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June 15, 1889
Record and Guide.
833
institutions for the care of destitute children. This allowance has
in no case been less than sufficient to support the inmates for whom
the city authorities, who are left without discretion in the matter,
are required to grant it. The total amount so appropriated is
between one and one-half and two milUon dollars yearly. The
result of this system has been that the numbers of these dependent
children have increased at a much faster ratio than the population
of the city, and a heavier burden is being imposed on the taxpayers.
The State Board of Charities, in the report of 1886, refers to the
effect of the appropriations in substance as follows : There is no
check put upon the growth of the majority of these institutions.
The managers have no consideration of economy to force them to
scrutinize the claim of each applicant. On the contrary, the per
capita allowance may serve as an incentive to increase the size of
the institution, because a larger number of persona can be much
raore cheaply maintained, in proportion, than a smaller. The rate
is the same, no matter what the number, and the temptation to be
lax in regard to the admissions thus becomes almost overpowering,
for the admissions depend on the will of the managers whom the
Legislature can alone control. By granting the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment discretionary power in making these allow¬
ances, this evil may, in part at least, be avoided.
Still another example of the manner in which pubhc taxes are
unwisely and unjustly spent in charity is afforded by the system of
" out-door relief" in vogue throughout the State of New York.
Administered with discrimination and judgment, public out-door
relief may be given without serious evil; but it is not, generally,
and will not, it is safe to say, be so administered. What is the
result? The poor law oflSicials are, from good or from selfish
motives, actually pauperizing men and women who <'ome to them
for help, and encouraging them to a life of idleness, in which the
taxpayer is forced to support them. Brooklyn and Philadelphia
have remedied this abuse by the total abolition of public out-door
relief, and New York City has reduced the amount given to a small
sum. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are thus saved to these
cities, yet no increase in suffering or want is noticed, nor is more
given in private charities. This method seems the best, but if it
should not prove practicable in all places fchis principle should at
any rate prevail—that the position of the one who is given relief ba
made less attractive than tha't of the independent laborer of the
lowest class.
These are some of the evils and reforms that suggest themselves
in an examination of the expenditures from the public treasui'iea
for charitable purpoaes. It may be added that these evils and
abuses are not all on the side of over-expenditure. When the
insane are kept in county poor-houses for 95 cents, 98 cents and
$1.06 per capita per week, there is something to be said about too
great economy and under-expenditure.
It is a little curious that citizens should have to seek for light on
the electric lighting of the city from the Gas Commission. This
commission consists of the Mayor, the Comptroller and the Commis¬
sioner of Public Works. For about two months they held the bids
for lighting the city during the current year, but a decision has only
just been reached. Why is this? The ti-ouble which arose a
year ago over these bids and postponed the acceptance of any for
twelve months may have something to do with the case. Before
awarding any contracts again, is not this an excellent opportunity
for the Gas Commission to consider the wisdom of the city owning
its own electric plant and furnishing ita own light, thus saving to
taxpayers the large sum which now goes annually into the pockets
of private corporations as "proflts." Many scores of municipalities
throughout the country ai'e supplying themselves with light, as they
do water, to their own great advantage. In every case a better
and cheaper service than under individual enterprise is obtained.
Indeed, the difference in the cost of light under municipal and
under private management ia so remarkable that it is the plain duty
of our city officials to investigate, the matter and discover the
reason why Chicago, for instance, can supply itself with electric
light at fifteen cents per lamp, before awarding contracts to private
corporations at an ^'average" of thirty-flve cents per lamp or some¬
thing like that sum. There is no reason for our paying twenty
cents more than Chicago that will be satisfactory to taxpayers.
Other cities have shown the way. Will those in authority look
after the interests of the city ?
as to their management, but whose interest it ie to do as little work
as possible. Superficially there is a certain justice in the system,
for it makes those who use the roads pay for them. Yet this jus¬
tice is seeming, not real. The people who travel on the roads most
are not alone those benefited by them, neither is the beneflt
obtained at all proportional to the number of times they are used.
As an inevitable result most of the roads in that vio^nityare detest¬
able ; and if there is any economy in the actual outlay (which may
be very much doubted), it ie more than counterbalanced by the
cosfc of the weai- and tear on cart and horse. New York needs a
law like that of New Jersey, which puts the care of the roads into
the hands of a competent engineer in the employ of the county.
