40 TWENTY-FIRST REPORT. 



by side with certain passages from Professor Sprague's article I think you 

 would be impressed with the similarity. 



Webster says, "people should be taxed, in proportion to their abilities, but 

 then I think it very necessary that they should pay as they go, as near as 

 that may be. The soldier renders his personal services down on the spot, the 

 farmer his provisions, the tradesman his fabrics, and why should not the 

 monied man pay his money down too. Why should the soldier, tradesman, 

 farmer, etc., be paid in promises, which are not so good as money, if the 

 fulfillment is at a distance." 



From the very first Webster talked taxation, he said the enormity of the 

 debt was more in sound than substance. He estimated the population at 

 3,000,000 and the minimum price of wheat was $20.00 per bushel ; so that a 

 quarterly tax of one bushel of wheat per head would have yielded $240,- 

 000,000 a year. In 1780 Webster estimated the probable expenditure for 

 that year at $11,000,000 and he figured that in 1779 the Colonists had paid 

 $19,000,000 through depreciation. The Colonists were fighting a war against 

 taxation, however, and his many years' sowing was on stony ground. 



On economic problems, I believe Webster was the clearest thinker of his 

 day and country. He was not a scientific economist. He formulated no 

 economic system. Like Ricardo and others of the classical school, Webster 

 was a propagandist. His efforts were directed to the solution of very prac- 

 tical problems and he went no farther. 



University of Michigan. 



