APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SOIEITCE 



MOITTHLY. 



DECEMBER, 1896. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION". 



By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D.C.L., 



CORRESPONDANT DE l'iNSTITUT DE TRAJSCE, ETC. 



IV. RELATION OF TAXATION TO THE STATE. 



THE next step of importance in this discussion is to recognize 

 clearly the relation which the exercise or function of taxa- 

 tion, as it has been defined, sustains to the state. 



Origin and Justification of Taxation. The question at 

 once suggests itself, " By what right does that entity which we 

 call the state, whatever may be its concrete form, and whether its 

 powers are exercised by a single man (Csesar), by a particular 

 class, or by a majority of citizens, take from the individual that 

 which hitherto was absolutely his, annul his ownership, and con- 

 vert the thing of value to its own use ? '^ * How happens it that 

 the exercise of this right is so absolute that the state requires 

 the citizen to set apart from the earnings of his labor a certain 

 sum for its use before he applies any of those earnings to the 

 support of his family ? f 



On this point there has been considerable speculation and phi- 

 losophizing. It has been assumed that there must be an actual 

 or implied contract between the state and the citizen, in virtue of 

 which the state supplied a certain amount of protection to life 



* " Titius is to render to Ccesar that which is Caesar's. But when Csesar comes to take 

 the shock of wheat or the firstling of the flock Titius may well ask, as he gives them up. 

 Why are they Ca5sar's rather than mine ? What right to them has Caesar and not ray neigh- 

 bor Maevius?" Tyranny in Taxation. Theodore Bacon. New-Englander, 1867. 



\ The probate judiciary of the State of Connecticut has recently held that in the set- 

 tlement of insolvent estates taxes due prior to the assignment of an assigning debtor should 

 be regarded as preferred claims, and as such should be paid in full by the trustee. 



TOL. L. 13 



