64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Hence the riiising of Revenue, or Public Income, becomes a very im- 

 portant and a very complicated matter as civilization, expenditure and 

 public debts increase. "When conquered provinces were levied upon in 

 gross, as France has been in modern days by Germany, or when the rich 

 citizen was required to pay a large subsidy for the public benefit, on de- 

 mand, the raising of revenue, if not an equitable, was at least a simple 

 and to most people an indifferent affair. But as civilization increases 

 public wants and public functions, public responsibility and public credit 

 increase, and we seek to lay the burdens of an increasing public expense 

 as equitably as may be on all persons who are citizens or who hold prop- 

 erty under the protection of the government. 



TAXATION THE SOURCE OP REVENUE. 



There may be other sources of Revenue such as the sales and rents of 

 public laids, the confiscation of private property, eto,., but these in our 

 case, at least, are comparatively unimportant. The great source of Rev- 

 enue is taxation. 



Taxation is the arrangingfirst, how much in the aggregate shall be paid; 

 secondly, who shall pay it; and thirdly, the arranging the machinery for 

 collecting the amount. It is a legal way of taking private property for pub- 

 lic use, without giving other compensation than ' the benefits directly and 

 indirectly received from the protection and aid of governing power. 



DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAXATION. 



Taxation is usually divided into Direct and Indirect taxation. " A di- 

 rect tax " says Prof. Walker, " is demanded of the person who it is intended 

 shall pay it. Indirect taxes are demanded from one person, in the ex- 

 pectation that he will indemnify himself at the expense of others." A 

 direct tax is usually a poll tax, or a tax on valuation of property. An in- 

 direct tax may be a duty on imports, a tax on spirits, tobacco or other 

 productions. In the same class are placed such taxes as stamp duties, 

 licenses and even the income tax, although the distinction grows obscure. 

 Direct taxes are levied or attempted to be levied upon all persons; indirect 

 taxes are only laid upon a small portion of a community. Direct taxes 

 are levied on the person or property, indirect taxes on consumption. 



David A. Wells, who has probably studied the matter of taxation as 

 much as any man in our country, arrives at the conclusion in a paper on 

 the Rational Principles of Taxation, that " taxation diffuses itself," and 

 so that "all taxation ultimately and necessarily falls on consumption." 

 This does away in principle with the distinction between direct and in- 

 direct taxes and, if true, suggest that the time and expense devoted to the 

 attempt to secure general taxation is wasted, and that the fewer persons 

 or corporations are assessed the better. This view is not generallj^ accepted 

 by political economists, but seems to me partially true. 



Assuming for present purposes, however, the division into direct and 

 indirect taxation, as sufficiently precise, let us examine some of the prin- 

 cipal kinds of actual and proposed taxation. 



