6o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is at liberty to take money out of their pockets for any other than 

 a public purpose. "Whenever it can be discovered that a tax is 

 levied for something which properly can not be called such, it 

 may be successfully resisted by all the measures that the law 

 allows in courts of justice/' Miller, Justice S. F., Lectures on the 

 Constitution of the United States, p. 2Jf2, 



" We have established, we think beyond cavil, that there can 

 be no lawful tax which is not laid for a public purpose." Loan 

 Association vs. Topeka, United States Supreme Court, 20 Wallace, 

 p. 66J^. 



" Taxation, by the very meaning of the term, implies the rais- 

 ing of money for public uses, and excludes the raising of it for 

 private objects and purposes." Mien vs. Inhabitants of Jay, 60 

 Maine (per Appleton, C. J.). 



" Taxation is allowable only for public purposes. The name 

 (taxation) is not rightfully applied with reference to objects of a 

 private nature, such as a bridge, manufactory, or foundry owned 

 by individuals. An act of the Legislature authorizing a levy for 

 a mere private purpose, or for a purpose which, though public, 

 is one in which the people from which it is exacted have no inter- 

 est, would not be a laiu, but a judicial sentence." Hillard, Law 

 of Taxation, 1875. 



What are public purposes 9 This question is an embarrassing 

 one, and in attempting to answer it there is opportunity for much 

 latitude of opinion. In the first place, the ordinary or dictionary 

 definition of the term " public," as forming a part of the above 

 question, is certainly infelicitous and ambiguous namely, " per- 

 taining to a nation, state, or community ; extending to the whole 

 people" (Webster). Thus, for example, under a purely despotic 

 form of government any exaction of contributions (taxes) from 

 the people, and expenditures resulting therefrom, which the heads 

 of the state may decree, be it for the expenses of a harem, the 

 amusement or dignity of royalty, the reward or pensions of court 

 favorites, or the maintenance of a military force for the subjugat- 

 ing of the people, would be held to be for a public purpose, and 

 any subject that should undertake to contravene this assumption 

 would be amenable to punishment and perhaps to the charge of 

 treason. 



On the other hand, under all popular or constitutional govern- 

 ments it would not probably be disputed, that taxation should 

 have but one object and taxes but one destination namely, to 

 supply the expenses necessitated by those services which, accord- 

 ing to established usage, it is the business of government to pro- 

 vide, and in conlradistinction to those which private inclination, 

 interest, or liberality will supply whenever a necessity or demand 

 for such action becomes sufficiently manifest. Any form of levy. 



