■3 Hi-, (/I 'J i ;2 HJ 2342 M4Q7 H A Cornell University f Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030264505 Cornell University Library HJ2342.M4 Q7 Double taxation in l\Aassachusetts : olin 3 1924 030 264 505 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS By J. P. QUINCY DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS ITS INJUSTICE AS BETWEEN TOWNS AND AS BETWEEN CITIZENS : ITS ABOLITION THE FIEST STEP TOWARDS AN EQUITABLE ASSESSMENT OF WEALTH J. P. QUINCY LawB, severed from the grounds of nature, manners, and policy, are like wall- flowers, which, though they grow high upon the crests of States, yet they have no deep root. — Bacok. ^^^^S H ^B w ^^^^H K^Ki ^mmm&mmf BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 1889 A-'ffs-s-s The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHU- SETTS. Persons having in charge various schemes for the cure of our social ailments are urging thpir panaceas with vigor and brilliancy. But the ultimate aims of these reformers are at present unattainable. It will take at least several years to materialize Mr. Bellamy's attractive vision, and we cannot immediately close the custom-houses and introduce the single tax of Mr. George. Only one step in advance is possible to a commiinity at a given time ; but it is important that this step, so far as it goes, should make for economic health and general righteousness, and also that it should continue some line of progress already begun. And thus comes the inquiry, What reform, prac- ticable in the day that is now passing, should serious- minded citizens unite to press ? To answer this ques- tion is the object of the following pages. I submit that the first step to be taken by persons dissatisfied with our present economic conditions is to combine in the demand for a repeal of the Massachu- setts statutes which enforce — or, to speak more cor- rectly, fail to enforce — taxation of the evidences of 4 DOUBLE TA XA TION IN MASS A CHUSE TTS. debt, or of shares in corporations whose assets have been already taxed. Although I am personally in favor of putting all taxes upon real estate (with the exception of license and succession taxes hereafter to be mentioned), I doubt the expediency of agitating for this at once. The folly, injustice, and demoralization which go with our present attempts at double taxation are first to be assailed. Some facts and considerations bearing upon this subject will now be offered. THE FINE UPON POVERTY. The newspapers have of late called public attention to two corporations having their headquarters in the city of Boston. One is the Massachusetts Eeedi Es- tate Company, the other is the Boston Investment Company. Owing to a restriction in the law of this State — which is not in all cases for the public advan- tage — these corporations are organized under the laws of Maine. The managers of both these com- panies have put forth circulars with the seductive statement that they offer to comparatively poor men the same opportunity for investing their savings in business real estate that has hitherto been the exclu- sive privilege of the rich. The first of these compa- nies invests in buildings and stores in the State of Massachusetts ; the second, in the same sort of prop- erty in the cities of the West. Now, it is notorious that the prosperous citizen who owns a store in Chi- cago or Boston pays a single tax upon his property ; it is equally certain that the clerk or mechanic who DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 5 saves a hundred dollars and invests it in a share o£ one of these companies is legally liable to pay a double tax. He practically pays his proportion of the tax upon the stores held by his company, and is then re- quired to pay a second tax (which may be of equal or greater amount) upon the paper certificate which tes- tifies to his ownership of the share. If this is not simply and solely a fine upon poverty, what is it ? Can any reason be given why, if a man is rich enough to own a market or a corn exchange, his property should pay a single tax, whereas the same property should pay two taxes if held by five hundred poor men who, because of their poverty, must combine in a company ? Is that community of interest, whereby men of humble means unite in building warehouses, railroads, or other works of public beneficence, so prejudicial to the State that it must be fined by a double tax, while the property of the "bloated capi- talist," whose wealth enables him to own a steamboat, an opera house, or a suspension bridge, gets off with one ? This gross injustice can be remedied in one of two ways. We can demand the enactment of a law requiring every man who owns a store in Boston or Kansas City to pay a second tax upon the paper deed which testifies to his ownership. I claim that a better way would be for all Nationalists, Christian Social- ists, and Single -tax men, to unite with a body of intelligent citizens outside their organizations, and take the first practicable step towards the realiza- tion of their ideals by demanding that our wretched attempts at double taxation cease altogether. 