PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 503 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



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



OORRESPONDANT DE L'lNSTITUT DE FRANCE, ETO. 



XV. WHAT IS PROPERTY? 



ONE of the greatest obstacles in the way of framing a correct 

 system of general taxation, is the different and wholly antago- 

 nistic opinions that popularly prevail, as to the real nature of what 

 constitutes its chief objective in respect to administrative action, 

 namely, " property." This point finds full confirmation and illus- 

 tration by reference to the several definitions that have been given 

 to this term by various recognized authorities, and have been accept- 

 ed to a greater or less extent as authoritative by a general and even 

 educated public. Thus, as before noted, a widely accepted defini- 

 tion of Professors Macleod, Perry, and others is, that everything 

 that can be bought or sold is property. Thus, even the random ideas 

 of an anarchist are a form of wealth at present, just as the " goaks " 

 of Artemus Ward used to be — because they have exchangeable value, 

 and will bring a certain number of dollars to him, or to the reporter 

 or interviewer who gives his notions to the public. So the beauty 

 of an actress, the nimble legs of a dancer, the vocal sweetness of 

 an opera singer, are also forms of wealth, since they have an ex- 

 changeable value when utilized. And hence the folly of the social- 

 ists, who suppose that by dividing property, or equalizing the dis- 

 tribution of land, they can secure equality of wealth, since diver- 

 sities of human faculty and opportunities would instantly begin to 

 make this imperfect distribution more unequal than before. Thus 

 the Greek philosopher Aristotle, speaking of the division of land 

 among all the citizens of his time, has the credit of shrewdly saying, 

 " Either all kinds of property must be equalized, or all must be let 

 alone." According to Webster's Dictionary, that " to which one has 

 a legal title " is property. And in a report of a recent lecture, a 

 leading American theologian is credited with saying to an assem- 

 blage of divinity students that " he adopted as the basis of his dis- 

 cussion of property the ' profound and perfect ' definition of the 

 Roman Catholic theologian Brownson, namely, that ' property is 

 communion with God through the material.' And to realize and 

 apply this definition is the great duty of the Christian teacher." 



" The term property denotes a right over a determinative thing. 

 Property is the right of any person to possess, use, enjoy, and dispose 

 of a thing." — Eaton vs. Boston, 51 N. H., 50 %. 



A more rational conception of the exact nature of property, or 

 rather of what property consists, would, however, seem to lead to 



