The exemption of church property from taxation is a direct and
unqualified violation of every one of the foregoing principles. It is a
denial of the foundation truths of democratic government. It is a
mean and underhanded attempt to do indirectly what cannot be done more
directly. In its essence it is nothing more or less than the indirect
support of the church by the state. It is the connivance of the state in
the picking of the pockets of its citizens by the church. Every dollar
of taxation which the church is allowed to dodge is one dollar more
laid on the shoulders of the honest taxpayers. To exempt the church
from taxation means to lighten its load at the expense of the people.
It means that the state helps to proselytize in the interests of special
cults. The smaller or incipient sects, which own no land or buildings,
are placed at a relative disadvantage, regardless of their merits
compared to the older and stronger religious bodies. The state rewards
mere acquisition in such a way as to facilitate greater acquisition. It
helps the strong as against the weak, the wealthy as against the poor.
The trifle saved by the small country church, with its cheap structure
located on land of a nominal value, is relatively of immeasurably less
help to it than that given to the rich city church, with its magnificent
edifice erected on a plot worth its tens of thousands of dollars and
constantly appreciating in value. Even as among the churches themselves,
the system of exemption works thus unfairly and in the direction of
concentration of wealth. It affords temptation to the churches to
procure and hold much more land than they really need, regardless of the
growing wants of the community.
Talk of the ethical and educational attributes claimed for the church is
wholly beside the question. It is not the business of the state to raise
its revenues only from the baser elements of the population. As its
private citizens do not pay taxes in proportion to their lack of
virtuous qualities, so neither should the institutions which enjoy
state protection. Our great philanthropists, scientists, inventors and
educators are not exempt from taxation on the ground of the great good
they are doing. As citizens of the state and nation, they receive their
share of social advantages, and do not whine over the fact that they are
asked to pay their quota toward the maintenance of those advantages for
the common good. Their good deeds in addition are voluntary, and not
performed in the expectation of being permitted to shirk their social
obligations by way of reward.