56 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the possession of a red nose or red hair, or the result of enter- 

 prise, skill, economy, or the fortuitous circumstance of birth or 

 belief, the occasion for inflicting a penalty. Yet this was what 

 substantially was done in the middle ages, when nobles were ex- 

 empt from taxation because they were nobles, and the common 

 people were taxed because they were villains or bondmen ; when 

 Jews were assessed because they were not Christians, and Catho- 

 lics because they were not Protestants. 



It would seem to be clear, therefore, that a tax that is not 

 levied proportionally or, what is the same thing, equally and uni- 

 formly upon all subjects in the same field of competition as, for 

 example, upon all persons engaged in the same business or profes- 

 sion, or upon all property of the same kind and all profit or 

 income (less exemptions in the nature of charities) in the same 

 ratio is a discriminating exaction, without claim to either jus- 

 tice .or equality, inasmuch as to the same extent that some are 

 favored by the discrimination others are inevitably plundered or 

 crushed. It is also well to remember that when the term " uni- 

 formity " in respect to taxation is used, as it often is, in the place 

 of "proportionality/' the meaning is essentially the same; and 

 that uniformity of taxation does not consist in the payment of 

 the same amount by each taxpayer, but that the proportion of 

 the value of each particular class or subject which each person 

 pays in taxation to the state shall be everywhere the same. 



In the soundings which have been made at great depths in the 

 ocean for telegraphic or other purposes, the sounding line has not 

 infrequently brought up from the bottom small chambered shells 

 or other minute animals of exquisite organization and structure ; 

 and the question naturally arises, How can these minute organ- 

 isms live and flourish under the enormous pressure that in some 

 instances must be exerted upon them of at least three tons to the 

 square inch ? The explanation is to be found in the circum- 

 stance that the pressure is everywhere equalized, being as much 

 from within outward as from without inward, and thus an equi- 

 librium is maintained, under which development goes on and 

 existence is made possible ; and it is in preserving this equilib- 

 rium, this equalization of pressure, that constitutes the very 

 essence of correct taxation.* 



Another point worthy of attention in connection with this sub- 

 ject is, that forms of taxation which were not authorized with any 

 purpose of making them unequal in their incidence or burden, 

 not infrequently (as is especially the case in the United States) 

 become so by reason of extraneous circumstance ; inasmuch as 

 every tax which popular sentiment, year after year, will not allow 



* Speech of Mr. Lowe, Chancellor of the British Exchequer, afterward Lord Sherbrooke. 



