394 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



practicable, in proportion to tlieir property, equal upon all citizens. 

 Unless the rule of the Constitution governs, a majority may fix the 

 limitation at such rate as will not include any of their own number. 



" Cooley, in his Treatise on Taxation (second edition, 215), justly 

 observes that ' it is difficult to conceive of a justifiable exemption law 

 which should select single individuals or corporations, or single 

 articles of property, and, taking them out of the class to which they 

 belong, make them the subject of capricious legislative favor. Such 

 favoritism could make no pretense to equality; it would lack the 

 substance of legitimate tax legislation.' 



" The income-tax law under consideration is marked by discrim- 

 inating features which affect the whole law. It discriminates be- 

 tween those who receive an income of four thousand dollars and those 

 who do not. It thus vitiates, in my judgment, by this arbitrary dis- 

 crimination, the whole legislation. Hamilton says in one of his 

 papers (The Continentalist) : ' The genius of liberty repudiates every- 

 thing arbitrary in taxation. It exacts that every man, by a definite 

 and general rule, shall know what proportion of his property the 

 State demands. Whatever liberty we may boast of in theory, it can 

 not exist in fact while [arbitrary] assessments continue.' (1 Hamil- 

 ton's Works, edition 1885, 270.) The legislation, in the discrimina- 

 tion it makes, is class legislation. WheneA^er a distinction is made in 

 the burdens a law imposes or in the benefits it confers on any citizens 

 by reason of their birth, or wealth, or religion, it is class legislation, and 

 leads inevitably to oppression and abuses, and to general unrest and 

 disturbance in society. It was hoped and believed that the great 

 amendments to the Constitution which followed the late civil war 

 had rendered such legislation impossible for all future time. But 

 the objectionable legislation reappears in the act under consideration. 

 It is the same in essential character as that of the English income 

 statute of 1G91, which taxed Protestants at a certain rate. Catholics, 

 as a class, at double the rate of Protestants, and Jews at another and 

 separate rate. Under wise and constitutional legislation every citizen 

 should contribute his proportion, however small the sum, to the sup- 

 port of the Government, and it is no kindness to urge any of our 

 citizens to escape from that obligation. If he contributes the small- 

 est mite of his earnings to that purpose he will have a greater regard 

 for the Government and more self-respect for himself, feeling that, 

 though he is poor in fact, he is not a pauper of his Government. And 

 it is to be hoped that, whatever woes and embarrassments may betide 

 our people, they may never lose their manliness and self-respect. 

 Those qualities preserved, they will ultimately triumph over all 

 reverses of fortune." 