6 DO UBLE TA XA TION IN MA SSA CHU SETTS. MILLIONAIRES. Persons who have given no special study to the workings of our double - taxation law have a vague notion that its repeal is demanded rather in the inter- est of the very rich than for the general advantage of the community. A few words upon this matter will not be out of place. The protest against our farcical attempts at double taxation has never been heard from millionaires. So far as they consider their merely selfish interests, they have little desire to sub- stitute just taxes which they could not escape for an unjust tax which their town assessors will never en- force, or which, in any event, it is easy to evade. In case of emergency, men of large wealth can command the advice of astute lawyers, who will explain the hocus-pocus of buying United States bonds on a mar- gin just before the first of May, or devise some other little arrangement to avert the impost. But the as- sessors, who have a pecuniary interest in their own towns, are under the heaviest sort of bonds not to tax wealth out of them. Not long ago a gentleman died whose wealth was appraised at more than $3,000,000, every cent of which, we may be sure, had been duly taxed somewhere. The assessors of his town had been in the habit of taxing him upon less than $300,000 of real estate and tangible personal property. It was not for the interest of the community they repre- sented to levy a second tax upon the titles to taxed property which he might reasonably be supposed to DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 7 possess. And so these assessors, with every power short of the rack and the thumbscrew, simply refused to tax a capitalist out of their town whose presence they knew was greatly for its advantage. And the assessors of other towns in Massachusetts are equally awake to the interests of the communities they rep- resent. Perhaps it is said that a person who changes his residence to avoid paying a tax upon titles to taxed property should be stigmatized with the opprobrious epithet of " tax-dodger." Well, let us see how much opprobrium necessarily goes with the term. There are towns in Massachusetts where the rate of taxation exceeds the two and a half per cent, yielded by the securities of the city of New York. Suppose the Pro- fessor of Ethics in Dartmouth College were trustee for an aged widow resident in one of these towns, and by the terms of his trust was compelled to hold the property in first-class municipal bonds, — that is, in evidences of claims upon certain groups of taxed stores and dwelling-houses. It is obvious that, if our laws were enforced against the cestui que trust, she would either have to go to the almshouse or become a " tax-dodger " by removing to some place where these evidences of debt were not taxed. I think in this case the teacher of all the virtues would advise the lady to become a " tax-dodger," and would be fully justified in so doing. And if this is admitted, the question is not one of morals but of expediency, which each individual may decide according to the circum- 8 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. stances of his case. But whatever may be the stand- ard of absolute right in this matter, we know that the sentiment of the community shows no disapproval of the conduct of those who avoid the double taxation which the law requires. Evidences of the ownership of taxed wealth, promissory notes, different forms of security for debt, are the breath of life to the business world. As new titles are for convenience based on these first titles, triple taxation is by no means impos- sible. One case is cited by Mr. D. A. Wells where a man, who was too ignorant or too honest to dodge the claims of the State of Massachusetts, was taxed seven times in one year upon the same property. And it is wrong to blame any special class as " tax- dodgers." The teamster who sells his horse to an expressman, and then — because the purchaser has sickness in his family — kindly takes a note instead of the money, is under the same obligation to present his paper for taxation at the hands of the assessors as is the banker with his trunk full of similar evidences of debt. If both neglect to facilitate double taxa- tion, then — if you choose to put it so — each cheats the State according to the measure of his ability, and Satan himself can do no more than that ! TITLES AKE NOT WEALTH. If all the titles stowed away in the safe-deposit companies of Boston — whether called notes, stocks, bonds, or by any other name — were taken out and burned to-morrow, would there be any loss of wealth DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 9 to the world ? A handful of people would lose the vouchers which entitle them to a certain defined share of taxed wealth, and might be put to some inconven- ience to prove their claims as against other persons or the State ; there would be no other consequence. Put