spirits; so that the poll tax was almost the sole reliance of the finances of the colony. During the Revolution the newly organized state began to tax a few kinds of property, chiefly land and buildings; but the poll tax continued, until the middle of the nineteenth century, to furnish about half of the state revenue.2 Professor G. E. Barnett gives the following account of the working of the poll tax in North Carolina : 3

In origin the poll tax is coincident with the beginnings of taxation in North Carolina. Until near the middle of the century, it furnished more revenue than the general property tax. This was in large measure due to the fact that the taxes on slaves could be collected by sale of the slaves. The great importance of the tax is clearly shown by the fact that all of the constitutional amendments of 1835 concerned the poll tax. These amendments provided that the capitation tax should be equal throughout the state, and that all free males over twentyone and under forty-five years of age, and all slaves over twelve and under fifty years of age, should be subject to a capitation tax, and that no other person should be subject to such a tax. The capitation tax on slaves was in lieu of any other tax

on such property.

In 1852 a part of the revenue derived from the poll tax was applied to the support of a state asylum for lunatics and idiots. In the constitution adopted in 1868, the poll tax was devoted to the support of the public schools and of the poor.

The state treasury no longer derives any revenue from this source, but the proceeds of the tax form a part of the school and poor fund of the county in which it is collected. Since,

1 See Bullock, Essays in the Monetary History of the United States, 178, 192. 2 Maryland and Virginia, during the colonial period, employed poll taxes very extensively; but had lucrative sources of revenue in import duties and export duties on tobacco. In these states property taxes were introduced during the eighteenth century, in Virginia during the French and Indian War, and in Maryland during the Revolution, and the poll tax thereafter was relegated to the background. In Maryland, in fact, poll taxes were discontinued entirely.

8 Studies in State Taxation, edited by J. H. Hollander, Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series XVIII. Reprinted by consent of editor, author, and publisher.

however, the rate is prescribed by the General Assembly, it may properly be considered a commonwealth tax.

Rate. The provision of the constitution authorizing the poll tax is mandatory. It declares; "The General Assembly shall levy a capitation tax on every male inhabitant in the state over twenty-one and under fifty years of age, which shall be equal to the tax on property valued at $300." The Supreme Court has recently held that if a revenue act does not preserve this proportion, the tax on both property and poll is void.

The present state poll tax is $1.29. The counties also have the privilege of levying a poll tax, but the state and county tax together must not exceed $2.00. Not more than one fifth of the revenue thus raised can be appropriated to the support of the poor. By the Constitution of 1868, the county commissioners are empowered to exempt from this tax any persons who are too poor or infirm to pay it.

Collection.- Much difficulty is experienced in the collection of the tax. The law provides that, "if any poll tax or other taxes shall not be paid within sixty days after the same shall be demandable it shall be the duty of the sheriff, if he can find no property of the person liable, sufficient to satisfy the same, to attach any debt or other property incapable of manual delivery due or belonging to the person liable or that may become due to him before the expiration of the calendar year." By means of such attachments in the hands of employers and others, many poll taxes which would not otherwise be collectible are paid. But even with the aid of this device the tax is poorly collected. The auditor in his report for 1896 estimates that only two thirds of the whites and one half of the negroes above the age of twentyone pay poll taxes. So difficult is the collection of this tax that in 1897 the General Assembly enacted that persons or corporations failing to pay any tax laid on them by law shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisoned not exceeding six months. This law was aimed, of course, at the man without property, the citizen who is liable only to the poll tax. Taxes due by any citizen with property are collectible without fines or imprisonment. It is quite possible that this act did not fall within the constitutional provision prohibiting imprisonment for debts, but the law does not seem

to have been practicable and was repealed by the General Assembly of 1899. ·

The amount raised by the poll tax is next in amount to that raised by the general property tax. In 1898 the return from state and county poll taxes amounted to $365,738.27, or nearly one half of the sum raised for public schools, exclusive of sums raised in the larger towns for graded schools. Besides the poll tax levied by state and county, incorporated towns also impose poll taxes in North Carolina. In some cases, in fact, in most of the larger towns, the municipal poll tax is far in excess of the combined state and county poll tax.1

