TJie Socialistic Method. 295 



Second Principle : Taxes should be levied upon values 

 easily ascertainable, and the confession of the individual 

 taxed should not be called for. This would rule out all 

 income taxes levied upon the individual, the income tax 

 being theoretically perhaps the best and practically per- 

 haps the worst tax ever conceived. 



For the Opinion : I believe that the system of taxes 

 upon real estate should be thoroughly revised, and doubt- 

 less in some instances the taxes should be greatly increased. 

 The assessments should be as nearly as practicable upon 

 the actual value, as experience has shown that any other 

 system of assessments discriminates in favor of the rich 

 and against the poor. And what further moneys may be 

 required by the Government should be obtained from levies 

 upon valuable franchises of all kinds, upon articles the 

 consumption of which tends to increase the cost of govern- 

 ment, as alcoholic drinks, and upon articles which are dis- 

 tinctly articles of luxury. Upon the first, because certain 

 privileges are granted by the community, in the franchise, 

 which either tend to the establishment of a monopoly or which 

 enable tlie parties holding it to conduct a certain business 

 Avith a limit to their liability thereunder (at an increased 

 risk to the public), or both, for which privileges the Com- 

 monwealth should be compensated ; upon the second, be- 

 cause he who dances should pay the piper ; upon the 

 third, because a tax upon luxuries does not seriously tend 

 to hamper production, as does a tax upon necessaries. 

 These are the economic reasons ; there are others of impor- 

 tance into which I cannot now enter. 



The taxation levied by the aSTational Government in 1880 

 wholly upon personal property was about $321,000,000. 

 According to the census of that year, an imperfect source 

 but the best that we have, the total taxation of the States, 

 Counties, Cities, Towns, etc., was $312,750,721, which was 

 derived from a real-estate valuation of $13,036,766,925 and 

 a personal valuation of $3,866,226,618. The idiocy of the 

 present system of taxation upon personal property will be 

 seen from this, that in the same year the value of railroad 

 property was returned at $5,536,419,788, or more than 

 forty per cent, in excess of the total amount of personal 

 property reached by assessment. Some sapient Single-tax 

 men class railroad property as wholly real estate, notwith- 

 Btanding the fact that the total value of the real estate 



