THE COLLAR-BUTTON SYSTEM. 57

tax, and real estate the remainder. Now all kinds ofpersonal property pay about one-ninth.”

Senator Vedder: “ If all kinds of personal estate paidits due proportion, would not the reduction of tax on realestate reduce the rents?”

Judge ARNOUX : “I feel some diffidence, Mr. Chair-man, in presenting my views to one who has made sucha deep study of this subject as you have. I have readyour able report as one of the State assessors, and Ifully agree with you, I believe, in all your conclusions,except in reference to this tax. I am constrained to saythat it is a step in the wrong direction. The rents ofreal estate are not governed by the taxes, but by themore inexorable law of supply and demand.”

The gentleman from Rochester: “That’s so.”

Judge Arnoux: “The best illustration that can begiven on that point is that the price of tea, and I thinkof coffee also, largely advanced within three months afterthe tax was removed by Congress.

“ I have said that the fundamental rule of taxation isnot that it shall be universal, but that it shall be equalupon the class. Now, this proposed law is very un-equal. There might be two merchants of equal wealth,one of whom might pay ten times the tax of the other.For example, if they were each worth $50,000, and onehad a stock of the same amount all paid for, and theother $500,000, the latter would pay ten times the taxof the former. You say, that would restrain merchants