Indeed, competition is so close in some 

 businesses that a man cannot possibly pay his taxes if his neighbor does 

 not, and succeed in business. Our system of taxation tends to bring the 

 morality of a community down to the level of the most unscrupulous, 

 because, feeling that other men are not making full returns of their pos- 

 sessions, most men are conscienceless about their own. A wise taxing 

 law should not make truthfulness so difficult. 



Besides these vital objections to our taxing system, there are others 

 of minor note. As the main source of revenue to the State, it allows too 

 many citizens to go untaxed. Unless a person owns property more than 

 is exempt by law he makes no contribution to the State whatever, except 

 a paltry poll-tax. It is generally considered that a fourth of our bread 

 earners belong to the professional classes — lawyers, teachers, doctors, 

 etc. Why should not these persons make some contribution to govern- 

 ment, which protects and frequently educates them? 



The collecting machinery under this tax system is hardly less trouble- 

 some than the assessing. How frequently in the poorer parts of the 

 State does the town treasurer report no property to be levied upon for 

 securing taxes, and the State loses revenue and is encumbered with 

 worthless real estate thereby! Tax officials in this State declare that 

 after a tax is levied on only a part of property, and that undervalued, 

 it is still exceedingly difficult to collect it. 



Still more injustices promoted by our tax are the unequal assessments 

 as between one individual and another, the exemption of the poor for 

 political purposes, and the double taxations which are necessary in many 

 instances, or the State loses revenue trving to avoid them. 



THE SINGLE TAX. 



Among the schemes for tax reform, few have been more warmly and 

 enthusiastically supported than the single tax. It is the frequent con- 

 clusion of taxation students that no relief can come until all taxes are 

 simplified into one. At all times the theory has been that, while a tax 

 is collected from some one commodity, this in turn shifts the tax to other 

 commodities, until the whole is diffused equitably throughout the com- 

 munity. Just as at present, an increased excise tax on liquors is not 

 borne by the manufacturer alone, but is shifted by him, through an 

 increased price, upon those who use the commodity. A variety of 

 objects, such as incomes, houses and lands, have at different times been 

 suggested as the bearer of this tax. No tax is theoretically so fair as the 

 income tax. It marks almost exactly the ability of a person to pay 

 taxes. It is an elastic tax. It leaves every one relatively in the same 

 position after paying the tax as before paying it. Practically, however, 

 it is open to much criticism. It is a tax on the conscientious; is inquisi- 

 torial, and has the added fault for State purposes of taxing incomes made 



