NEED OF A STATE TAX COMMISSION IN 

 COLORADO 



By John Burton Phillips 



In the last few decades there has been a great expansion of state 

 activity. The statesmen in whose hands the direction of modern 

 government is placed have awakened to the fact that there are many 

 fields in which the state can take the initiative and render great 

 service to the citizens. Society is complex, and the times demand 

 an increase in specialization. By employing experts, therefore, the 

 government may place at the disposal of its citizens the benefits 

 resulting from the latest scientific achievements. It is the recog- 

 nition of this possibility, and the desire to further, as rapidly as 

 possible, the progress in well-being, that have induced the govern- 

 ments of all modern states to enlarge their activities and very largely 

 abandon the old and narrow laissez-faire theory as to the limits of 

 state action. We find accordingly a host of modern officials con- 

 cerned with the administration of new laws on such subjects as 

 pure food, milk supply, compulsory school attendance, child-labor, 

 bake-shop and laundry inspection, etc. Again, on the side of edu- 

 cation, we have huge government bureaus, such as the Bureaus of 

 Chemistry and of Animal Industry in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture at Washington. Work of similar scientific character is also 

 being done in many of the state executive departments. The results 

 of scientific investigations carried on by these government agencies 

 are printed and distributed gratuitously in the state's endeavor to 

 advance the well-being of its citizens. 



These various state activities are expensive and, in order that 

 they be successfully carried on, it is necessary to secure an increase 

 in the state's revenue. In proportion as the state undertakes to do 

 more and more those things which, under the early theory of indus- 

 trial liberty, it was supposed the individual would do for himself, 

 it is necessary to call for a larger per capita tax. This is what has 



