Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/389

Rh One curious feature of Federal experience with this tax, the tolerance of which would now be regarded as incompatible with any just and efficient administration of it, was, that the returns made under it were thrown open to the public; and one commissioner of internal revenue instructed his officials to have them published in the pages of local papers, "in order," as he said, "that the amplest opportunity may be given for the detection of any fraudulent returns that may have been made." This idea did not, however, find much favor with the public, who, in fact, during the later years of the tax, were inclined to regard with great equanimity all successful attempts to evade it.

The income tax ceased to form a part of the internal revenue system of the United States after the year 1872. It was, however, made a part of the tax system of several of the States, and the following record (hitherto generally overlooked by the public) of the recent administrative experience of one State ought to be especially worthy of the attention of those who advocate the readoption of this form of taxation by the Federal Government.

No State in the Union has a more illiberal, all-pervading system of taxation than Massachusetts, and in no State is the administration of tax laws more stringent or arbitrary. What Massachusetts fails to accomplish in the assessment and collection of taxes would, therefore, seem to be of little use for any of the other States or the Federal Government to attempt with any anticipation of success. This Massachusetts system finds its fittest exemplification in the city of Boston; and the officials who constitute its department of municipal taxation never indulge, as the taxpayers well know, in much sentiment in the discharge of their duties. The acknowledged representative of this board for many years never hesitated to say that he recognized but one principle, and that was, that in matters of taxation the taxpayer had no rights which the State was bound to respect; and, as chairman of a State commission which some years ago made a report to the Legislature, and with the Declaration of Independence confronting him with its assertion that it is a self-evident truth that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," he also gravely asserted that "the individual person [in Massachusetts] has no inalienable rights except that to his own righteousness."

One of the specialties of municipal taxation in Boston, under the supervision of its Board of Assessors, is an income tax, and its methods of administration are substantially as follows: Taxpayers are required to make a return annually, and in detail, of all their property which the law makes subject to taxation (and that embraces almost everything in Massachusetts except their proprietary interests