126 Stoux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
view of the enormously enhanced and growing power of 
the Federal judiciary, and its lodgment in a tribunal 
which holds by the same tenure as that of the hereditary 
monarchs of the world—the life tenure—it is not at all 
strange that many are coming to regard its removal from 
the control of the people as oligarchical, and we may con- 
fidently look for an increasing demand for an amend- 
ment reforming the judiciary in the direction of republic- 
anism. ‘The great fight of the future is likely to turn on 
problems of taxation. Indirect taxation as a means of 
securing the maximum of revenue with the minimum of 
consciousness of sacrifice on the part of those paying will 
not forever survive the search of the publicist, and when 
its wastefulness and injustice once become generally 
understood, a strong and general demand for direct taxa- 
tion must be regarded as likely to arise; and no mode of 
just direct taxation seems to be constitutional. We prob- 
ably need uniform divorce laws, uniform laws regarding 
land titles, uniform laws of business generally. It seems 
that we cannot have these without constitutional amend- 
ments. Scientifically, it seems to be proved that the ideal 
tax as one not bearing upon production, and exempting 
all product of human endeavor, is the tax upon land 
values, exclusive of improvements. The experience of 
New Zealand in a partial application of this principle, as 
well as that of several other governments seems to indi- 
cate that it is the taxation of the future. It is already in 
practical politics in Great Britain. Its more enthusiastic 
advocates claim for it the virtue of being the solution of 
the great labor problem. We can scarcely hope for the 
full application of it here in the present state of the con- 
stitution. There is growing up an international move- 
ment for the co-operative commonwealth under the name 
of socialism. A democratic people have the right to try 
this when they deliberately come to the conclusion that 
they want it. That the constitution at present will permit 
such a form of government cannot be believed. Some of 
these things are no doubt very remote; and some of them 
are now past the stage of being believed in by the major- 
ity; but all are well within our range of anticipation as 
live issues. So that our proposal to imagine the senti- 
ment in favor of amendment grown to an issue is a rea- 
sonable one. 
