590 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



laid down by Prof. Cossa (Scienza delle Finanze) is "that it 

 should, when possible, tax income only, whether national or indi- 

 vidual, but spare the estate itself." 



If the burden of taxation, or the amount taken, is not fully 

 compensated by increased production or increased saving, it be- 

 comes one of the greatest evils to which a people can be subjected ; 

 for under such circumstances the means of future production will 

 be impaired, encroached upon, and the country will necessarily 

 begin to retrograde. 



When the share of the annual product falling to the workmen 

 of any country is barely sufficient to support life free of taxation, 

 then the burden of taxes begins to promote pauperism. It takes 

 that which is necessary to existence and the maintenance of 

 energy. This is now occurring in Italy. The taxation of Italy 

 probably absorbs more than one third part of the product of the 

 country. The army is served first, the workmen second, while 

 the women become diseased and the children die by lack of ade- 

 quate nourishment. 



Taxation is also an evil, though in a lesser degree, when the 

 rate assessed is not the same upon all persons, property, and busi- 

 ness within the same sphere of (business) competition ; when it 

 is made an instrumentality for effecting some other purpose than 

 that of raising revenue, no matter how desirable that purpose may 

 be ; and when, as in the United States, it is largely indirect, and 

 its incidence and amount are thereby concealed from the ultimate 

 taxpayers.* 



The general result of experience is also to the effect that when 

 excessive and exceptional taxation has been resorted to by a state 

 for the purpose of regulating or destroying industries or traffic, 

 it has rarely been successful. The economic and moral lesson 



* A most interesting and instructive example of the decay in modern times of a con- 

 siderable state due to radically vicious methods of collecting revenue is afforded by the 

 present condition of the Asiatic kingdom of Persia. Its typical despotic government, repre- 

 sented by the Shah, annually demands and exacts a large amount of money from its subjects 

 to defray the expenses of the state, but not more, perhaps, than the resources of the country 

 and its people would fairly warrant and sustain, if it was collected by intelligent methods. 

 In default, however, of any knowledge of how to get revenue Avithout destroying the springs 

 of wealth, the method of taxing is so irregular both as to time and rate, and so thoroughly 

 unjust and unequal, as to impair the value and security of property, prevent accumulation 

 and free use of capital, and discourage commerce. A British expert has recently reported 

 to his home government that if a qualified European or American could be placed at the 

 head of the exchequer at Teheran, who was allowed such control that no penny ex- 

 acted from the people of the state should be absorbed on its way to the treasury, or be 

 taken save in due course of law, be might yet save Persia and drain into it a new and vig- 

 orous Asiatic population, who would fill its now deserted but fertile plains, and organize a 

 commerce in which all the world stood ready to participate and furnish the instrumentali- 

 ties necessary for its development. 