the case in another way. If the objects of use or luxury upon which these papers are claims were annihilated, how much would these writings be worth ? Precisely as much as the title-deeds to a hotel or a foundry would be worth after an earthquake had swal- lowed land and buildings. But the legislation of Massachusetts, which recognizes a luminous fact in the case of a hotel or a foundry existing outside her jurisdiction, gets hopelessly muddled when it is a question of a part of a hotel or the fraction of a foun- dry. There is a certain tribe of savages who are able to perceive that one and one make two, but if you ad- vance the proposition that six thirds when united wiU. also equal that modest number, they shake their thick heads dubiously : the school tax is not oppressive in their country. It may be well to point out one consequence of the abolition of double taxation that should appeal to those who are endeavoring to mitigate the poverty found in large cities until the time is ripe for its abolition. It is notorious that in Boston some attempt is seriously made to IcAry the tax upon titles to taxed property which the law demands. And the consequences of that attempt are equally notorious. Householders, whose intelligence is wanted in the direction of the affairs of 10 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. the city, and whose expenditures are wanted to give employment, directly or indirectly, to its laborers, are careful to absent themselves for the greater part of the year in order to acquire a residence outside the State, as in Newport, or in towns where it is under- stood that the assessors will not be vigilant. Now, the masses who throng our cities are unable to follow their employers out of it ; hence it is to their disad- vantage that the time those employers would naturally wish to remain in their city houses should be cur- tailed. This may seem a small matter in view of the schemes for the general regeneration of society that are so earnestly advocated. But until the reconstruc- tive reformer can give those who do manual labor all he may think their due, I submit that it vriU not be amiss to see that they get whatever our present com- petitive system fairly entitles them to receive. If a better social method is to be reached, it must be through modifications and developments of the order which now exists. Only by urging a persistent series of additions to, and subtractions from, that which is, can we hope to invest the vision of the idealist with legal force. THE INJUSTICE TO TOWNS. Let us take an example of the working of our double-taxation law, and see how it creates an unjust discrimination between towns entitled to equal treat- ment from the lawgivers of the State. In the town of X. the rate of taxation is f 15 on f 1,000, and in DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 11 the adjoining town of Y. it is |5 on 1,1000. I am well acquainted witli neighboring communities where for a long time this was about the actual differ- ence. There are lands in X. which vainly solicit the attention of capitalists ; the town offers rare oppor- tunities for labor which resident capital would not fail to utilize. Why cannot the town attract those who control the wealth it so sorely needs ? Simply because they are mindful of the law which threatens to assess at the X. valuation their titles to property taxed else- where, and with which the citizens of X. have no manner of concern. Observe that it is not the single tax upon its visible property which works to the dis- advantage of X. For the rate of taxation, and the chances of its continuance, must always be discounted in price, precisely as in the case of a mortgage. If an acre of land in X. sells at the same price as an acre of land in Y., it is because X. has advantages, present or prospective, which cannot be obtained in Y., and the purchaser is content to pay a higher tax for their enjoyment. Or suppose two estates for sale : they are separated by the line which divides X. from Y., and offer equal attractions for the residence of a well-to-do citizen. It is obvious that in this case the estate in X. must be offered at such lower price as will offset the higher rate of taxation. Hence the two towns compete for a desirable resident on pre- cisely equal terms. The rate of taxation can only ex- clude when we threaten to levy a second tax upon property already taxed outside the town. Waiving 12 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. for a moment all other objections to the Massachu- setts law, this odious favoritism among towns that should be treated with impartiality is sufficient to con- demn it. But perhaps it will be objected that the town of X. — though certainly not so thriving as Y. — is slowly increasing in population, and may be called fairly prosperous. Now, let the objector ask himself how long this measure of prosperity would continue with a board of assessors who were bright business men, and who were pledged to enforce double taxation to