588 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



and grow less wheat, or reduce the supply of foreign manure 

 to his land with the sani eefFect ; or withhold his wonted con- 

 tribution to the resources his banker lends for such purposes. 

 Here, too, the tax may enable the Government to find work, 

 directly or indirectly, for the discharged workman. But 

 whence, next year, will come the food which his reproductive 

 employment should have provided ? The people will, next, 

 year, have less command of food. The landlord, too, though 

 he will have enjoyed his pleasure grounds, or his champagne, 

 as usual, will be deprived of the additional pleasures he could 

 have purchased with the proceeds of the wheat he has been 

 prevented from producing. 



Bastiat in his short papers entitled, "That which is seen 

 and that which is not seen,' shows very clearly at what a 

 tremendous cost to the world at large the individual indulges in 

 prodigal — i.e., unproductive — expenditure. In short, taxation, 

 to the extent to which it diverts the current energies of the 

 community from productive to unproductive w^ork, in so far, 

 that is, as it reduces the produce of the ensuing harvest, 

 reduces the wage fund for the year following the harvest, that 

 is, it reduces the future means of subsistence of the people ; 

 and it does so when directly levied from the rich or on land, 

 not less than when levied on the poor or on commodities. 



No one has disputed or will dispute that taxes should be 

 certain and not arbitrary ; but you will see that all changes 

 in taxation infringe this rule. On first imposition, a new tax 

 is always arbitrary. That taxes should be levied at a con- 

 venient time and in a convenient manner ; and that they 

 should take from the taxpayer as httle as possible in excess of 

 the net income to the State, are also maxims not open to 

 question. A tax when first imposed can hardly fail to be an 

 arbitrary and unfair imposition upon some one or more 

 persons or classes to the exclusion of others. Time, perhaps 

 many years, is required to adjust it to its true incidence. In 

 like manner the removal of an old tax is a present to those 

 directly affected at the expense of the general community. 

 Hence arises constant agitation from those who think they 

 can benefit themselves by obtaining some change in taxation. 

 Hence, also, the intensity of dislike to new taxation by those 

 on whom it directly falls. Abundant evidence of serious 

 political results from these natural circumstances are given by 

 Dowell in his very valuable work, " History of Taxation in 

 England." But time adjusts all inequalities to the shoulders 

 of the people, and it would be a great blessing if poHticians 