They have a method in northern New York of keeping tiie roads
in .repair which is about as bad and ineffective as any system that
could be devised. It is the almost universal custom to let them out
to some farmer whose house is situated on Lhe highway, whose
duty it is to keep the road in repair, and whose privilege it is to
collect certain tolls regulated by the description of the wagon and
team. The farmer very naturally undertakes the task for the pur¬
pose of making money. The more he has to spend on the roada the
less he will make. Consequently he is not going to lay out any
more than he is obhged to. Thus the care of the highways is put
into the hands of a man who not only lacks all technical knowledge
The Taxation of Tenants.
The ordinary man has but small powers of idealization. In order
to understand he must see, feel, hear, or touch. Words and the
counters thafc pass for things are never enough to make him fchril
as he would to the touch of reality itself. We think that our rich
men have been generous in contributing to the Johnstown relief
fund; but let us suppose for a minute that, while the charitable
gentlemen were sitting in the Mayor's offlce organizing that com¬
mittee, there could have been reproduced in massive proportions a
vivid picture of that mighty wall of water raging down the valley,
its ominous roar broken only by the terrified shrieks of its victims,
might it not then have happened that some of these gentlemen
would have contributed more than a day's or a week's income ?
It was not until Governor Beaver visited the vaUey itself that he
felt called upon to spend $1,000,000 of the money of the State in
order to retrieve some of the ruin.
This commonplace psychological fact should be remembered in
dealing with matters that seem to be far away from the science of
the mind. Above all, it should not be forgotten in discussing the
effects of certain kinds of taxation. On it may be founded an
argument of some force for preferring a direct to an indirect tax.
If a man is brought into immediate relations with the tax collector,
and is obliged to send in his check payable to the order of that
official, there can be little doubt in his mind ae to the ultimate
destination of his money, whereas if a tax means only a cent more
a pound or yard for this or that commodity it is very apt to become
confuted with the cost of liis purchase. The tax, of com'se, is none
the leaa preaent in one case than in the other ; but in one caae it is
present in its own capacity, as it were, and not disguised by the
flimsy veil of an increased milliner's bill. Indeed, John Stuart Mill
feared that in case all the money of the State were raised by direct
taxation the people would realize what they paid out so forcibly
that the temptation to repudiate their public debts would be too
sfcrong for them. But, however we may regard Mr. Mills'fears,
it is certain that this presentation to the taxpayer's senses of the
actiial amount of his taxea is a skiUful way to awaken his con¬
science to the dangers of administ;rative extravagance and dis¬
honesty.
A tax law should seldom be.framed for the sole purpose of
gathering money. The transfer of capital which it implies may be
so regulated as to encourage the production of necessities, put a
bm-den upon the production of luxuries, and generally to be
utilized to make the community happier and better. " One of the
most marked and most important distinctions between direct and
indirect taxation," says Prof. D. T. Ely, "is that the former tends to
encourage good citizenship, while the latter cultivates a careless
and indifferent attitude with respect to public affairs." May it not
be that the often remarked indifference of Americans to the incom¬
petency and self-interestedness of their officials is due largely to
the fact that our national and most of our municipal and State
taxes are levied so thafc the taxpayer ia not made to feel his respon¬
sibility ?
Thie principle applied to the tax:ation of real estate in this city
simply means that the city, county and State taxes should be paid,
not by those who own, but by those who lease houses. Everybody
has to occupy a house; few can afford to purchase them. It is
granted that the tax, however levied, falls ultimately on the tenant,
to be by him distributed stUI more widely; but, as was said before,
it makes ail the difference in the world whether the money is paid ae
a tax or as a rent. For an analogous reason ifc is a good thing that
a tax should be paid quarterly rather than annually. The more you
can get people to appreciate that it is their money continually being
squandered, the more they will endeavor to correct the evil. Bring
them face to face with incompetent officials, with wasteful admin¬
istrative methods, and with the thousand-and-one absurdities of ths
departmental regulations, and the remedy will be the sooner found,
because it will be the more sought for.
Wc must not, however, expect too much from a device of this
kind. The evil of our political methods is too deeply rooted to be
charmed away by any mere alteratious in our methods of taxation.
Prof, Ely goes too far in saying that a system of direct
taxation "promotes good citizenship," unless "good citizen¬
ship" means a desirable result without any regard to the mc^tive
which led up to it. Taken in this restricted sense, a system of tax-