322 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



smaller cities of Massachusetts, where persons and property are 

 capable of more thorough, supervision than larger numbers and 

 areas — namely, the city of Springfield, with a population of about 

 fifty thousand — the report of its tax officials shows that for the 

 year 1894-'95 the number of persons and corporations assessed 

 on property (mainly real estate) was 7,745, or one for every 6.4 of 

 its citizens, while 10,560 other citizens were assessed for a poll tax 

 of two dollars only. Of the total amount of taxes assessed — namely, 

 $735,948— the above number, 10,560, paid only $21,120; and this 

 is the experience generally throughout the United States, as it will 

 be in every country under a free popular government, where arbitrary 

 inquisitions and arrests of persons and seizures of property are not 

 allowed, and where a soldier does not practically stand behind every 

 tax assessor and collector. 



The time (1871) when the personal investigations above referred 

 to were made was when the masses of the city of New York were 

 moved with indignation at the misuse and private appropriation by a 

 few officials (Tweed and his associates) of the municipal revenues 

 raised by taxation, under cover of instituting public improvements, 

 and which finally led to their prosecution, imprisonment, or self- 

 imposed exile; and the questions which naturally suggested them- 

 selves were : If only some forty thousand of the million in New York 

 city paid the taxes, what interest had the other nine hundred and 

 sixty thousand who never saw the face of a tax assessor or collector 

 in opposing corruption? What, in an honest administration of the 

 city government and in a reduction of taxes ? Must it not be for the 

 interest of the many that the expenditures of the State shall always 

 be as large as possible? Must they not be benefited by exorbitant 

 taxes on the owners of property, and a distribution of the money col- 

 lected, even if stolen by corruptionists, but spent by them lavishly 

 on enterprises that will furnish new opportunities for employment or 

 amusement for the masses? Clearly, so far as any personal experi- 

 ence growing out of any direct assessment and levy was concerned, 

 ninety-six per cent of the population of the city had no more cause 

 of personal grievance by reason of the unlawful taking of money 

 from the city treasury than they would have had at the taking of 

 an equivalent amount from the municipal treasuries of London, Paris, 

 or any other city. 



The answer to these questions is to be found in the fact, as John 

 Adams once remarked, that " if the Creator had given man a reason 

 that is fallible, he has also impressed upon him an instinct that is 

 sure." And this instinct teaches the masses everywhere, though they 

 have never read a book on political economy, or heard any one dis- 

 course learnedly on the principles of taxation, that if taxes are in- 



