NEED OF A STATE TAX COMMISSION IN COLORADO 85 



is plain that this drastic law did not enable the assessors to find more 

 personal property in Ohio. 



The chief result of this law was to drive wealthy citizens out of 

 the state. It is said' that millions of capital left the city of Cleve- 

 land and that "the value of high-class residential property on EucHd 

 Avenue and in its vicinity depreciated 40 or 50 per cent." 



At the National Civic Federation Conference on Taxation, Buffalo, 

 May 23, 25, 1901, Hon. James R. Garfield condemned this law in 

 the following words : 



The practical effect of the law has been to drive away millions of property 

 which otherwise would have been returned for at least a partial valuadon. 



The experience of Ohio shows the utter uselessness of attempting to reach 

 personal property by individual returns, and the tax inquisitor law, instead of 

 affording a remedy, has driven millions of capital away from the state, and has 

 brought the state into disrepute. 



In 1904 this law was declared unconstitutional. The Ohio Special 

 Tax Commission Report of 1908 further^ says: 



The widespread concealment of intangible property, increasing in amount 

 year by year, is the most convincing proof of the failure of the general property 

 tax. It shows that after more than fifty years of experience, with all conceiv- 

 able methods in the way of inquisitor laws, severe penalties and criminal statutes, 

 designed to force the owners of moneys and credits, stocks and bonds, to put 

 their holdings upon the tax duplicate, not only is the percentage of such property 

 less than ever before, but pubHc sentiment seems to be more and more openly 

 approving an evasion of the law. Such a condition of affairs is so manifestly 

 wrong and so inimical to good government, that its longer continuance is a grave 

 injury to the state. 



A number of special tax commissions appointed by various states 

 during the past two decades have, almost without exception, made 

 reports generally similar to those of the Ohio commissions above 

 quoted. 



It thus appears that those who have had the greatest opportuni- 

 ties for studying the working of the general property tax are united 

 that, for personal property at least, it is not likely to be successfully 



■ Bullock, "General Property Tax in the United States," Boston Transcript, January 13, 20, 27, 1909. 

 ' Report of Ohio Tax Commission, 1908.— Quoted in Report of the Committee of the International Tax 

 Association on the Causes of the Failure of the General Property Tax, p. 8. 



