STATE GRANGE OF ILLINOIS. 71 



Btill stand by direct taxation as the most equitable .system. "The tendency 

 to spare the rich," which John Stuart Mill asserted prevuded the finan- 

 cial system of Great Britain, is not confined to those islands. 



THEORIES OP TAXATION. 



In attempting to suggest fairer and more profitable methods of taxation, 

 we find ourselves undertaking a diflicult problem. It is diflicult in the 

 first place to lay down a proper rule of action where so much is deter- 

 mined by policy and so little by principle. Adam Smith, one hundred 

 years ago, laid down four rules, which most subsequent political econo- 

 mists have endorsed, and which Fawcctt condenses in this way: 



1. "Taxation should possess etjuality. 



2. There should be no uncertainty with regard to the amount to be 

 levied. 



3. The tax should be levied at the most convenient time, and in the most 

 convenient manner. 



4. Tlie State ought to obtain as much as possible of the whole amount 

 which is really levied from the tax-payer.'" 



From an American point of view, the first of those rules is the important 

 one. John Stuart Mill qualifies and explains it by saying that " equality 

 of taxation, as a maxim of politics, means equality of sacrifice. It means 

 apportioning the contribution of each person towards the expenses of gov- 

 ernment, so that he shall feel neither more nor less inconvenience from 

 his share of the payment than every other person experiences from his." 

 Mr. Mill would, therefore, favor the exemption of taxes on incomes under 

 £50 or $250, but would oppose graduated taxation or taxing the larger in- 

 come or large fortune at a higher rate than the small. Fawcett denies that 

 the principle of equality of taxation is of any practical use when applied 

 to any one tax, and that equality of taxation must be produced by a system 

 of taxation which shall comprise various kinds of taxes and equalize by 

 compensation. 



Prof. Amasa Walker maintains that the income tax is of all modes of 

 taxation, the most ju.st and equitable. Mr. Wells after asserting what he 

 claims that Adam Smith and Quesnay virtually established as a principle, 

 that "All taxation ultimately and necessarily falls on consumption," con- 

 cludes that the "rational principle of taxation is to tax but comparatively 

 tew articles, viz. : visible, tangible property and fixed signs of jiroperty — for 

 in tills way only can taxes be assessed equitably, uniformly and economi- 

 cally — and then leave them to diffuse, adjust and apportion themselves by 

 the inflexible laws of trade and |)()litical economy." This assertion is a 

 contravention of the opinions of most political economists, and is so dis- 

 turbed and contradicted in practice thai it has not, in my opinion, an ap- 

 plication to our state of aflfairs, even if correct in theory. Some great law 

 of social and political compensation equalizes and makes tolerable the in- 

 justice done by the stronger hand or the more cunning brain, or else 

 drags down the cunning and the simple to common ruin. " If a nation 



