PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 171 



If, however, public sentiment in any community is so adverse 

 to the levy of moderate poll taxes that their collection is not and 

 can not be enforced with any degree of uniformity and equality, as 

 is reported to be the case in many States, then the advisability of 

 their abandonment can not well be questioned, for the want of 

 respect for all law, which always results from the maintenance 

 upon the statute book of any law which a community will not 

 regard or permit to be enforced, is an evil that far outweighs any 

 possible good that can come from its continuance. Furthermore, 

 the statement is probably warranted that in no instance in history 

 has it been possible to enforce a permanent tax against which by 

 common consent the public has revolted. 



In considering the feasibility of its continuance it should not 

 be overlooked that the tax upon property can be collected because 

 the State holds a confiscatory power over the property to the ex- 

 tent of the tax. But the tax upon the non-property-holding polls 

 can not be collected except through the consent of the assessed 

 person, unless resort is had to the old law of imprisonment until 

 payment is made a remedy not likely to find favor. 



The recent experiences of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania 

 are especially worthy of note in this connection. The Constitu- 

 tion of Massachusetts, adopted during the Revolution, limited the 

 suffrage to " every male inhabitant of twenty-one years of age 

 and upward, having a freehold estate within the Commonwealth 

 of the annual income of three pounds, or any estate of the value 

 of sixty pounds." This restriction was abolished in 1821, but 

 payment of a poll tax was still required before a man could vote. 

 In recent years, however, this form of taxation has become so un- 

 popular in this State, mainly by reason of a general belief that 

 politicians, without distinction of party, were in the habit of col- 

 lecting and disbursing large sums for the purpose of influencing 

 or bribing voters by payment of their poll taxes, that in 1891 an 

 amendment to the Constitution of the State was adopted which, 

 while retaining the previous obligation of the payment of an an- 

 nual poll tax, abolished such payment as a prerequisite for vot- 

 ing. The result was that before the adoption of this amendment 

 from fifty- two to fifty-nine per cent of the poll tax due in the city 

 of Boston was collected year by year ; but since then the percent- 

 age of collection has fallen below forty- four per cent. Many of 

 the city's own employees figure among the delinquents, and it has 

 been found necessary to place hundreds of poll bills in the hands 

 of the city treasurer for the deduction of the amount due from 

 their wages. Leaving out the persons who can not pay without 

 great sacrifice, it is stated that Boston is still losing above one 

 hundred thousand dollars yearly in revenue from failure to col- 

 lect the taxes upon polls that can and should pay. And this, in a 