the last cent, — to enforce it not only against those who are reputed rich, but against the laboring man who holds his brother's note secured by the mortgage of a horse and cart, and against the sewing-woman who has loaned a month's wages to her sick sister. In order to get the real gist of this matter clearly before us, it will be convenient to assume that, owing to greatly increased expenditure, the payment of a debt, or some other cause, the rate of taxation in X. continues the same. Why I wish to make this assumption will appear later. Let us see the way in which such a board of assessors as I have imagined would lay waste their town. Jones and Smith are two wealthy citizens who have recently moved into X., and are stimulating its indus- tries and increasing the value of its lands by their presence. Their properties are equal in value and in income, and they each spend part of their incomes in building up the community about them. Jones owns DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 13 a block of stores in New Orleans and a theatre in Chicago. The total value of this real estate is esti- mated at f 1,000,000, from which its possessor nets an income of $50,000, or five per cent. All this property is taxed where it exists, and no second tax can be put upon it in X. Smith is a shareholder in several companies, and is also worth $1,000,000 : he owns one fiftieth of a taxed market in Cincinnati, one hun- dredth of a taxed hotel in Denver, and o^her prop- erty of similar description. But now all Smith's property — which like that of Jon es, is fully taxed where it exists — must be taxed a second time in X., and this is precisely equivalent to offering Smith an income of $10,000 if he will move over the line into the town of Y., or of 115,000 if he wiU go to some place where the double-taxation law does not exist, or is not enforced. There can be no doubt that Smith will promptly depart, and that he will characterize in pretty strong language the utterly unjust discrimi- nation between his property and that held by Jones. Take a case with smaller figures. Mrs. Brown and Mrs. White are widows who have eome to X. to edu- cate their sons at its academy. Mrs. Brown owns a taxed store in Philadelphia which yields an income of $1,500 : Mrs. White owns a certificate of municipal indebtedness based upon the taxed stores and dwell- ings of the city of New York to the amount of $60,000, which gives her precisely the same income. But now Mrs. White is told that, while like Mrs. Brown she must contribute to the expenses of X. di- 14 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. rectly by a tax upon the small house she occupies, as well as indirectly by her expenditures, an additional fine of $900 must be subtracted from her limited in- come. Surely, upon the receipt, of this notification, the lady will not stand upon the order of her going ; she will go at once. Grreen holds the notes of an in- solvent debtor whose assets consisted of certain stores situated and taxed in the town of X. But this prop- erty, being subject to a life estate, is held by trustees, and cannot be sold for the benefit of creditors until after the lien has expired. Green has long thought that his case was a hard one, but he is suddenly in- formed that the State of Massachusetts does not consider it hard enough ; for a lynx-eyed board of assessors will now tax the protested notes which tes- tify to claims upon buildings already taxed, and which, apart from those buildings and the land they cover, have no value whatever. Green considers whether he shall move his business to the city of New York, where, whatever the law may be, the holders of such evidences of debt are not taxed, or shall accept the handsome bonus offered by the State for becoming a citizen of Y. Gray is trustee for a sister who lives in Ohio, and holds for her benefit -$100,000, invested in cattle taxed in Texas where they are grazing, and in St. Louis bonds ; it now appears that he can add $1,000 to her income by moving a few rods into the town of Y. Certainly he ought to do this ; and so X. loses a valuable citizen, whose expenditures, services, and in- fluence it can ill spare. DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 15 And now let us admit that during the first year of such assessing, the rate of taxation would be lowered preparatory to bounding to a greater height than ever as soon as an important class of wealth-producing or wealth-saving citizens had left the town. It may be added that the correction is not material, since the un- just discrimination as between citizens would remain relatively the same ; and this also would be true as between towns the moment we provide Y. with a simi- lar board of assessors. But this brings us back to the point already made. For it will be cheerfully con- ceded that the omniscient and determined function- aries who have been supposed will never appear in a Massachusetts town. But while it is impossible that there should ever be such general and impartial