Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/391

Rh to make a return under oath of the amount of such property in their possession. Yet a petition recently presented to the Legislature of the State by representative members of boards of trade and chambers of commerce recites that the law in question "is ineffective and therefore ridiculous, as is proved by the fact that although the market value of shares of foreign corporations held by citizens of Boston alone is believed to be over $600,000,000, the amount taxed by the assessors of Boston was then only estimated at $45,000,000; and nearly all of this that is known is taxed to the unfortunate people whose estates are in trust,"

In the United States the income tax, as enacted in 1803, exempted $600 annual income for each person, together with whatever was paid annually for rent and repairs of residence. Five per cent per annum was then levied on all incomes above $600 and not in excess of $5,000; seven per cent on all incomes in excess of $10,000. In the income tax of the United States as it existed at one period there was, therefore, recognized the principle not only of exempting incomes below a certain amount from all taxation, which amount, in order to keep up the appearances of equity, was allowed to be equally deducted from all larger incomes; and in addition a further feature, not generally recognized in other existing systems of income taxations, of "graduating" the assessment by increasing the rate or the percentage on the larger incomes; a system most exceptional and peculiar, but which on first presentation seemed to find favor as an ingenious and equitable method of equalizing the burdens of the State between the rich and the poor.