PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 149 



state, or, as we term it, "to tax," must be unrestricted. "The 

 power to tax is therefore the strongest and most pervading of all 

 the powers of government, reaching directly or indirectly to all 

 classes ^^ (United States Supreme Court; Loan Association vs. 

 Topeka, 20 Wallace, 655). 



The power to tax, said Chief- Justice Marshall, in giving the 

 opinion of the United States Supreme Court denying the right of 

 Maryland to tax the Bank of the United States (McCulloch vs. 

 Maryland, 4 Wheaton, pp. 316-431), "involves the power to de- 

 stroy, and may be legitimately exercised on the objects to which 

 it is applicable to the utmost extent to which the Government 

 may choose to carry it." In the case of Weston vs. the City of 

 Charleston, the same court, by the same eminent authority, also 

 held that " if the right to impose a tax exists, it is a rigid which, in 

 its nature, acknoivledges no limits. It may be carried to any ex- 

 tent luithin the jurisdiction of the State or corporation which im- 

 poses it, luhich the will of such State or corporation may prescribe." 

 And in a more recent case (Loan Association vs. Topeka, 20 Wal- 

 lace) the court, through the late Justice Miller, again expressed 

 itself to the same effect as follows : " Given a purpose or object 

 for which taxation may be lawfully used, and the extent of its 

 exercise is in its very nature unlimited." 



The government of a complete sovereignty can therefore tax 

 all that it can lay hands on to enforce the tax men, women, and 

 children ; all property and business and the power may be exer- 

 cised again and again until the subject taxed is exhausted or the 

 privilege can be no longer exercised. This statement finds abun- 

 dant illustration in history of people absolutely impoverished by 

 taxation, and of individuals who have been sold into slavery be- 

 cause of their inability to pay the taxes that the state or ruling 

 power had assessed upon them. The popular idea is that such 

 examples of the extreme exercise of power on the part of the state 

 to compel contributions have passed into history ; but this is not 

 the case. In every purely despotic Government there is no limi- 

 tation on its exercise except such as arises from the inability of 

 the subject to contribute. The head of the state shah, czar, or 

 emperor decides how much shall be exacted ar\d the time and 

 manner of exaction ; and not infrequently the amount taken is 

 only a little short of what it is necessary to leave to the producer 

 in order to enable him to maintain a mere animal existence. 

 Thus in Russia the present governmental exaction under the 

 name of taxes from the agricultural peasant is understood to 

 amount to about forty-five per cent of his annual product or 

 earnings. 



In 1890 the excise taxation of Russia which is mainly levied 

 upon distilled spirits and other alcoholic drinks, tobacco, sugar. 



