MUNICIPAL TAXATION WHY AND HOW. 49 



consumers. Such a practice could not be practical, however, unless 

 adopted by all the States of the Union. 



The author of the Wealth of Nations declared that "no tax can 

 ever reduce, for any considerable time, the rate of profit in Siuy par- 

 ticular trade which must always keep its level with other trades in 

 its neighborhood." And indeed, in this countr}', during and after 

 the great civil war, it was generally found that a heav}- tax upon any 

 particular article of consumption gave the business that produced it 

 a new and vigorous impulse of prosperity'. 



SUBURBAN RESIDENTS. 



At first thought, it strikes the suburban tax-payer, that to be 

 assessed for the support of sewers, sidewalks, street lights and 

 apparatus for the extinguishment of fires in the city or village within 

 his municipality, is unequal taxation, for which he does not receive 

 his proportionate benefit. 



He rarely travels upon the sidewalks, scarcely if ever is in the village 

 after dark, has no use for the sewers, and his entire farm buildings 

 might be consumed before even the alarm could reach the fire depart- 

 ment, much less come to his relief — and if on the spot would not find 

 water sufficient to be of much, if any, use in quenching the flames. 

 And, therefore, it is a burden which he ought not to bear. 



But will reflection justif\' such a conclusion? What would farms 

 be worth without a near and ready market for their products? The 

 value of farm products is in a direct ratio to their distance from 

 a read}' market, and the market value of farms is based upon the 

 value of its products at the farm. How far to a market, is always 

 the first question. 



And what is a market but a collection of consumers or ready pur- 

 chasers for shipments? And what draws and centres consumers and 

 commission men but advantages and conveniences for business, with 

 reasonable expectations of favorable results from investments? 



With one store in this village, there would be no competition in 

 trade. The farmer would pay the merchant his price for his goods, 

 for he must buy to live ; and the merchant would pay his price for 

 the farmer's products, because sucli farmer must sell to live. 



The highways must be constructed and kept in repair for your own 

 convenience and to accommodate the mail. Your suburbs would be 

 less thickly populated, having nothing to invite capital, and the 



