436 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



books and pamphlets, exclusive of congressional speeches and 

 newspaper articles, have been issued from the American press; 

 fourth, the " Free Trade " and " Protection " question ; fifth, the 

 monetary metallic standard question ; sixth, the relations of the 

 State to common carriers, and the methods of internal intercom- 

 munication ; seventh, the subject of local or State as contradis- 

 tinguished from national or Federal taxation ; on which latter 

 topic, although it relates to methods by which the people of the 

 United States at present annually contribute to local or State 

 governments a sum nearly equal to the present total annual reve- 

 nue of Great Britain from all imperial taxes, there had not been 

 up to 1870, a single publication in the United States apart from 

 official reports that pretended intelligently to discuss it. Since 

 this date, however, a much greater interest has been manifested 

 on this subject. Several publications of great merit, exhibiting 

 the situation in its legal aspects, and the theories, controversies, 

 and experiences of the past, have appeared;* and this interest 

 has been especially intensified and popularized by the scheme 

 of the so-called " single tax/' which, if not originated by 

 Mr. George, has been so ably advocated by him as to have at- 

 tracted, previous to the development of the silver problem, more 

 of popular attention on both sides of the Atlantic than any other 

 economic topic brought forward during the present century. 



Some better acquaintance with the literature of taxation than 

 has hitherto been acquired by most educated men would seem to be 

 essential to a full understanding of many of the great events in 

 the world's history, inasmuch as nearly all great political revolu- 

 tions have been primarily occasioned by the exercise of arbitrary 

 power in compelling contributions of property from the masses 

 by those in authority. Thus, going back to ancient history, the 

 disruption of the Jewish monarchy and the secession of the ten 



* Of such publications the following are specially worthy of notice : A Treatise on the 

 Law of Taxation, including the Law of Local Assessment, by Thomas M. Cooley, one of the 

 justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan, 1876; A Treatise on the Law of Taxation, as 

 exercised by the Government of the United States, by W. M. Burroughs, 1877; The Law 

 of Taxation, by Francis Hillard, 1875 (three publications in which questions of political 

 economy, as not necessarily involved in discussion of legal points, have received little con- 

 sideration) ; The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, 1892, Progressive Taxation in The. 

 ory and Practice, 1894, Essays on Taxation, 1895, by Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman, of 

 Columbia College, N. Y., three publications characterized by great historical research, and 

 a repertory of information not otherwise readily accessible. Cohn, Science of Finance, a 

 recent work of sufficient merit to warrant its translation from the German under the 

 auspices of the University of Chicago, is nevertheless of such a character that it will never 

 be generally read, or have the slightest influence on the mass of the people of a country 

 like the United States, who select the legislators who determine what shall be the policy 

 of their Government in respect not only of taxation but of all other fiscal or economic 

 subjects. 



