SCIENCE OF FINANCE AND ALLIED SCIENCES 185 



same in kind as the formal relation just explained. The financier 

 is not at liberty to choose the sources from which public income is 

 drawn in an arbitrary manner. He is obliged, as he hopes for suc- 

 cess, to adjust fiscal machinery to existing industrial, social, and 

 political conditions. The amount of income required by the gov- 

 ernment raises a question which pertains primarily, if not exclusively, 

 to political science. It is true that many writers within the field of 

 financial investigation enter upon the discussion of the legitimate 

 sphere of government as bearing upon the question of reasonable 

 expenditure, but in so doing they encroach upon the domain of 

 political science. It is for political economy to discuss the problem 

 of governmental function from the point of view of industry and for 

 political science to consider it from the point of view of the state; 

 the science of finance should content itself with a consideration of 

 the proper adjustment of fiscal machinary, in view of established 

 industrial and political conditions. It is thus evident that, from 

 the point of view of public expenditures, political science has a very 

 direct bearing upon the science of finance. 



Relation to the Science of Jurisprudence 



Closely allied to the science of finance is the science which deals 

 with the fundamental rights and duties of persons and of property 

 in organized society. The relation between these two branches of 

 classified knowledge is clear because it is a relation that exists in 

 the nature of the case. As political science outlines the financial 

 programme, so far as the source of public revenue and the organization 

 of public industry are concerned, so juridical science places a limit 

 to the extent to which that programme may be carried when the ques- 

 tion of the amount of income to be drawn from one source as com- 

 pared with other sources is being discussed, and when the principles 

 that control the administration of public industries are under con- 

 sideration. There is not a state in the American Union that does 

 not in its constitution give expression to the principle that taxes must 

 be equal and universal. Such exemptions from the duty of paying 

 taxes as exist are clearly expressed and rest upon considerations of 

 general policy. Such specific taxes as are allowed also are explicitly 

 named and find their justification in the quasi-public character of 

 the property affected. In other countries than the United States, 

 also, where w r ritten constitutions exist, the same legal conditions 

 relative to the exercise of the taxing power may be observed, nor is 

 the situation different in countries where fundamental law consists 

 in established custom. The foundation of the science of finance is 

 jurisprudence, a statement that is equally true of all the practical 

 sciences that analyze human society in order to learn how it should 



