that to the best of his knowledge and belief his answers are true.  He thus becomes liable to the penalties for perjury if he can be proved to have sworn falsely.  A reasonable time—­usually six or eight weeks—­is allowed for the list to be returned to the assessors.  If any one fails to return his list by the specified time, the assessors must make their own estimate of the probable amount of his property.  If their estimate is too high, he may petition the assessors to have the error corrected, but in many cases it may prove troublesome to effect this.

[Sidenote:  Cheating the government.] Observe here an important difference between the imposition of taxes upon real estate and upon personal property.  Houses and lands cannot run away or be tucked out of sight.  Their value, too, is something of which the assessors can very likely judge as well as the owner.  Deception is therefore extremely difficult, and taxation for real estate is pretty fairly distributed among the different owners.  With regard to personal estate it is very different.  It is comparatively easy to conceal one’s ownership of some kinds of personal property, or to understate one’s income.  Hence the temptation to lessen the burden of the tax bill by making false statements is considerable, and doubtless a good deal of deception is practised.  There are many people who are too honest to cheat individuals, but still consider it a venial sin to cheat the government.

[Sidenote:  The rate of taxation.] After the assessors have obtained all their returns they can calculate the total value of the taxable property in the town; and knowing the amount of the tax to be raised, it is easy to calculate the rate at which the tax is to be assessed.  In most parts of the United States a rate of one and a half per cent, or $15 tax on each $1,000 worth of property, would be regarded as moderate; three per cent would be regarded as excessively high.  At the lower of these rates a man worth $50,000 would pay $750 for his yearly taxes.  The annual income of $50,000, invested on good security, is hardly more than $2,500.  Obviously $750 is a large sum to subtract from such an income.

[Sidenote:  Undervaluation.] [Sidenote:  The burden of taxation.] In point of fact, however, the tax is seldom quite as heavy as this.  It is not easy to tell exactly how much a man is worth, and accordingly assessors, not wishing to be too disagreeable in the discharge of their duties, have naturally fallen into a way of giving the lower valuation the benefit of the doubt, until in many places a custom has grown up of regularly undervaluing property for purposes of taxation.  Very much as liquid measures have gradually shrunk until it takes five quart bottles to hold a gallon, so there has been a shrinkage of valuations until it has become common to tax a man for only three fourths or perhaps two thirds of what his property is worth in the market.  This makes the rate higher, to be sure, but the individual taxpayer