The Principles of Taxation^ 



By the Late DAVID A. WELLS. 



12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 



THE purpose of the distinguished economist in writing this book was 

 to describe a science of taxation as the subject presented itself to him. 

 Believing that the relations of private property to the Government and the 



responsibility of the Government to citizens 

 were susceptible of definite formulation, Dr. 

 Wells has endeavored in this most important 

 volume to formulate these relations and to 

 place the subject of taxation upon a scientific 

 basis. In his introduction Dr. Wells writes 

 as follows : 



**Thc Records of Experience. «- 



"It is the purpose of the writer, in the 

 chapters which follow, to discuss the prin- 

 ciples of taxation from a broader basis and 

 by different methods than have heretofore 

 been attempted, special consideration being 

 given to the experience of the United States. 

 "Such a discussion primarily involves the inquiry, of how far the 

 varied and curious experience of nations leads up through what may be 

 regarded as a process of evolution, to a recognition of the underlying 

 and essential principles of a just and at the same time an efficient system 

 of taxation. And it also necessitates, for the attainment of correct con- 

 clusions in the prosecution of such inquiry, that illustrations drawn from 

 the world's great record of experience should take precedence of theory, 

 especially in the way of example and exhibit of the many abuses of the 

 power of taxation which the ignorance of legislators and the cupidity 

 of designing men have inflicted upon nations. 



•♦Adequate Revenue — Sound Finance. «• 



"There can be no civilization without government, and no government 

 without an adequate supply of revenue obtained from the persons and 

 property of the people governed. There can be no health in the body 

 politic without sound tinance, and no sound finance without a sound 

 system of taxation, in fact, taxation is to our body politic what blood is 

 to the body physical: if healthy, infusing life and warmth; but if un- 

 healthy, the agent for producing discontent, decrepitude, and paralysis. 



-»The Methods of Taxation. «- 



" The absence or existence of limitations on the power of a govern- 

 ment to make compulsory levies on the property or persons of its people 

 for its use or support, constitutes the dividing line between a despotism 

 and a free government — a fact most pertinent to legal, economic, and 

 societary studies which has attracted little attention. 



"The methods and scope of what is called taxation regulate more than 

 all other agencies the distribution of wealth, which is really the great 

 question of the future to all nations." 



