STATE TAX COMMISSIONER. XI

ferent construction to its meaning, and as since interpreted,
it must be held to mean that every person in the State, or
residing elsewhere, who is the owner of any property, real or
personal, in this State, not exempted from taxation by the laws
of this State, ought to contribute his proportion of public
taxes for the support of the government, according to his
actual worth in such unexempted property.

The latter being now the accepted construction, the ques-
tion must be discussed from a standpoint of expediency, and
the Legislature must consider in regard to each proposed

exemption, whether the interests of the masses of the people
will be promoted or injured by its enactment into a law.
The Legislature may also be called on to consider whether

exemptions already made by laws which are repealable and
within their power, shall be continued as beneficial to the
general interests or whether such general interests would
be advanced by their repeal. I know of no better
way of calling to the attention of the General As-
sembly the necessity for equalization, or the great
value of the principle of equality in taxation, than to pre-
sent to your view, a few of the striking inequalities which
obtain under our laws as they now exist. A large amount
of revenue is necessary for the maintenance of good govern-
ment and for the education of the people, to give them the
intelligence requisite for a sound appreciation of good gov-
ernment, and to enable the voters of the State to act under-
standingly in exercising the sovereign power of electing their
rulers and maintaining their liberties and best interests.
We are not called upon to discuss in this connection the
wisdom of exemptions from taxation made by the Federal
Government, whether made in the exercise of the limited
superior sovereignty committed by the people of the States,
through the Federal Constitution, to the Congress of the
United States, or by assumptions of power not intended to
be granted by that instrument. Our discussion must be con-
fined to exemptions from taxation created by the legislation
of this State. Under our laws as at present constituted, a
man who is the owner of a house or lot of ground in Balti-
more city, or of real property in a county, must pay taxes