Imperfect in theory, the machinery of the general property tax is imperfect. With at present fully two thirds of the personal property of the State exempted from taxation by law or by circumstances growing out of its condition, or the natural depravity and selfishness of the average taxpayer, and with a large part of the other third exempted by competing nations or neighboring States, what becomes of the theory so generally accepted in the United States that in order to tax equitably it is necessary to tax everything? A very slight examination leads to the conclusion that it is the most imperfect system of taxation that ever existed; that, with the exception of moneyed corporations, it is a mere voluntary assessment, which may be diminished at any time by an offset of indebtedness which the law invites the taxpayers to increase _ad infinitum_, borrowing on pledge of corporate stocks, United States bonds, legal-tender notes, etc., all exempt from taxation; that its administration in respect to justice and equity is a farce and more uncertain and hazardous than the chances of the gaming table; and that its continuance is more provocative of immorality and more obstructive of material development than any one agency that can possibly be mentioned. A stringent enforcement only leads to greater perversions and a wider evasion. A lax enforcement does not reduce its inequalities and general want of application to actual conditions.[10] [Footnote 10: The commissioners "have no confidence in any system of inquisition or system which requires assessors to be clairvoyants; to ascertain things impossible to be ascertained by the agencies provided in the law; to ascertain the indebtedness of the taxpayer; to ascertain or know who is the owner of property at a given time that can be and is transferred hourly from owner to owner by telegraph or lightning, and that may be transported into or out of the jurisdiction of the assessor with the rapidity of steam, or that requires assessors or taxpayers to make assessments on evidence not admissible in any court, civil or criminal, in any civilized country where witches are not tried and condemned by caprice or malice on village or neighborhood gossip."] The problem, then, is what taxes to introduce in place of this confessed failure of the general property tax.