528 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stitutional amendment permitting a progressive inheritance tax 

 which has not yet been given effect by the Legislature; and Ohio 

 added to her collateral inheritance tax a progressive tax on direct 

 successions. In 1895 progressive inheritance taxes were adopted 

 in Illinois and Missouri, and an old proportional tax was revived 

 in Virginia; and last year Iowa adopted in part the inheritance tax 

 recommendation of her revenue commission." * 



The real problems are to be encountered in local taxation. The 

 many different methods used in the different States, the want of 

 uniformity in the local divisions of each State, and the extraordinary 

 diversity in the interpretation or application o'f tax laws by the courts 

 and executive authorities of the States have introduced a confusion, 

 to end which, many would invoke the intervention of the Federal 

 Government. The haphazard manner in which the laws have been 

 framed and passed is only the least notable explanation of the va- 

 riety of phrase and interpretation to be found. Even were the Fed- 

 eral Government to establish definitions, and frame rules of uniform 

 assessment, there would still be room for difference. The customs 

 tariff is known to be variously applied in the different ports of the 

 country, and there is greater certainty in the tariff rate than could 

 be found in a tax resting on the assessed valuation of land, for 

 example. 



The difficulty encountered by France in its attempt to determine 

 the net income from land for the purposes of taxation carries an 

 important lesson. Failing to obtain uniformity of appraisement of 

 this net income under the crude method first employed of basing 

 it on the character of soil and nature of cultivation, deducting the 

 expenses of cultivation a cadastre was decreed, f In this cadastre 

 each particular piece of property was recorded, with its boundaries, 

 its manner of cultivation, and its net rental. Begun in 1807, it was 

 not completed until 1850, and proved of little value, as no provision 

 had been made for recording the changes in cultivation, rentals, or 

 other conditions, except those of ownership, buildings, and exemp- 

 tion from taxes. Instead of proving a successful means to a desired 

 end, it " turned out to be a stupendous disillusionment." " The ex- 

 perience of both the western Prussian provinces and of France 

 showed that the newly constructed cadastre was of considerable serv- 

 ice in equalizing the land tax within a relatively small area, but not 

 as a basis for alterations in the contingents to be paid by large and 

 widely separated regions. The officials in charge of the cadastre on 



* Max West, in North American Review, May, 1897, p. 635. 



f The word cadastre was derived from the Latin capitaxtrum, or register of capita, griga, 

 or units of territorial taxation into which the Roman provinces were divided for the pur- 

 poses of capi'atio tcrrena, or land tax. It is of modern use and is locally found in Louibiana. 



