1 66 AMERICAN FARMS. 



of taxation, as the great economist, Adam Smith, sug- 

 gested over one hundred years ago. Allow capital 

 freedom to Avork — the state securing its share ; permit no 

 public favors, and the harm from it will be brought into 

 small proportions. If it becomes a monopoly, and is thus 

 empowered to shift its burdens on the consumers of its 

 products, it is then robbing the citizens of the state, and 

 taxes should be put upon it until monopoly is broken. 

 If the state be a factor in the accumulation of incomes, 

 how much more is it true of the incomes which 

 roll up into the millions, than of those which barely 

 suffice for the possessor's existence ? How much more 

 then should the state claim from the former than from the 

 latter ? These views are in accord with those of iTiany 

 thoughtful students of the present day, while a few 

 practical statesmen have dared to utter similar ones. 



" The rich man, with a surplus income, should con- 

 tribute more proportionately out of that income, than 

 the poor man out of that poverty which leaves him no 

 more than a bare subsistence." ' J. B. Say, long ago, 

 taught that " taxation is a sacrifice to the preservation of 

 society and social organization, which ought not to be 

 purchased by the destruction of individuals " ; that taxa- 

 tion " cannot be equitable unless its ratio is progressive." ^ 



An excellent precedent for a progressive tax is given 

 in the eminently successful fiscal legislation of Solon, in 

 the little community of Attica. The weight of taxation 

 was then laid upon the largest property-holders — those 

 having the highest political privileges ; the next class 

 was relieved to the extent of \ ; the next |, and so on, 

 until those were reached who were ineligible for office — 



' Hon. Edward Blake, speech at Toronto, 1886. 

 ^ " Political Economy," p. 459. 



