NEW YORK. 



651 



taxation of collateral inheritances and corpo- 

 rate trust mortgages. Among the defeated 

 bills was one for " equalizing assessments and 

 taxation," which was intended to make assess- 

 ment reach all classes of personal property, and 

 to prevent evasion ; one providing for a reve- 

 nue from a variety of business licenses; and 

 others taxing brokers' sales, trust companies, 

 savings-banks, and life insurance. The com- 

 mission, after careful consideration, advised 

 against an abolition of deduction for debt from 

 the assessment of personal property. In mak- 

 ing a report to the Governor of the results of 

 their labors the members of the Advisory 

 Commission stated that they had made no 

 attempt to devise a complete and symmetrical 

 system of taxation, but suggested that such an 

 attempt ought to be made. They said : " The 

 machinery of taxation should be carefully re- 

 coustructed and made more efficient, so as to 

 reach every species of taxable property, and to 

 more equally and justly apportion and collect 

 its proper contribution. The various kinds of 

 taxable property should be exactly defined. 

 Exemptions for indebtedness should be abol- 

 ished, or made uniform and equal as to every 

 species of property. Mechanical and manu- 

 facturing industries should be carefully studied 

 upon their statistics, with a view to their total 

 or partial inclusion for, or exemption from, 

 taxation. The data should be carefully col- 

 lected for a wider imposition of excise taxes. 

 Careful provision should be made to guard 

 effectually against evasions of taxation, and to 

 define what property and business of domestic 

 corporations, outside of the State, are taxable. 

 And, finally, after proper legislation embracing 

 these various subjects has been perfected, the 

 body of the tax laws should be codified, so as 

 to be conveniently accessible to those charged 

 with their administration." 



A bill creating a Railroad Commission, sub- 

 stantially the same as that reported by the 

 Hepburn Committee of 1879, was introduced 

 in the Assembly by Mr. Duguid, and passed 

 that body by a vote of 74 to 33. In the Sen- 

 ate it was held for several weeks by the Rail- 

 road Committee, and finally an adverse report 

 was made. It was nevertheless taken up for 

 consideration, but, after several spasmodic ef- 

 forts had been made in its behalf, it was 

 left without final action when the session 

 closed. 



The State canals occupied considerable at- 

 tention. After some discussion a resolution 

 was adopted in the Senate recommending the 

 removal of all tolls from West-bound freight 

 and putting salt on the free list. This recom- 

 mendation was adopted by the Board of Canal 

 Commissioner?. After much discussion and 

 two reconsiderations of adverse votes in the 

 Senate, a resolution proposing an amendment 

 of the Constitution abolishing all tolls and pro- 

 viding for the maintenance of the canals by 

 taxation was finally adopted. Projects for en- 

 larging and improving the Erie Canal, and one 



for the construction of a railroad on the berme 

 bank, were considered but not adopted. 



The Western Union, American Union, and 

 Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Companies, hav- 

 ing entered into an agreement which consoli- 

 dated them all in the Western Union, and pro- 

 vided for a large increase of the stock of that 

 corporation, an effort was made to prevent its 

 consummation by legislative prohibition cover- 

 ing all similar schemes of consolidation. A 

 bill for the purpose was passed in the Assembly, 

 but action upon it was delayed in the Senate 

 until the terms of the agreement had been 

 carried into effect, and it was then abandoned 

 altogether. 



A subject which occupied considerable atten- 

 tion for a time was that of providing a new 

 system of street- cleaning for the city of New 

 York. This work had previously been under 

 the charge of the police department of the 

 city, but had been so unsatisfactorily done that 

 a committee of twenty-one was appointed at a 

 public meeting to secure a change of method. 

 This committee prepared a bill, placing the 

 work in immediate charge of the mayor, with 

 power to appoint a superintendent and exer- 

 cise full control. This was promptly passed 

 by the Senate but was vigorously opposed in 

 the Assembly, on the ground that it placed the 

 control of appointments and employments in 

 the hands of the mayor without restriction, 

 and these might be used for political ends. A 

 measure was finally passed, creating a Depart- 

 ment of Street-Cleaning, under a commissioner 

 to be appointed by the mayor and confirmed 

 by the Board of Health of the city. 

 . Efforts made to secure important amend- 

 ments of the charter of New York city came 

 to naught. All attempts to modify the ex- 

 cise laws also failed. A new penal code was 

 adopted, and important amendments \vrre 

 made in the Code of Civil Procedure. Two 

 bills were passed with a view to providing 

 means for the support of the Emigration Com- 

 mission. One of these established an inspec- 

 tion of immigrants at the port of New York, 

 and the other provided for a tax of $1 per 

 head on all immigrants landed, to bo collected 

 from the steamship companies by the Commis- 

 sioners of Emigration. The validity of this 

 act was contested by the companies, and it was 

 declared unconstitutional by the Circuit Court 

 of the United States early in 1882. In his de- 

 cision, Judge Blatchford took the ground that 

 the inspection which States are authorized to 

 exercise could apply only to imported merchan- 

 dise, and the tax which they may levy to meet its 

 expense could be placed only upon commodities. 

 This legislation was therefore void, as interfer- 

 ing with the exclusive jurisdiction of the Fed- 

 eral Government over the regulation of foreign 

 commerce. 



Considerable dissatisfaction was felt with tho 

 results of the session, the effect of which was 

 seen in the political canvass of the year. The 

 revision of the tax laws, which had occupied a 



