THE DISTRIBUTION OF TAXES. 55 



ment, either national, State, city or town, are distributed, falling ulti- 

 mately upon all consumers in proportion to the quantity and value 

 of the product of the country consumed by each person. 



What is the cost of each person to the community? Is it not what 

 each person consumes of the materials needed for shelter, food and 

 clothing? What does any one get in or out of life, in a material sense, 

 be he rich or poor, except what we call board and clothing? Incomes 

 in money are distributed. When paid for service that money becomes 

 the means by which the person who has performed the service procures 

 shelter, food and clothing. 



If these points are well taken, then it seems to me that the only 

 problem is how much time will elapse before the tax will fall upon 

 the consumers of all products in ratio to consumption; an incidental 

 question being the relative cost of collecting the taxes in one way or 

 another. 



I have been led to this conclusion that all taxes are slowly but 

 surely diffused throughout the community — some directly, others indi- 

 rectly — by reasoning upon the subject without measuring the tax in 

 terms of money — money being only the medium by which the real tax 

 is measured and brought to the use of the government. Does not the 

 same distinction apply to taxes that applies to wages? We are ac- 

 customed to speak of money wages and real wages, meaning by real 

 wages the things that money will buy. May we not in the same way 

 speak of money taxes and real taxes, meaning by real taxes the material 

 substances withdrawn from the community for the support of the em- 

 ployees of the government? Does not the real tax consist of the ma- 

 terial products needed by and consumed for the subsistence of the 

 officers of the government and of all persons who are in the government 

 service? 



The annual product is substantially the source of these material 

 substances. A small part of one year's product is carried over to start 

 the next year's product, a small part of that year being carried forward 

 on which to begin work in the next. Production is a continuous 

 process, but it is governed practically by each series of four seasons. 

 Now, if the real tax is that part of the annual product withdrawn from 

 general consumption to serve the special consumption of the persons 

 who are in the government service, or are pensioned by the government, 

 then by so much as the annual product measured in quantities is 

 lessened in order to meet that demand, will the quantity remaining 

 for distribution among those who directly take part in productive work 

 be diminished. 



In the expenditure of the money derived from taxation the govern- 

 ment secures materials for constructing buildings, for their furnishings 

 and fittings; for constructing coast defenses; for building naval vessels; 



