us temporizing policies.# The general property tax in
practice is unjust and demoralizing. What, then, shall be done about
it? Various policies have been followed. One has been to declare that
the law would be good if it could be enforced, but that as in practice
it cannot be, the best thing is to go on as before, catching a few
"tax dodgers," and letting the rest go. Another policy is to hire
"tax ferrets," paying them large commissions to discover cases
where intangible property of this sort has been concealed from the
assessors. This method, no matter how stringently applied, has never
reached more than a small proportion of the cases, and becomes a
potent agency of political favoritism and corruption.

Another policy is to maintain the general principle, but to make
exceptions here and there. Usually the exceptions are made just at
those points where the law would with earnest effort be most easily
enforceable, and therefore where it has become most inconvenient. As
a result of these changes the state laws display a bewildering and
illogical variety. By constitutional interpretation, United States
notes and federal bonds are exempt from state and local taxation;
generally, by state law, building and loan association and
savings-bank loans are exempt as, in a majority of states, are state
and municipal bonds if held within the state. In at least eight
states, bonds of the state are exempt, but those of the municipalities
are taxable, while in a few states the reverse is the case. In several
states both kinds of bonds when issued after specified dates, are
exempt, but in Ohio state bonds are exempt only if issued prior to
1913. All but seven of the forty-eight states, however, attempt to tax
the resident holders of state and municipal bonds of other states;
but the exceptional states are those in which most of the investors
in this class of securities reside. In many cases private debts
receivable are allowed to be offset against debts payable. In some
states mortgages on real estate are exempted or (in Massachusetts)
treated as an interest in the real estate. Rarely mortgages are
exempted up to a certain amount (in Indiana, to $700, the purpose
being to tempt the borrower to reveal the name of the lender).
Sometimes a special mortgage registration tax, payable but once (in
New York 1/2 of 1 per cent) is levied, and otherwise mortgages
are free from taxation. Small as this rate is, the fiscal yield of
mortgage taxati