594 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of exorbitant taxation in this respect "is equally true of all un- 

 necessary burdens (of taxation), whether great or small." 



" If taxation be a stimulus," he says, " the advantage must in- 

 crease with its extent, and taking 2s. per week must do more good 

 than taking Is. Moderation depends upon habit. We think Mr. 

 McCulloch has fallen into the same error with the man who 

 attributes increased vigor to two glasses of brandy, while he 

 deprecates the drinking of a quart as likely to produce intoxica- 

 tion. The man in sound health who drinks two glasses will not 

 work as well as he who drinks none, but he will do so much 

 better than his neighbors who drink by the quart that it may be 

 supposed that his superiority results from the glasses taken, when 

 it really arises out of the six that he has forborne to take. If 

 taxation be good, so is the lash : both will make people work, but 

 neither will make them work well. The moment we admit that 

 taxation in any case tends to promote industry, it is impossible to 

 say where we shall stop." 



Another fallacy which has obtained credence, especially in 

 recent years in the United States and even among its legislators, 

 is that the burden of taxation is increased by a fall in the prices 

 of commodities which represent the work that furnishes the 

 money with which taxes are paid. It owes its existence and tol- 

 erance to the non-recognition of a principle of taxation which has 

 also been thus set forth by Mr. J. R. McCulloch : 



" The amount of a tax is not to be estimated by the bulk or 

 species of the produce which it transfers from individuals to gov- 

 ernment or to creditors in general, but exclusively by its value. 

 A heavy tax consists in the abstraction of a large value, and a 

 light taxation in the abstraction of a small value. When a fall 

 takes place in the cost of producing any article, its price necessa- 

 rily declines in an equal degree, and its producers are obliged to 

 dispose of a proportionally larger quantity to obtain the means 

 of obtaining the same amount of taxes. But it is an obvious 

 error to suppose, as is very commonly done, that the burden of 

 taxation is consequently increased. The value paid by contribu- 

 tors remains the same, and it is by values and not by quantities 

 that the weight of taxation is to be measured. If through im- 

 provements in agriculture, machinery, or any other cause, two 

 quarters of wheat or two yards of cloth were produced with the 

 same expenditure of capital and labor that is now required to 

 produce one quarter or one yard, it would be no hardship to give 

 double the quantity of wheat or cloth in payment of taxes." 



A failure to recognize and understand this principle has led 

 to much erroneous reasoning on the subject of taxation, and finds 

 a curious practical illustration in the following record of recent 

 experience. Thus in the so-called bimetallic discussion in the 



