St. Patrlck's Cathedral, New York. Valued at $800,000. Not Taxed. PRESIDENT GARFIELD in Congress, June 22, 1874, said: "The divorce between the church and the state ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no church property, anywhere in any state, or in the nation, should be exempted from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a church tax upon the whole community." The census of 1890 gave the United States church property worth $679,426,489. The 1906 census showed $1,257,575,867. The value had nearly doubled in 16 years. Although church property doubles in 16 years, church membership would not double in' 70 years, for the 36,000,000 members in 1911 gained but a half million in 1912. Church progress, then, is not counted in converts, but in dollars accumulated through an exemption which in New York equals the cost of caring for all the city's poor. PRESIDENT GRANT in his annual message of 1875 said: "In a growing country, where real estate enhances so rapidly with time as in the United States, there is scarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations, religious or otherwise, if allowed to retain real estate without taxation. The contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to, without taxation, may lead to sequestration without constitutional authority, and through blood. I would suggest the taxation of all property equally."