organized, in regard to taxation should be considered. Their position is a strong one, because it is fortified by the constitution and supported by established law and custom. They demand that every resident in the State shall contribute his share toward the support of the Commonwealth; and that every non-resident who owns property within the State shall pay a tax upon this property proportional to that collected from the property of residents. They believe that the laws of the State taxing persons, real estate, personal property, incomes and corporations are just in principle and can be and should be enforced. They believe that, if these laws were impartially enforced, wealth would not escape its just share of taxation and the poor would not be burdened; and that, if taxaton were thus justly apportioned, it would be a burden to no one but a blessing to all. But during the past two decades they have found that as wealth has rapidly increased and has been concentrated in the hands of the few, it has succeeded, under one pretext and another, in evading its just share of taxation and compelling the poor and men of moderate means to bear the burden. It is estimated that one-fourth of the wealth pays three-fourths of the taxes. The farmers, who work from forty to sixty days for the State to provide good roads, schools and government, and contribute all their interest money for the same time, see men move into their towns who are worth their thousands, whose income is $10 to $100 a day, appropriating to their own use the advantages of the State and pay in return simply a poll tax, or possibly the income of one or two days. When called to account for their evasion or violation of the laws, they declare that the corporation which is the source of their income pays some taxes in New York; or, through their spokesmen, talk as follows:

"It is said that the difficulty is that there are a great many men in the Commonwealth who are tax-dodgers and do not pay their proper tax. They are wealthy men, very wicked men, it may be. All of which, in my judgment, is down right trash and nonsense. We may make faces at other men and call them tax-dodgers, but how foolish we are. These gentlemen who do not pay a legal tax-rate on their large estates

* * It is the

are the foremost men in the community. supremest folly in the world to denounce such men, because they are not ready and willing to pay a legal tax. They are ready to pay taxes fairly, reasonably and justly assessed, but to do more than that they are not willing and they know how to protect themselves against oppressive taxation."

The farmers are grateful to this chairman of the committee on taxation of the associated boards of trade for this clear statement of the current ethical standard among the gentlemen of large estates who do not pay legal taxes. The ground is that they themselves are judges of what constitutes a reasonable assessment: the law as passed by the legislature and interpreted by the courts and obeyed by the poor is in their opinion unjust and, therefore, they are not ready and willing to obey it; they know how to protect themselves. It must be confessed that the idea that it is no sin to evade the payment of taxes is very prevalent. But the farmer believes this to be lawlessness. If the rich may defy the law, because they know how to protect themselves, why may not the poor men do the same? But this is anarchy.

Hence the opposing forces are arrayed against each other. The farmers are for the law as it is. Their opponents are for its evasion in case it cannot be repealed. The farmers are few and poor. Their opponents are few and rich. The laboring classes and the men of moderate incomes are the people whose votes are to decide the contest. The first success was won by the capitalists in 1881, when the law exempting mortgages from taxation under certain conditions was passed. The farmer was led to think that the law would relieve him from the tax on that part of the value of his farm for which he was in debt, requiring the holder of the mortgage to pay it. But the mortgagee inserted a clause requiring the farmer to pay all the taxes. The result was that the mortgagee escaped all taxation, while the taxes of the farmer were increased.

Learning by experience, the farmer is now suspicious of all tax reformers who are anxious to relieve his burdens by exempting personal property. Leading farmers were invited to a banquet by the Single Tax League, listened to eloquent

speeches and asked numerous questions. At the next meeting of the State Grange the committee on unequal taxation reported a resolution, which was adopted by the whole body, "that the Massachusetts State Grange is opposed to single taxation."