en- forcement of double taxation, it is always possible that a given person may be arbitrarily selected by the assessors for the exercise of their full legal powers. And in point of fact, it is the dread of this possibility which keeps the Smiths, Whites, and Greens out of X., and restrains Gray's desire to move into it. This statutory threat is largely instrumental in holding in foreign countries Massachusetts families who, if not pos- sessors of much wealth, have cultivation, intelligence, and patriotic feeling that we can ill spare. It is in vain to assure these persons that there are many towns where their small properties would in fact be as free from double taxation as they are in Europe. Their answer is that they cannot afford to incur risks, however small. So true is. it that no town can gain full advan- 16 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. tage from its usage in this matter until it is a right secured by the statute book. Would it not be well to allow these families to return where they belong ? They would at least lessen our taxes by the real estate they would occupy, and increase the value of other taxable property by the amount of their expenditures. We may also inquire whether there is any sense in making our towns and cities pay unnecessary interest for borrowed money on the chance of getting back some fraction of their outlay through the liberty of taxing their own bonds — when they can find them ? Surely any one who keeps his eyes open will see that a law doubling taxation upon certain arbitrarily se- lected property must, other things being equal, keep capital away from our towns according to the measure of its enforcement ; that such a law can be enforced nowhere with anything like thoroughness ; and that when partially enforced it is odiously wrongful and unjust. A SUGGESTIVE ANOMALY. A stranger in examining the workings of our town governments will be struck by the amount of expert work which in many directions is obtained by the community. Upon the board of health will be found some persons of the highest competency, who are will- ing to render valuable service, either gratuitously or for very inadequate compensation. The school com- mittee is certain to have one or more members whose knowledge of educational methods is the best the town DOUBLE TAXATION TN MASSACHUSETTS. 17 can supply. Among the managers of the public library and the road commissioners are those best equipped for their special work. Considering these things, one should naturally expect to find upon the board of asses- sors some persons of exceptional gifts in the estimate of values, — sharp-witted men, who were constantly studying the competing estimates of buyers and sellers, and who had proved their skill in these matters by the acquisition of wealth. " Here is a board," one would say, " entrusted with a function of exceeding delicacy, whose skillful exercise is of the highest importance to the community. Surely the decisions of this body will be influenced by members who would be promptly consulted if private interests of a similar nature were at stake, — men who have developed that value-per- ceiving faculty which is one of the most complex and difficult of human achievements." That persons of such equipment are to be found among the assessors of Massachusetts towns, I think no one will assert. And one reason, at least, is not far to seek. The shrewd business manager, who has access to the books of great corporations, will do no work under a system which is not in contact with the facts of life : neither wiU intelligent citizens who are interested in the pros- perity of their town desire so to employ him. The worthy farmer, of dull financial perception, but with common sense enough to maintain the laxity of prac- tice which makes tolerable a foolish theory, is the model town assessor under our existing laws. Never- theless the community suffers when it cannot call to the 18 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. delicate work of determining values those most com- petent to perform it. DOUBLE TAXATION A SHAM. We may as well face the fact that to subject to tax- ation the paper titles to taxed property is here, as else- where, a sham.. We have only to inquire whether it is a harmless sham, or a blundering, demoralizing, and impoverishing sham. When we examine the theory in the light of the hard facts which are about us, it is not too much to say that no group of school- girls, playing at legislating for their dolls, could ex- hibit an ignorance of human nature more profound and absolute. For the taxation of paper titles is based upon the supposition that the average man will appear before a tribunal by no means august, and deliver himself of confessions which go to the very core and root of life as it is lived to-day. Looking out upon this world about us, where passions connected with the acquisition of wealth have such fearful potency, we see that the ordinary citizen is utterly unfit to be judge and jury in his own case, and