PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 57 



to be equally enforced, is, to the extent that it is enforced, a dis- 

 criminating tax of the most unjust and unequal character. Under 

 the internal revenue laws of the United States as they existed not 

 many years ago, there was a very striking example of this char- 

 acter in the case of the tax on matches, to which more particular 

 reference will be made hereafter, and one worthy of notice still 

 exists, in the case of the tax on negotiable securities (or instru- 

 ments) as railroad and other corporate bonds which the laws of 

 every State in the Federal Union make subject to taxation ; inas- 

 much as it is notorious that such taxes are not paid by the great 

 majority of the citizens who own such securities, but are paid as a 

 rule by guardians, trustees, and executors, who are obliged to in- 

 ventory them in probate offices ; with the result that widows, 

 orphans, and minors are plundered and crushed ; while those who 

 evade the tax, through the utter inability of the State to collect 

 it, are rewarded for their evasion in an increased rate of interest. 

 Uniformity or proportionality in taxation is, therefore, one of the 

 fundamental principles of every free and just government ; and 

 the safety of all tax-payers against the grossest abuses demands 

 that in taxing any class or locality the principle of equdlity of rate 

 should be kept sacred and inviolate. 



The Constitution of the United States requires that " all duties, 

 imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United 

 States " ; and the question as to what constitutes uniformity of 

 taxation under this provision has repeatedly come before the 

 courts Federal and State for the purpose of definition, and 

 so has become invested with a degree of historical interest. A 

 natural inference, at first thought, would be, that under this pro- 

 vision of the Federal Constitution all property subject to taxation 

 must necessarily be taxed at the same rate or ratio that is, if 

 horses, wagons, and land are taxed, then the same per cent of value 

 must be assessed upon the horses and wagons as upon the land ; 

 and if some eight hundred per cent is assessed upon distilled 

 spirits whisky (as is the case in the United States at the present 

 time) every other commodity from which it was proposed to raise 

 revenue ought to be taxed in the same proportion. In like man- 

 ner under the customs, all imports liquors and pig iron, for ex- 

 ample would have to be subjected to one rate of duty. This dif- 

 ficulty, so far as the Federal Government is concerned, has been 

 obviated by an assumption, which the courts have sustained, that a 

 tax " is uniform within the meaning of the constitutional require- 

 ment if it is made to bear the same percentage over all the United 

 States" that is, it must be uniform as regards any particular 

 article in all places ; that whisky or any other commodity, for 

 example, shall not be subjected to Federal taxation at one rate in 

 one State and at a different rate in another State, but that differ- 