The Anti-Double Taxation League, composed of wealthy, learned and influential men, and other powerful organizazations, supported generally by the press, with ample funds at their command and persuasive advocates and a powerful lobby, have been for years making efforts to exempt personal property from taxation. In 1893 the legislature appointed a special committee "to consolidate, arrange and revise the statutes of the Commonwealth relating to taxation." This committee spent six months in giving hearings and in making a careful study of the whole subject. The farmers appeared before them: their opponents were represented by the best legal talent and representatives of many corporations and business organizations. The result was that the farmers secured a report in their favor. This committee recommend that assessors be elected for three years instead of one; that a State Board of Equalization be created; that municipal bonds be not exempted from taxation; that the exemption of mortgages in 1881 was neither just nor equitable to the home-seeker, the tax-payer and the State; that religious, benevolent and educational institutions should be exempt; that the inheritance tax should be enforced; that taxation of shares of stock of foreign corporations should not be exempt; that the tax upon incomes should not be abandoned; that the single land tax is not to be endorsed; that the evasion of taxation should be remedied by the passage of a doomage law requiring, under penalty, all tax-payers to return to the assessors schedules of all taxable property in their possession and to make oath to the same, the form of the schedule to be uniform throughout the State. This report brought joy to the farmers and consternation to their opponents.

The contest then came as to the control of the legislature. A canvass of the State was made to secure, especially in the Senate, a majority in favor of the exemption of personal

property. The strongest influence was brought to bear in committee room, in the lobby and on the floor of the halls of legislation. Bills were introduced for the repeal of the mortgage exemption law of 1881, for an inheritance tax and for a doomage law. These were defeated. But, if the farmers failed to carry their own bills, they succeeded nevertheless in defeating the bill of their opponents for the exemption of the stock of foreign corporations. The farmers' bill to compel foreign corporations doing business in the State to give to assessors the names of Massachusetts citizens holding stock failed to pass. The result thus far is a drawn battle. The farmers are told that personal property should be exempted from taxation, because the tax cannot be collected. They propose laws that will secure its collection, but these laws are not enacted, because the votes of the opposition defeat them. The farmers say the laws taxing personal property shall not be repealed, their opponents say they shall not be enforced by supplementary legislation.

The last legislature appointed another commission on taxation to reconsider the whole subject and report Oct. 1, 1897. That committee is now engaged in its arduous labors. In the meantime there is a truce on the floor of the legislature. What the final result will be, depends upon which side the labor vote shall be cast. If working men vote with their employers, personal property will be exempted. If they can be led to vote with the farmers, then instead of greater exemption of personal property, it will be made to bear more of the burdens of taxation. Much depends upon the resumption of prosperity. If the depression of agriculture. should be checked and the unemployed should again be set to work, the probabilities are that the perseverance of the farmers would be overcome, and the incidence of taxation remain as it is. But whatever the final result will be, the small minority, the few farmers in the midst of a great and wealthy State, have proved themselves to be men of great

resources.

In the meanwhile they have not failed to secure for themselves as many advantages as possible out of the expenditure of public money. They have insisted upon liberal appropri

ations for education. They demanded that the Massachusetts Agricultural College should not be, as in some States, a subordinate department of a classical college, but must be a distinctively agricultural college, in name as well as in character, fully equipped to do the best work for students, for farmers and for agriculture. In addition to the original endowment of $240,000 it receives an annual grant from both the State and the United States. Liberal provisions have been made for public schools in country towns. To provide superintendents, $62,500 is annually appropriated. Two dollars per week is added to the pay of teachers. To pay the tuition of pupils who are obliged to go to a high school in another town, because of none in their own, $5,000 is allowed. Provisions are made for holding teachers' institutes in small towns at State expense. The number of normal schools was increased in 1894 from six to ten, at a cost of $300,000, in addition to the value of the sites provided by the towns where the schools were located, in order that country towns. might be the better provided with teachers and with opportunities for farmers' children to get a better education at the public expense. The State law provides school children with text books, and allows towns to vote money for the transportation of children to and from the school house. A State commission on public libraries grants $100 worth of books to such towns as will establish free libraries.

It is by taking advantage of these provisions for education that the Massachusetts farmer has become the best educated farmer in the world, and this fact accounts largely for his success in organizing, and for his potent influence in molding public opinion and in gaining his ends.

Besides appropriations for education, the farmers have secured many thousands of dollars for the promotion of agriculture. These appropriations for 1896 are suggestive.