170 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



contributing to the support of the government, and this argu- 

 ment may be amplified and illustrated as follows : Thus, there is 

 no citizen, be he ever so humble, who is not vitally interested in 

 the preservation and welfare of the civil society of which he is a 

 member ; and it is of the first importance, more especially as the 

 tendency of the age seems to be antagonistic, that each member 

 of society should be encouraged to realize at all times his personal 

 interest in the well-being of the State. To the rich man society 

 comes and exacts a contribution in some proportion to his means, 

 and as a consequence he has inducements to directly interest him- 

 self in the fiscal management of the government. To the poor 

 man, who is otherwise rarely directly confronted with the tax 

 gatherer, society comes also, and, in common with all citizens of 

 a certain age, asks a very small annual contribution for the sup- 

 port of the State, because each citizen is interested in its exist- 

 ence and welfare, has a measure of responsibility resting upon 

 him, and should be made to realize that responsibility. In the 

 fact, therefore, that the poll tax touches directly every citizen and 

 is an effective agency for awakening him to a sense of his polit- 

 ical duties and responsibilities, and so better qualifies him for the 

 exercise of the right of suffrage, is to be found the true reason 

 for the incorporation of a small annual poll tax into every cor- 

 rect system of State taxation. 



As has already been pointed out, a poll tax, having regard 

 solely to the person and not to his property, is the only tax to 

 which the term personal can be rightfully applied. It is the 

 essence also of every free and just government that every person 

 the most humble as well as the most exalted is equal before 

 the law, and has a right to invoke the sovereignty of the State 

 in all its fullness for the protection of his person. Keeping these 

 two points in view, it would further appear that a poll tax as- 

 sessed equally upon all citizens, and free from all discrimination, 

 represents the most perfect equality of service, and is the only 

 tax which a citizen can pay which can be regarded in the light of 

 a reciprocal for the service which the State renders to him in pro- 

 tecting his person, all other taxes being io. respect to property or 

 business. 



As the Constitution of the United States also excludes from 

 representation " Indians not taxed," it would seem to imply that 

 its authors regarded the exercise of suffrage by a citizen that was 

 not a pauper and paid no direct tax, as an anomaly not likely 

 to occur under a government founded upon equal public rights 

 and responsibilities, and also that a citizen who did not pay any 

 direct tax to the State was not likely to have any more correct 

 idea or measure of his true relation to the State than a wild 

 Indian. 



