TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



15 



estate return about four times the assessed value that they do on per- 

 sonal property, including money and solvent credits, so that real estate, 

 in California, pays four times the amount of taxes that personal prop- 

 erty does. Does any one here believe that the cash value of real estate 

 is four times greater than that of personal property? The same dis- 

 crepancy prevails in every State depending on a general property tax 

 for a State revenue. The assessors are not to blame. The system is 

 the cause. The system should be changed. To make the change the 

 Constitution must be amended so as to enable us to have a system of 

 taxation which will be more equitable, more in accordance Avith a pro- 

 gressive people, and more in accordance Avith the changed conditions of 

 industries and commerce to Avhat they were when our Constitution Avas 

 adopted. 



The property of the farmer is, perhaps, nine tenths real estate and 

 improvements, all of AA'hich is listed for taxation; in addition, his per- 

 sonal property is listed in greater detail than is that of any other industry 

 or pursuit'. Of no other calling or industry is such a detailed, minute 

 list of taxable property required, and for this reason the farmer, on 

 his personal property, in both amount and assessed value thereof, pays 

 a very much greater tax than does any other industry or calling. The 

 farmer, considering that a very large percentage of his property is 

 realty, considering the scrutiny AA'ith Avhich his personal property is 

 listed, compared with any and all other classes of taxpayers, pays a 

 tax out of all proportion to his ability to pay. It Avdll, of necessity, be 

 so until AA'e have a better and more equitable system of taxation. 



The system of a general property tax for purposes of State, county, 

 and toAA'nship revenue is noAV antiquated. At the time the first Con- 

 stitution of California AA^as adopted in 1850, noAV more than half a 

 century ago, considering our industrial condition, it AA-as then, perhaps, 

 as good a system as could have been selected; but that half century has 

 brought AA^onderful developments in every science, in education, in 

 every industry, in every calling, in fact such progress has been made, 

 in that period, as the AA'orld had not made for centuries before. In our 

 revenue laAA^s, California has made no progress; they should now be 

 made adequate to the progressive times in AA^hich Ave live. Hoaa^ to do 

 that I am not, now, ready to discuss. It requires much careful thought 

 and long consideration, and I believe that this State Fruit-Growers' 

 Convention should appoint a committee of five, to co-operate with a 

 like committee of the State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, appointed 

 at its last session, for the purpose of studying the subject and report- 

 ing to the next State meetings, AA^hen the subject could be considered 

 and an amendment to the Constitution be formulated which will enable 

 California to have a model form of revenue laAvs, from which other 

 States can copy. I believe, too, that the committee AA^hich this Conven- 



