72 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



land, tliougli it does not seem probable that the systems adopted 

 for its enforcement will ever be found satisfactory to the people of 

 other countries. Thus, in the taxation of incomes, the average rate 

 does not generally exceed four or five per cent, but in some cantons 

 the rates rule as high as seven and even ten per cent. By a com- 

 paratively recent law established in the canton of Vaud, which 

 in point of population and wealth ranks third in the Swiss confedera- 

 tion, progressive taxation has been established, and the property of 

 the canton is divided into three classes which are taxed in the follow- 

 ing proportions: One per cent 1,000 for estates under $5,000 capital 

 value; 1^ per cent 1,000 between $5,000 and $20,000, and 2 per 

 cent 1,000 for estates exceeding $20,000 in value. Personal prop- 

 erty is divided into seven classes, the lowest class being under $5,000, 

 the highest exceeding $160,000 capital value. The rates of taxa- 

 tion on these classes are to be in the proportion of 1, 1^, 2, 2|, 3, 3^, 

 and 4 per cent 1,000. Incomes from earnings are also divided into 

 seven classes, but in arriving at the net amount to be taxed, a deduc- 

 tion of $80 is allowed for each person legally dependent on the head 

 of the family for his support. The result of this is that while a 

 bachelor earning $1,000 a year would pay a tax of $15, a married 

 man with the same income and ten children would pay but fifty 

 cents, and if he had twelve children nothing. The Vaudois law was 

 carried by overwhelming majorities when submitted, as was neces- 

 sary, to a " referendum " vote of the whole people, and at every sub- 

 sequent stage of its progress. 



The only one of the great governments of the world at the pres- 

 ent time which can prefer a claim to a large measure of success in 

 administering an income tax is that of Germany, and especially that 

 of the kingdom of Prussia; and the methods by which such success 

 has been attained, and which seem to be based on the precedents 

 established by the old Romans so far as the changed conditions of 

 civilization will permit, ought to be most instructive to those who 

 think this tax can be administered and made notably productive 

 of revenue in the United States. The tax in Germany is levied, 

 as it were, in duplicate, or under two forms: first, by towns and 

 cities, and termed "communal"; and, second, by the state, under 

 the designation of " class " tax. An entire exemption from these 

 taxes is granted only to the very poorest and humblest of the popu- 

 lation. 



"Petty hucksters with a small stock of potatoes, second-hand clothes 

 peddlers, servant girls earning four dollars and twenty-five cents a quarter, 

 pay the communal tax, and are also inscribed in the first (or lowest) grade 

 of the class tax.''* 



* United States Consular Reports, Nos. 99, 100, p. 461. 



