he corporations which he controlled
did likewise. The propertied class everywhere did the same. The
unusually thorough report of the Illinois Labor Bureau of 1894
demonstrated how the most valuable land and buildings in Chicago were
assessed at the merest fraction of their true value--the costliest
commercial buildings at about one-tenth, and the richest residences at
about one-fourteenth, of their actual value. As for personal property it
contributed a negligible amount in taxes.[184]

The reports of the tax committee of the Boston Executive Business
Association in 1891 estimated that two billion dollars of property in
Boston escaped taxation, and that the public treasury was cheated out of
about $17,000,000 in taxes every year. As for New York City, we have
seen how the Astors, the Schermerhorns, the Goelets--the whole aggregate
of the propertied class--systematically defrauded in taxes for many
decades. It is estimated that in New York City, at present, not less
than five billion dollars of property, real and personal, entirely
escapes taxation. This estimate is a conservative one.

Spahr, after an exhaustive investigation in the United States concluded
more than a decade ago that, "the wealthy class pay less than one-tenth
of the indirect taxes, the well-to-do less than one-quarter, and the
relatively poorer classes more than two-thirds."[185] What Spahr omitted
was this highly important qualification: When the rich do pay. Tenants
of the property owners must pay their rent on time or suffer eviction,
but the capitalists are allowed to take their own leisurely time in
paying such portion of their taxes as remains after the bulk of the tax
list has been perjured away. Thus in a report he made public on February
28, 1908, Controller Metz, of New York City, pointed out that the huge
amount of $102,834,227, was due the city in uncollected taxes, much of
which amount ran several decades back. Of this sum $29,816,513 was owed
on real estate, on which the taxes were a direct lien.

The beauties of law as made and enforced by the property interests, are
herein illustriously exemplified. A poor tenant can be instantly
dispossessed, whether sick or in destitution, for non-payment of rent;
the landowner is allowed by officials who represent, and defer to him
and his class, to owe large amounts in taxes for long periods, and not a
move is taken to dispossess him.

And now by the most natural gradation, we come to those much