PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 197 



000,000 to $1,679,000,000 of real estate, or in the ratio of thirty- 

 three and a third per cent. That is, the personalty of the State in 

 twenty-nine years increased only $247,000,000, while the real estate 

 increased $1,127,000,000, or nearly five times as much in the same 

 time. " This simply means that more and more personal property, 

 under the rigid tax system of Massachusetts, escapes taxation. The 

 real estate can not have increased in value without an increase in 

 personal wealth with which to increase the demand for it. Keal 

 estate does not make a demand for itself." In 1870 the personal 

 property of the entire State of Massachusetts returned for taxation 

 represented an average of $345 per capita. 



It will be noted that the above exhibits represent the lengthened 

 experience of the two States which adhere most closely to the infini- 

 tesimal theory of taxation; have a system of most comprehensive 

 and explicit laws, framed by officials and enacted by legislators who 

 believe in their theory, and a system of arbitrary administration that 

 finds no parallel, except in thoroughly despotic countries, and is 

 wholly antagonistic to the principles of a free government. 



The experience of other States, where, under substantially the 

 same provision for the taxation of personal property, the administra- 

 tion is less rigorous, is also most instructive. 



In Jersey City, N. J., the tax valuation in 1892 of realty was 

 $78,176,000, and of personalty $6,539,750. In 1870 the valua- 

 tion of realty in the city of Brooklyn, 1ST. Y., was $183,689,000, and 

 of personalty $17,559,980. In 1893 the corresponding valuations 

 were $486,497,000 realty, $17,559,000 personalty; and of the latter 

 only $7,078,000 was assessed against individuals, the remainder 

 being property of banks and corporations. Of the entire property 

 of Brooklyn taken cognizance of by its tax officials in 1893, only 

 1.35 per cent of the whole was personalty proper. 



In 1870 the entire value of the personalty of the city of !New 

 York, including bonds, jewels, pictures, furniture, bric-a-brac, etc., 

 was put down by its assessors for taxation at $281,142,696; in 1893 

 the corresponding valuation was $370,936,000, of which less than 

 half was personal estate proper, the remainder being various forms of 

 corporate property, although it is reasonably certain that less than 

 twenty men, residents of the city, held personal property in excess 

 of this amount. 



In 1870 the personal property of the entire State of New York 

 returned for taxation represented an average of $99.13 per capita. 

 In 1893 this average had fallen to $68.75 per capita. In Connecti- 

 cut, in 1855, as before shown, State stocks, railroad, city, and other 

 bonds, and money at interest constituted about ten per cent of the 

 aggregate assessed valuation of property of the State. In 1885 the 



