Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/214

200 But the assessors of San Francisco found less of merchandise to tax in 1886 in that city than they did in 1880; and less in 1894 than they did in 1880, while the value of bonds returned by its citizens declined from $2,311,000 in 1880 to $449,000 in 1886. The total increase in the valuation of merchandise for bonds and credits for taxation in the fourteen years from 1875 to 1889 was less than one per cent.

The most recent, important, and incontrovertible record, however, of administrative experiences on this subject is to be found in the report of a tax commission authorized by the Legislature of Ohio, composed of four eminently qualified citizens—two Republicans and two Democrats—and presented to the Governor of that State in December, 1893. It is no exaggeration to say that, since the days of the French monarchy under Louis XVI, no report has been or could be made more discreditable to the people of any country claiming to be civilized, honest, and law-abiding.

The report first shows that Ohio has "the most efficient and minute scheme" of listing in duplicate "all classes of property"—dogs specially included—"which has been devised in any State." "Every citizen is bound under oath to make a complete return of his property," embracing all forms of personalty. "If he declines to make the oath required by law, a penalty of fifty per cent is added." This listing system in Ohio is characterized by the commission as like "the assessment list used in Germany in mediæval times (1531)," which it further asserts "has been abandoned everywhere in Europe." The statute provides that a designated official "may through the probate court call before him the citizen and examine him if he suspects that the return is not a complete one"; and in addition to all this the law empowers each county to contract with such persons—"tax inquisitors"—who may give information as to any personal property that has been "improperly withheld from the returns"; and who shall be "rewarded" to the extent of twenty per cent of the amount of tax "recovered through their efforts."

From a large amount of evidence collected by the commissioners and officially published by the State, the following selections illustrate the efficacy and workings of this system and its statutes:

For the year 1891 the gross amount of revenue collected in the whole State of Ohio through the operation of the tax inquisitorial law was about $750,000, or about two per cent of the entire taxes of the State. For the nine years from 1885 to 1893 inclusive, during which time this act was operative in Hamilton County, which is mainly the great and rich city of Cincinnati, the whole amount of taxes paid by its citizens was about $50,000,000, of which less than