PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 293 



required to pay more or allowed to pay less than his just propor- 

 tion, then there is no tyranny in taxation, even if the methods 

 employed, without any such intent, may incidentally promote 

 private interests and sumptuary purposes. But if, on the other 

 hand, a just and equitable method of taxation will not promote 

 these purposes, and, as usually the case, the state resorts to meth- 

 ods that are not just, not equitable, and imposes upon some citi- 

 zens an undue share of the general public burden, then to that 

 extent taxation becomes tyrannical, and can not be justified ex- 

 cept upon the assumption that there is no limitation on the right 

 of a state to interfere with individual rights to property ; which is 

 the same thing as asserting that the state in question is not " free," 

 but is a " despotism." In short, the proposition would seem to be 

 clear that the state can not, without violating that simple princi- 

 ple of justice which prescribes equality in taxation, use its taxing 

 power for effecting any other purpose whatever except to raise 

 money.* 



The principle here involved may be further illustrated by refer- 

 ence to a curious chapter of railroad experience. Some years ago 

 the managers of one of the great railroads of the United States 

 appropriated a part of its receipts from the carriage of freight and 

 passengers to the support of an opera house and a corps of ballet 

 dancers. Extraordinary as was this procedure, there was no ques- 

 tion that the directors, who were trustees for the stockholders, 

 had the right to determine how the earnings of the road should 

 be applied, so long as the stockholders failed to restrain them or 

 prevent their continuance in office ; and as they did not, no legal 

 action or restraint of their singular use of the receipts of the 

 property was attempted. But if these same directors had decided 

 not to take money directly from the aggregate earnings of the 

 railroad for the furtherance of their peculiar views, but that in 

 addition to certain rates for transportation all passengers and 

 freight should pay a special sum (tax) for the support of the 

 opera house, the state would have undoubtedly and properly 

 intervened and forbidden its collection, on the ground that the 

 railroad was not chartered (called into existence) for any such 

 purpose, and that the attempt to use any power other than what 

 was granted or contemplated in its charter was illegal and un- 

 warranted. 



Again, if the legislative department of the state decides that 



* A legal writer of eminence (Justice Cooley) has recently contended that this is not a 

 correct view, for the reason that it is one which finds no " countenance in the pi-actice of 

 our Government, or indeed that of any other." But if this contention is valid, then it may 

 be pleaded with equal effect for the justification and continuance of every practice which 

 old-time views and long usage have tolerated, but which a higher civilization or a broader 

 culture demands shall be abrogated. 