that if given these functions he will be likely to prevaricate, sophis- ticate, or discover some way of perverting the truth to his own interest. If this is not the fact, we cannot too soon dispense with the costly machinery of courts. But the Massachusetts law, after summoning a man to answer to a claim against his property, makes him sole judge of all questions in dispute, and accepts his decision as final. Who of us would be simple enough DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 19 to trust to such a tribunal in a case where our private interests were concerned? Just how they are prospering in business is a trade secret which men do not reveal to their bosom friends or spiritual advisers. The Eoman Catholic Church, with the keys of future worlds at its disposal, with priests presumably of special sanctity, and certainly removed from the vulgar competitions of life, knows better than to ask for such confidences as these. See what these confessions may imply, if made truthfully and in detail, as the law supposes they will be. Mr. A. is a sharp-witted, prudent man, who, after years of persistent effort, has succeeded in thinking out a busi- ness which yields large profits. The secret of his success is his, and he has justly won the right to it. But now A. is enjoined to appear before his town assessors, — who may ciiance to be the tools of a dis- reputable ring he has been laboring to defeat, — and disburden himself of a matter which really amounts to something like this : " These figures, gentlemen, show you the reward I am receiving for the labor of many years. Study them weU : here are lists of book- credits, notes of hand, investments, realized profits, and so forth ; they show just what I am doing. They show, also, how easy it would be for a competitor, who knew all I am telling you, to divide with me the profits of a business which he has done nothing to build up. If you do not want the chance for your- selves, a significant hint dropped to a friend would pay a political debt, and none need be the wiser ! " 20 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. That the average man will really put himself in such a position is, as we all know, unlikely enough. In case of hard pressure he will somehow get out of it. What special form of dodging, or shuffling, or dishonesty he will use, we need not inquire. When Scott was asked if he wrote " Waverley," he replied that he did not ; he tried to justify himself by saying that there were certain personal matters which a man had a right to keep to himself. When the State at- tempts to tear o£E the privacy from concerns which the citizen thinks he has a right to keep secret, is it likely to get a truer answer ? Lead us not into temptation, is a prayer to God which surely implies a duty to man. Our legislators exempt from taxation thirty millious of church prop- erty, on the plea that it will promote morality. That this balances the immorality .caused by our laws to enforce double taxation is improbable : just how far it may go in this direction we have no figures to in- form us. NO PAETT QUESTION. The abolition of all forms of double taxation is fortunately no party question. Six years ago the Democrats demanded it in their State platform, and the Republicans only need carry to its logical conclu- sion the reform they inaugurated in relieving mort- gaged property situated in Massachusetts from a second tax. For it is not to be denied that to give relief to a limited class of debtors, while excluding those equally deserving, is mere favoritism. Such DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 21 legislation may exempt the wealthy from a double tax that is wrung from the poor. The capitalist who owns a house which he can mortgage to secure his note escapes a second tax ; the poor man, who has nothing to mortgage but the cow which supplies his children with milk, is called upon to pay it. The prosperous tradesman, who owns his store which he mortgages to pay for his stock of goods, escapes with one tax ; his poorer competitor, who, owning no store, must obtain his goods upon the credit of his good character, is required to pay two taxes. That the second tax may take the form of an increased rate of interest does not alter its character. No sane person wiU. lend money upon an instrument which is taxable at the same rate of interest as upon an instrument not tax- able. He win make the borrower pay the tax in ad- dition to the rate of interest he would demand were his note not taxed. That is a law just as certain as the law of gravitation, and quite as independent of our personal approval. If in some cases the law appears to be partially evaded, it is because the lender thinks he can escape paying the tax that is demanded of him. But the fact of this avoidance is one which the tax-levying power is precluded from taking into account. It must credit itself with the ability to en- force its own statutes. EQUITABLE TAXATION. Having ceased our foolish attempts at double tax- ation, we