MUNICIPAL TAXATION — WHY AND HOW. 41 



any and everytliing lawful which it might see fit to call taxation 

 would, when plainly stated, be an unlimited power to plunder the 

 citizen. When, therefore, the question of the validity of taxation 

 becomes judicial, if it shall appear that the exaction is made for a 

 purpose not public, the right of the individual to protection is 

 clear. 



Of all the powers conferred upon Government, that of taxation is 

 the most liable to abuse. Given a purpose, or object, for which 

 taxation may be lawfull}' used, and the extent of its exercise is in 

 its very nature unlimited. 



It is true that express limitation on the amount of tax to be levied 

 or the things to be taxed maj^ be imposed by the Constitution or 

 statute, but in most instances for which taxes are levied, as the 

 support of Government, the prosecution of war, the national defense 

 — any limitation is unsafe. The entire resources of the people 

 should, in some instances, be at the disposal of the Government. 



The power to tax is, therefore, the strongest, the most pervading 

 of all the powers of Government, reaching directly or indirectly to 

 all classes of the people. This power can as readily be employed 

 against one class of individuals and in favor of another, so as to 

 ruin the one class and give unlimited wealth and prosperity to the 

 other, if there is no implied limitation of the uses for which the 

 power may be exercised. 



To lay with one hand the power of the Government on the property 

 of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals 

 to aid private fortunes, is none the less robbery because it is done 

 under the forms of law and is called taxation. This is not legisla- 

 tion. It is a decree under legislative forms. Our court has been 

 more than once invoked to prevent such abuse of legislative power. 

 [Allen V. Jay, 60 Me., 124.] 



However important it may be to the community that individual 

 citizens should prosper in their industrial enterprises, it is not the 

 business of the Government to aid them with its means. Enlight- 

 ened States leave every man to depend on his success and prosperity 

 in business on his own exertions, in the belief that by so doing his 

 own industr}' will be more certainl}' enlisted, and his prosperit}' and 

 happiness more likely to be secured. 



It is well settled, therefore, that taxation for the purpose of rais- 

 ing mone}' from the public to be given or even loaned to private 

 parties, in order that they may use it in their individual enterprises, 



