304 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Federal tax should be imposed on silver, varying from month to 

 month according to the changes in its market price as bullion, 

 with a view of establishing and maintaining a parity of value 

 between gold and silver, with, of course, a total disregard of the 

 sole object and justification of taxation namely, revenue. 



But the most curious illustration of the extent to which an 

 entire misconception of the nature and functions of taxation has 

 obtained favor in the United States is to be found in a pamphlet 

 entitled Rational Principles of Taxation,* recently published by a 

 Professor of Political Economy in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and included among the authorized publications of the 

 university. In this the author advocates the levying of taxes by 

 the national Government for the purpose of effecting " stability 

 in prices"; and on the assumption that a large and increasing 

 percentage of the national wealth is consumed in the expenses 

 of the retail distribution of commodities, proposes to remedy 

 the evil by imposing a discriminating tax on retail dealers so 

 heavy as to crush out all such whose business and profits in a 

 given time do not exceed a certain amount to be prescribed by 

 statute. Among the anticipated advantages enumerated by the 

 author of the adoption of such a scheme would be the saviiig of 

 rent " on one half the stores " of cities and a great reduction of 

 rent on the other half. " There would be little need of advertis- 

 ing ; . . . the stocks of goods carried by the whole trade would be 

 greatly reduced, from which there would be great saving of 

 capital." But "perhaps the greatest saving of all would arise 

 from the reduction of the force of salesmen and in the cost of 

 delivering goods." And finally, carried away apparently by a 

 beatific vision of the glories of such a tax millennium, the pro- 

 fessor exclaims, " Think of all the elements of economy in con- 

 junction, and an idea can be formed of the amount of taxes that 

 could be levied on retail dealers without putting the public to 

 any inconvenience ! " f and " would not the unnecessary capital 

 now absorbed in business be fully sufficient to furnish us with 

 pure water, lovely parks, fine-art galleries," etc. ? 



Prospective Evils op the Perversion op the Taxing 

 Power. In view of such experiences and propositions, the ques- 

 tions are most pertinent : How much further is such a perversion 

 of the taxing power to be carried ? And is not the entire re- 

 cent experience of the nation in this respect in the direction of 



* Rational Principles of Taxation. By Simon N. Patten, Professor of Political Economy, 

 University of Pennsylvania, 1890. 



f Obviously the author of this scheme supposed that the retail dealers of this country 

 are such bimple-minded people that they will cheerfully pay their proposed heavy taxes 

 out of their capital, and not transfer them, through increased prices of their goods, to 

 their consuming purchasers. 