should promptly move in the direction of 22 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. equitable taxation. I instance the Massachusetts dog- tax as a type of imposts that should be largely ex- tended. If the value of the average male dog is ten dollars, — which is surely an extravagant estimate, — we find that one fifth of the entire worth of these animals is annually paid for a license to keep them. And observe that the citizen of X. who wishes to keep a pack of hounds is under no temptation to move into Y. ; the dog-tax being equal throughout the State, no town is favored at the expense of its neigh- bor. License-taxes should be levied upon the con- spicuous luxuries that wealth commands, — pleasure- carriages, yachts, green - houses, billiard - tables, and many other objects of gratification or ostentation. A special city tax — and by no means a nominal one — upon servants in livery, would be absolutely unobjec- tionable. The rich Londoner has to pay roundly for clothing his fellow-subjects with the badge of servi- tude, and there is surely no reason why this privilege should be enjoyed for nothing in America. The license-tax at present required from the sellers of in- toxicating liquors may be open to objection upon moral grounds, but considered merely as a fiscal policy it is wholly admirable. The dealer in wines or spirits is simply a government agent who collects taxes upon luxurious expenditures. Similar license - taxes upon traders in other attractive superfluities which men demand in proportion to their wealth would be an easy and just way of levying taxes upon those who ought to pay them ; there would be little reason to fear cur- DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 23 tailed consumption. Those who believe it well to exempt the costly church from taxation may consider whether it would be objectionable to offset this exemp- tion by collecting a license-tax from the costly club- house, and perhaps from other buildings devoted to the pleasures of the rich or well-to-do. We may also raise the question whether the brown - stone palace upon the broad avenue, and the summer residence which monopolizes acres at these aside, should not pay more in proportion to their value than is exacted from the humble home ; and this in order that the latter may be less burdened. Let me not be suspected of a cheap tirade against luxury. In the civilization in which we find ourselves, the possibility of expenditure for the indulgence of personal tastes is necessary to enlist the highest ability in the economic service of the community. It is the bait by which the fish is caught ; but let the fish be landed with the tribute- money in its mouth. I can think of no form of ostentatious consumption which diverts labor into unproductive channels from which it would be unreasonable to exact a special license-tax. Of course there are limits to our ability to assess wealth without driving it beyond the juris- diction of the taxing power, and it is highly important that this shoidd be realized. But other States are awakening to the injustice and demoralization which go with double taxation, and would follow us in any wise attempt to get rid of it, as they are following us in the adoption of the Australian ballot -law. It is also to be remembered how large a part of the wasteful 24 DOUBLE TAXATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. consumption of the world's wealth is simply to show the power of incurring expense, and how little com- plaint is made of taxes which may be avoided by ab- staining from the non-essentials for comfortable living. If special taxes made certain objects of luxury more conspicuous marks of the owner's power to have what other people could not have, they would, in many cases, give him just what he wants. An income-tax — however excellent in theory — is practically open to some of the objections noticed in regard to the taxing of titles. It tends to become an impost upon honesty, and seems to be unnecessary when the sources and ex- penditures of income are judiciously assessed. But it is obvious that probate, legacy, and succession duties, as weU as progressive taxes upon inheritances, are ready instruments for the assessment of wealth. A consideration of the extent to which they may advan- tageously be carried is beyond the scope of this pam- phlet. It is sufficient to point out that the abolition of double taxation need by no means exempt the rich from the burdens they should justly bear ; and this is a fact of which they are fuUy conscious. I have thus stated the reform first at hand which, as it seems to me, all interested in improving social con- ditions may unite in urging. If it is asked. What next ? I reply that we can see better how to cross the bridge when we have reached it. That there is a next, and a next after that, I assuredly believe. The way will clear before us as we push on step by step, and problems whose complexity overwhelms the mind will at length find their solution. liiiWiliillis;;