September ii, 1891. J 



SCIENCE. 



147 



It is easier to collect sucli a tax in the country, because peo- 

 ple in the country know more, as a rule, about the affairs of 

 their neigtibors than those of the city. It would be impossi- 

 ble for a farmer to have any great amount of money invested 

 in mortgages, etc., without it coming more or less to the 

 knowledge of his Beighbors, and hence to the ears of the as- 

 sessor. In the city, on the contrary, the individual is lost 

 in the crowd. The result is that as soon as the farmer has 

 any considerable funds in this form there is great temptation 

 to move to the city, and hence another inducement is added 

 to the already too long list which tend to drain the country 

 of its very best elements. 



The taxing of mortgages and money at interest is another 

 subject which has attracted a great deal of attention. Who 

 pays this tax ? Some authorities say the borrower, some say 

 the lender. Of course, if a tax be levied upon money now 

 invested in mortgages, and collected from the owner of the 

 mortgage, the mouey-loaner must pay it. But how about 

 the new mortgages ? If it were possible to reach absolutely 

 all the money up for loan we might make such a combina- 

 tion possible by which the leaner would have to pay it. But 

 as things are now, the bulk of the money escaping it alto- 

 gether, even in those States where. such a tax is nominally 

 levied, with many States which do not seriously try to levy 

 such taxes, he must have large faith who believes that the 

 money-lender must pay this tax instead of the farmer, when 

 he charges so much the more interest by reason of the tax. 

 At any rate, it is not an important element in this problem, 

 in my opinion. We must begin at the other end and try to 

 reach quite a different class in the community. We can 

 dispense with the tax on mortgages very easily if we reorgan- 

 ize our revenue system as we ought. 



The farmer can be helped, then, as I insisted at the begin- 

 ning of my paper, only by a radical change in our revenue 

 system — a change which will remove taxation from the 

 place where wealth is not, and put it where it is. To do 

 this we must use the State and National Governments. 

 Speaking generally, his taxation must be lightened, and the 

 income of local communities, particularly the rural districts, 

 must be increased for public purposes. The lines along 

 which this revolution must be made I shall briefly indicate. In 

 the first place, farming property should be exempted from 

 all taxation for State purposes. This has been done already 

 in some of the States, in Delaware among the rest. In Penn- 

 sylvania, for example, the tax on real estate is solely for local 

 purposes. The State does not levy any assessments upon real 

 estate for State purposes. This may not seem a very considera- 

 ble lightening of the burdens, but it is important, since when a 

 man is loaded beyond his strength every decrease of the bur- 

 den is of significance. In the second place, the State must 

 come to the support of the local community, and that in two 

 ways. It must distribute large sums to the communities for 

 the support of local institutions, like the schools; and it 

 must assume the entire expense of certain public functions, 

 like that of justice, and especially the support of the unfor- 

 tunate poor, such as the insane, the blind, idiotic, etc., as 

 also the expense for penitentiaries. 



The support of the unfortunate poor is something which 

 no local community can reasonably undertake, for it has not 

 the facilities to extend such care to them as our modern hu- 

 manity demands. All such people ought to be put in asy- 

 lums and supported at general and not local expense. Nor 

 can the local units afford to provide as they ought for the 

 criminal classes. They are, moreover, oftentimes not at all 

 responsible for the criminal character of the population, as 



the latter may have drifted in from other communities, or, 

 indeed, from other States. 



The care of the unfortunate and criminal classes requires 

 the employment of highly educated and specially trained 

 people, whose services can not be commanded by localities, 

 even if they could pay the expenses for suitable buildings, 

 which, as a rule, they cannot. The expense of the courts 

 might also be borne by the State to a very large extent. The 

 existence of county courts, for example, does not accrue 

 alone to the benefit of the people of the county, but quite as 

 much to the people of other localities, or indeed of other 

 States, who may have occasion for any reason to claim their 

 services in any action at law. 



The support of schools is also a function in which not 

 merely the local community is interested, but all parts of 

 the State as well. I think that every one must say that our 

 farming communities are not at present able to pay the ex- 

 penses of really good elementary schools. It is, in a large 

 proportion of the rural districts, impossible to find anything 

 more than elementary schools. Yet there is no reason why 

 the advantage of good high schools should not be open to 

 farmers' children as well as to the children of city 

 people. If there were good schools in the country, we 

 should find that many people would stay there who now go 

 to town as soon as they can rake and scrape the money to- 

 gether. The only way in which such school facilities can 

 be offered is for the State to come to their aid in an efficient 

 manner. In many of the States already a school fund is 

 provided, the proceeds of which are distributed among the 

 school districts. In some States this pays the salary of the 

 teacher for six months or more in the year. In other places 

 the State government raises by taxation a large sum. which 

 is distributed iu the same way among the school districts. 

 In a few States the State government pays a large share of 

 the expense wherever communities will establish high 

 schools. Adequate educational facilities can never be ob- 

 tained in this country until the State governments under- 

 take to look after the matter themselves, and contribute 

 handsomely to the support of good schools of all grades. It 

 is simply impossible for the farming districts, under existing- 

 conditions, to raise adequate sums for this and all other pur- 

 poses which they must look after. 



Another department in which the localities must be aided 

 is that of maintaining good roads. Since the advent of 

 the railroads we have done next to nothing toward improv- 

 ing our local means of communication. Such abominable, 

 horse destroying highways as exist in most of our American 

 States you can not find in any other civilized country. The 

 farmers waste as much money, time, and horse flesh in get- 

 ting their crops to market over a few miles of our ordinary 

 American roads as would suffice to take the crops around 

 the world on a railroad or steamer. Local management and 

 support of the roads, as we try to work it in this country, 

 has always given poor roads in every country where it has 

 been tried. All other civilized countries have gone over to 

 a reasonable system, under which the leading roads of the 

 State are under the supervision of State engineers and at 

 State expense; the roads which are merely county ai'e kept 

 up by the county, while only the very subordinate roads, the 

 paths across the fields, etc., are saddled upon the road dis- 

 trict. The roads are, however, to-day of immensely greater 

 importance to the farmer than they were a century ago. In 

 1800 nearly all the products of the farm were consumed on 

 the farm. To-day the bulk is shipped to market. The cost 

 of transportation is largely a burden on the farmer. Any 



