No. 4.] FAEMING AS AN OCCUPATIOX. 333 



None of the many changes of the nineteenth century arc 

 more marked than the change in vahies from that of real 

 estate to ^)e/-.so»a? property. If the taxes are fairly levied 

 upon real and personal property alike, the farmer, whoso 

 property naturally is real estate, would stand on an equal 

 footing with the rest of mankind. Unfortunately, this is 

 not the case in Massachusetts. Our laws have exempted 

 nmch personal property, and advantage is taken of every 

 such exemption to evade taxes. The farm is always on 

 exhibition ; it cannot be hidden or disguised, and so its 

 owner has not the opportunity to " dodge" his taxes, which 

 the man rich in personal property can do and often does. 

 And every time this is done, — whether it be done according 

 to law or in defiance of law, — an additional burden is placed 

 on the farm. Taxes should be levied according to our 

 ability to pay, and not according to our ability to conceal. 

 It is actually argued by some newspapers that all taxes 

 should be assessed upon real estate alone, because so much 

 deception is practised by the holders of personal property 

 that we do not get more than one-half of it to tax anyway. 

 These advocates of complete exemption of personal property 

 exhibit the ingenuity of " Artemus Ward," who, upon being 

 told by a creditor that he would throw oft* fifty dollars from 

 an account of one hundred dollars, replied, "My friend, I 

 will not be outdone by you in generosity, — I will throw off 

 the other fifty." I do not claim that farmers are less culpa- 

 ble in the desire to evade taxation ; but the great mass of 

 them, whether they will or no, cannot do this, as their 

 property is always where the assessor can "view the land- 

 scape o'er." 



There are farmers who have a little more money than their 

 neighbors, and the savings banks usually get it, because 

 their deposits are exempted from taxation by law. I sup- 

 pose it is the intention of this law to encourage small savings 

 among the people ; but there is nothing to prevent a man's 

 having one thousand dollars in every savings bank in the 

 Commonwealth ; and, if he has a wife and children, he can 

 make like deposits in each of their names, and all this is 

 done simply to escape taxation. 



I l)elieve that equal taxation would be of great benefit to 

 the farmers ; it is their due, and the sreat wonder is that 



