PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 303 



accordingly used his best endeavors to promote the researches of 

 his fellow-naturalists in every part of the world. 



" Resolved, That his kindly disposition, equable temper, single- 

 ness of aim, and unsullied purity of motive, along with his facile 

 mastery of affairs, greatly endeared him to his subordinates, se- 

 cured to him the confidence and trust of those whose influence he 

 sought for the advancement of the interests he had at heart, and won 

 the high regard and warm affection of those who, like the members 

 of this board, were officially and intimately associated with him." 



Prof. Baird was succeeded in the office of Secretary by the 

 present incumbent, Prof. Samuel P. Langley, LL. D., known to 

 the scientific world by his masterly researches in solar physics. 

 Under his administration the Smithsonian continues its pros- 

 perity with undiminished vigor. 



In a second article we shall consider the present status and 

 many activities of this noble institution. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



BY DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L., 



CORRESPONDANT DE L'lNSTITUT DE FRANCE, ETC. 



I. THE COMPARATIVELY RECENT TAX EXPERIENCES OF THE 

 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. PART II. 



WITH the close of the war a marked change speedily occurred, 

 in the nature of discontent, in the temper of the people in 

 respect to taxation. But this discontent at the outset was restrict- 

 ed almost exclusively to the so-called " internal revenue taxes," 

 and extended in little or no degree to the war taxes imposed on 

 imports ; which last, so long as the internal revenue taxes contin- 

 ued to be levied upon every manufactured product, and also upon 

 the separate constituents of such product, were not only wholly 

 justifiable, but absolutely necessary, if the fiscal burdens of the 

 war between the domestic producers and their foreign competitors 

 were to be equalized. In some instances, through oversight or 

 neglect, the tariff taxation was made actually less upon the im- 

 ported article than was the internal taxation on the domestic 

 product manufactured from it; one illustration of which was, 

 that the charges imposed on the import of Manilla rope were 

 fifty-six dollars per ton, while the internal taxes on the rope manu- 

 factured in the United States from the Manilla fiber ranged from 

 forty-eight to seventy-three dollars per ton. 



It soon became evident that the country could not endure for 

 any great length of time the war system of taxation, and, further- 

 more, would not, when a return of peace had made its continu- 



