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THE FAEMER AND TAXATION.^ 



[Continued from p. 132 ] 



It has been proposed, indeed has been done in many States, 

 to make every man swear to the truthfulness of the returns, 

 and to pi'ovide adequate penalties for false returns. Experi- 

 ence shows, alas, that men will swear falsely by the whole- 

 sale and really seem to think little of it Nov would any 

 American community favor the establishment and enforce- 

 ment of penalties which would really accomplish anything 

 in this direction. As long, therefore, as this system remains 

 we may expect to see the farmer unjustly burdened, simply 

 because, as conditions are, a larger portion of his wealth is 

 in such a form that it cannot escape taxation. 



The country districts are, however, at a disadvantage in 

 another direction. Owing to their declining wealth and 

 population they must either continually advance the tax rate 

 or they must be content to see the public institutions of the 

 community go slowly backward. The number of people in 

 the country as compared with the city is, as we have seen, 

 steadily decreasing, i.e., the cities are growing steadily larger, 

 and embracing a continually increasing proportion of the 

 population. This means, of course, either that the burdens 

 for the support of schools and other public institutions will 

 grow heavier and heavier, or that they shall not advance, 

 or, indeed, shall retrograde. It is no uncommon sight to 

 see the schools gradually deteriorating in the rural districts. 

 It is not merely true in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, but 

 even in the New England States, — that classic land of edu- 

 cation, where all classes take a pride in the liberal support of 

 all public institutions, such as the school, the church, the 

 public library, etc. 



This is a disadvantage not merely for the country but for 

 the city as well. Once let the rui'al school and other similar 

 institutions become thoroughly low in character,- and more 

 and more people will wish to leave the countrj', and the 

 stream into the cities will be swollen still more. Amecicaa 

 people will not be content to live permanently in a region 

 where all the institutions which make life worth living are 

 gradually going backwards. 



1 Address before the Section of Ecouomic Science and Statistics of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Washington, D.C., 

 Aug. 19-25, 1891, t>y Edmund J. James, vice-president of the section. 



It is for the interest of the whole nation, then, and not 

 merely for that of the farmers, that the attractions of country 

 life shall be increased and not diminished. The existence of 

 good schools, churches, good roads, lyceums, libraries, and 

 other means of education, throughout the country districts is 

 necessary to the welfare of the whole community. Our great 

 cities live upon the country in more senses than one. They 

 are dependent upon it not merely for the material means of 

 living, such as grain and meat, but for population itself. 

 Statistics show that the death-rate in cities is rather higher 

 than the birth-rate, i.e., if the cities could not draw upon the 

 country they would soon begin to decline in size. Such be- 

 ing the case, it is of the highest importance to the cities, and 

 to the country as a whole, that those classes vphich feed the 

 cities, and give them the very bone and sinew of their ex- 

 istence, shall have the very best opportunities for an educa- 

 tion. In the interest of the rural districts themselves the 

 same thing is demanded. The draining away to the cities 

 of the best blood of the young generation inflicts a continual 

 loss upon the country. And yet if the attractions of country 

 life, on its intellectual side cannot be increased we may expect 

 to find this loss a continually increasing one. At the very 

 time, then, that farmers ought to be making increased expen- 

 ditures for public purposes, we find their means of making 

 such expenses curtailed. 



The farmer, then, suffers under the changes incident to 

 the continual advance of the country. He suffers from the 

 growing depopulation of the country, and he suffers from 

 the incidence of a system of taxation which did well enough 

 a century ago but is now as antiquated as the plough or 

 wagon of that time. What shall be done to help him ? 



In the first place, trying to doctor the present system here 

 and there, as I said before, will not help him. We cannot 

 materially improve our present system of taxation by little 

 changes introduced here and there. I take absolutely no 

 stock in the desirability of attemping it, or in the hope of 

 achieving success if it were attempted. A general property 

 tax, such as we have now in most of our American States, I 

 regard as a hopelessly inefficient one, and highly unjust in 

 all its effects. Even if it were possible to do anything with 

 it, I should be opposed to retaining it, as it is. in my opinion, 

 fundamentally vicious in such a condition of society as ours. 

 It is, moreover, impossible to do anything with it, because 

 it cannot be enforced. It is useless to try to ascertain all the 

 property which a man possesses in our society. It was not 

 possible for the tax gatherers in the Middle Ages to do it, 

 when they could apply the thumb-screws ad libitum as an 

 assistance to the memory of forgetful tax-payers, — how much 

 less to day, when no jury in the United States would con- 

 vict an ordinary citizen of perjury because of false returns 

 to the tax assessor. When it is possible for a man like one 

 of the Vanderbilts to swear that he has only $100,000 in the 

 world which is liable to the general property tax, and it is 

 impofeible to prove the contrary in the case of such a well- 

 known person, what is the use of trying to reach the property 

 of the ordinary citizen by such means ? I think I am fully 

 within the truth when I say that no one who has made any 

 study whatever of tax questions thinks that a general prop- 

 erty tax upon personal property can be collected. The scien- 

 tific students of taxation all agree, I think, to a man, that a 

 general property tax of this sort is a relic of medisevalism, 

 and should be abolished as soon as possible. 



The farmers of all classes ought to be opposed to such a 

 tax. Why ? Because, besides the reasons already given, 

 the effect is more injurious to the country than to the city. 



