CALIFORNIA. 



81 



Board of Equalization tells. For it has been 

 shown in the report that the ways in which 

 taxation is escaped are more numerous than 

 ever before ; that while personal property has 

 always evaded assessment, real property has 

 now found it possible to follow the same 

 course ; that the attempts to impose double 

 taxation have in a large number of cases been 

 eluded by resort to shifts which resulted in 

 the loss of even single taxation ; that the en- 

 deavor to break up land monopoly, by taxing 

 uncultivated lands at the same rate as culti- 

 vated, has operated as a raid upon the small 

 farmers; that owing to the exemption of 

 growing crops from taxation, and the failure 

 to provide for the assessment of the mature 

 crops, this important class of personal prop- 

 erty largely escapes taxation ; that owing to the 

 ambiguities and confusions of the new Consti- 

 tution, the Board of Equalization has been pre- 

 vented from equalizing assessments generally ; 

 that under the new system the State is at the 

 mercy, first of the assessors, secondly of the 

 tax-payers ; that whether the assessments are 

 made by the first or the second, the interests 

 of the State appear to be equally subordinated ; 

 and it is apparent that some three or four hun- 

 dred millions of property continue to pay no 

 taxes whatever. 



The board wants some provision which will 

 render the assessors intelligent or conscien- 

 tious. That they are not so at present the 

 board thinks itself bound to conclude from the 

 manner in which real estate has been assessed. 

 With a unanimity and a perversity seldom 

 equaled and never surpassed, the assessors 

 have reversed the new constitutional rule in 

 regard to cultivated and uncultivated land, and 

 have in practice evidently assessed the former 

 by the latter. But the most remarkable re- 

 sult of all is the graduation of the assessments 

 in accordance with the increase in size of the 

 farms. Everywhere the small farm has been 

 assessed higher than the large one. In every 

 county the value per acre of ten, twenty, and 

 fifty-acre farms has been rated higher than that 

 of the hundred, two-hundred, four-hundred, and 

 six-hundred-and-f orty-acre farms. The fact re- 

 mains that the new rule has thus far failed, 

 and it is to be ascertained whether the princi- 

 ple underlying it, or the method of appointing 

 assessors, is most at fault. In regard to the 

 latter, it must be admitted that thus far the 

 plan of electing these officers has not resulted 

 well for the State. It is notorious that prop- 

 erty of all kinds escapes assessment. 



A bill to authorize a commission to act on 

 the subject of the adulteration of food and 

 medicines was introduced in the House and 

 referred to the Committee on Epidemics and 

 Diseases. Their report presented an alarming 

 state of affairs, of which the following state- 

 ment contains some details : 



The extent to which poisonous adulteration ap- 

 pears to be carried on in the United States is such 

 that it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that 

 VOL. xxi. 6 A 



murder had become one of the commonest incidents 

 of trade and manufacture. Nothing can be more hor- 

 rible than the cold indifference to consequences with 

 which manufacturers of all kinds appear to employ 

 deadly and noxious materials. We are forced to con- 

 clude that there are in this country thousands upon 

 thousands of men who are perfectly willing to spread 

 death and disease broadcast over the community if in 

 so doing they can make a little larger profit. Swin- 

 dling, cheating, substituting bad and sham for good and 

 genuine materials, are methods so usual as to be al- 

 most the rule. Adulterations enter into almost every- 

 thing that is eaten, that is drunk, that is worn, that is 

 used. And disease and death go hand in hand with 

 adulteration everywhere. 



Our children are poisoned by the dye-stuffs used 

 upon their dresses and their stockings. The candy 

 they eat is poisoned. The papers which we put on 

 our walls are poisoned. The cards which we use in 

 visiting or for social purposes are poisoned. The arti- 

 ficial flowers our wives and daughters employ are poi- 

 soned. The bread we eat is poisoned. The baking- 

 powders, of which some two hundred kinds are on 

 the market, are nearly all poisonous. The pickles 

 which we put upon our tables are deadly. Our coffee, 

 our tea, our sugar ? our butter and cheese, all our 

 canned goods are poisoned. Our candles, our oils, the 

 cosmetics our women use so freely, are full of danger. 

 The toys, the puzzles, the block maps, which we put 

 in the hands of our children, may carry destruction 

 with them. And as for the medicines with which dis- 

 ease is to be warded off, there is scarcely a genuine 

 drug to be had anywhere. 



The attention of the Legislature was so en- 

 grossed with the drainage act that little time 

 remained for the consideration of many other 

 important measures; consequently a final ad- 

 journment took place on March 4th, under the 

 provisions of the Constitution. No appropri- 

 ation bill was passed, nor an apportionment 

 bill. The latter was required to conform to 

 the returns of the recent census. So much im- 

 portant business remained to be considered, 

 that the Governor, on March 24th, called an 

 extra session of the Legislature, and appointed 

 April 4th as the day on which it should com- 

 mence. The objects of this session were : 



1. To enact a general appropriation bill, which 

 shall contain no item or items of appropriation other 

 than such as are required to pay the salaries of the 

 State officers, the expenses of the government, and of 

 the institutions under the exclusive control and man- 

 agement of the State, for the thirty-third and thirty- 

 fourth fiscal years. 



2. To levy the rates of taxation, or. in the dis- 

 cretion of the Legislature, to provide that the State 

 Board of Equalization shall fix such an ad valorem 

 rate of taxation upon each one hundred dollars of tax- 

 able property of the State, which, after allowing the 

 per cent required by law to be allowed for delinquen- 

 cies in and cost of collection of taxes, shall be sufficient 

 to raise the specific amount of revenue determined 

 upon and directed to be raised by the Legislature for 

 the thirty-third and thirty-fourth fiscal years. 



8. To appropriate money to pay the deficiencies in 

 appropriations for the support of the civil govern- 

 ment of this State for the thirty-first and thirty-second 

 fiscal years. 



4. To divide the State into senatorial, assembly, 

 and congressional districts. 



5. To enact a general road law. 



6. To send appointments to the Senate for their 

 confirmation. 



The extra session commenced on April 4th. 

 In the Senate, the first business was the adop- 