Criticism.-The poll tax of North Carolina is clearly a regressive tax of a very heavy kind. It amounts frequently to doubling the rate on small property owners. Let us suppose, for instance, two property owners, one owning property worth $10,000 and another owning property worth $300. If we levy on each a property tax of 1 per cent (an average municipal tax in North Carolina) and a poll tax of $5, this amounts to taxing the richer man at a rate slightly above 13 per cent, while the poorer man has to pay a $10 tax, or at the rate of 33 per cent. If a poor man has no property and thus escapes the payment of the poll tax the very existence of this tax is an inducement to him never to acquire any property, since from his first savings, the state, county, and city take away as much as the savings bank would pay him, if he had $300. If he only saves $100, they take far more than such a bank would pay him. That this is a real and an important consideration is revealed by statistics from Wake County given by the auditor in his report for 1896. Over 60 per cent of the taxpayers of this county pay on less than $500 of real and personal property, and the auditor estimates that 80 per cent of the taxpayers of the entire state pay on less than $500 worth of property.

On such persons the poll tax weighs heavily. The richer man does not feel it, the man with no property largely escapes it, but upon the small property owner it hangs like an incubus.

1 The rates in some of the largest cities in North Carolina are as follows: Raleigh, $3.70; Winston, $4.05; Charlotte, $3; Wilmington, $3.96. These are the municipal poll taxes; to them must be added the state and county taxes, nearly always equal to $2.

It is not a tax proportioned to ability. It is not even, according to the theory of the general property tax, proportioned to wealth. In what manner its advocates would justify the retention of the tax is not clear. To most people who favor poll taxes, the old idea of paying the state for a service rendered, probably constitutes the best argument in its behalf.

As has been said above, the poll tax is mandatory and no General Assembly can refuse to levy it. There is urgent need of a change in the constitution permitting the tax to be laid only on persons not paying an equal sum on property. While such a tax would be theoretically far from a just tax, it would yet be an improvement on the present system and would lift the dead weight which hangs so heavily on the small property

owner.

38. The Poll Tax in Mississippi and Georgia. In other Southern states poll taxes have retained considerable financial importance. Dr. C. H. Brough writes as follows concerning poll taxes in Mississippi:1

Although Mississippi is aristocratic in its economic substratum, its attitude in regard to the poll tax has always been democratic. The landowners never objected to bearing the burdens of this tax, and they used it as an instrument to encourage slavery. This was accomplished, as we have seen, by a discrimination in the rate charged "free males of color" and white males. After the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of the freedmen, this discrimination was abolished and a uniform rate levied without regard to color or previous condition of servitude. The poll which, during the reconstruction period, was as high as $6 per capita, is now fixed at $2, and is imposed on all males between the ages of twenty and sixty years.

The importance of the poll tax in Mississippi may be appreciated from the fact that it is the principal fiscal device of the school districts in the state during the four months' public school term. Furthermore, the payment of the poll tax is made an implied condition of suffrage by that provision in the state constitution requiring two years' residence and the payment of all

1 Studies in State Taxation.

taxes during that time, as two of the necessary qualifications of an elector.

No concealment need be made of the fact that the poll tax is used in Mississippi as a means of disqualifying the negro in national elections and controlling his vote in local elections. That the poll tax is more important in the state as an adjunct of suffrage than as a source of revenue is revealed by the fact that in 1897 out of a capitation of $529,694, only $250,057 was collected. Property owners are willing to pay a penalty for their ownership of property, in order to maintain white rule to protect their property. However barbarous the poll tax may be as a fiscal anachronism, social conditions in Mississippi are not yet ripe for economic reform in this direction.

And of the poll tax in Georgia, Dr. L. F. Schmeckebier writes: 1

Capitation taxes yield the second largest amount derived from taxation. Every male inhabitant of the state, between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, is subject to a poll tax of $1 per annum. Blind persons, cripples, and maimed and disabled confederate soldiers are exempt from this tax. No city or county, or any other corporate authority, is allowed to assess or collect any capitation tax whatever, except a street tax, and that after an opportunity is given to work upon the streets. The payment of the poll tax is requisite for the exercise of the suffrage, and this is a source of political demoralization. The negro especially refrains from paying his poll tax, and waits for the politician to pay it for him, which is ordinarily done. There is no way of enforcing the collection of the tax from persons who do not own property, except as a qualification for voting, and thus the tax always tends to fall on those who already own property. Furthermore the constitution of the state requires that a voter shall have paid all taxes required of him since 1877. Thus payment for the current year is not sufficient to qualify, but the voter must pay all taxes in arrears. There is a large class of citizens who sometimes pay and sometimes do not, and when they do pay, they do so merely for the purpose of voting. But

1 Studies in State Taxation.