44 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



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



CORRESPONDANT DE L'lNSTITUT DE FRANCE, ETC. 



VII. KULES OR MAXIMS ESSENTIAL TO AN ADMINISTRATION OF 

 RIGHTFUL TAXATION UNDER A CONSTITUTIONAL OR FREE GOV- 

 ERNMENT. PART II. 



IN continuance of the discussion entered upon in the preceding 

 part of this chapter, as to whether under a constitutional and 

 free government, and in virtue also of the natural and inalien- 

 able rights of the people governed, a state has a lawful right to 

 levy and expend taxes in furtherance of private interests, more 

 especially by way of bounties, the following additional points 

 may be worthy of consideration : 



Probably no better exposition of the limitation on the exer- 

 cise of the taxing power incumbent on a .free government pro- 

 fessing a regard for the rights of the people, and more especially 

 on the Federal Government of the United States, under its Con- 

 stitution, in respect to the granting of payment of bounties for 

 the promotion of the private interests of any of its citizens, can be 

 found than the following, accredited to Justice Thomas M. Cooley : 



" It is not in the power of the state, in my opinion, under the name of 

 a bounty, or under any other cover or subterfuge, to furnish the capital to 

 set private parties up in any kind of business, or to subsidize their business 

 after they have entered upon it. A bounty law of which this is the real 

 nature, is void, whatever may be the pretense on which it may be enacted. 

 The right to hold out pecuniary inducements to the faithful performance 

 of public duty in dangerous or responsible positions stands upon a different 

 footing altogether ; nor have I any occasion to question the right to pay 

 rewards for the destruction of wild beasts and other public pests, a provision 

 of this character being a mere police regulation. But the discrimination by 

 the state between different classes of occupations, and the favoring of one 

 at the expense of the rest, whether that one be farming or banking, mer- 

 chandising or milling, printing or railroading, is not legitimate legislation, 

 and is an invasion of that equality of right and privilege which is a maxim 

 in state government. When the door is once open to it there is no line at 

 which we can stop and say with confidence that thus far we may go with 

 safety and propriety, but no further. 



"Every honest employment is honorable; it is beneficial to the public; 

 it deserves encouragement. The more successful we can make it the more 

 does it generally subserve the public good. But it is not the business of 

 the state to make discriminations in favor of one class against another, or 

 in favor of one employment against another. The state can have no favor- 

 ites. Its business is to protect the industry of all, and give all the benefits 

 of equal laws. It can not compel an unwilling minority to submit to "tax- 

 ation in order that it may keep upon its feet any business that can not 

 stand alone." 



