Wealth, Caiptal and Credit. 53 



and leakages. Under the plea of equalizing the burden, our gen- 

 eral theory seems to be to tax everything without inquiring 

 whether it be a symbol or a reality, a lien upon a thing or the 

 thing itself. The result is, the very inequalities we would obviate 

 are. aggravated. If political economists of high standing insist 

 not only that real estate is property, but that mortgages upon it 

 are also property, is it strange that legislatures enact that each 

 shall be taxed ? Touching this question, the conclusion of Judge 

 Foster, set forth in his dissenting opinion given in the somewhat 

 celebrated case of Kirtland vs. Hotchkiss, heard before the Su- 

 preme Court of Errors of the State of Connecticut, seems almost 

 axiomatic. He said : — ^" Property and a debt, considered as a 

 representative of the property pledged for its payment, constitute 

 but one subject for the purpose of taxation. The tax being paid 

 on the property without diminution on account of the debt, noth- 

 ing remains to be taxed. The debt, indeed, aside from the prop- 

 erty behind it, and of which it is the representative, is simply 

 worthless." We may call what we like, property or wealth, 

 and governments may determine that all property, including im- 

 aginary things and legal fictions, shall be taxed, but nothing short 

 of omnipotence can make something out of nothing, or collect 

 taxes from symbols. "It is property in possession, or enjoyment, 

 and not merely in right, which must ultimately pay every tax." 



Eights and titles and claims are elements in the distribution of 

 wealth, not in its composition. They attach to pre-existing prop- 

 erty and may be multiplied indefinitely. Any tax upon them 

 is only another means of burdening the property that lies behind 

 them. 



But it is in connection with the currency that credit wields its 

 chief influence, and may work its greatest mischief. Leading wri- 

 ters upon political economy and finance have done much to instill 

 correct notions of money and its various credit substitutes, and 

 their responsibility in this direction can scarcely be over-esti- 

 mated. In this light, it is at least an open question, whether the 

 views of Professor Francis A. Walker, as set forth in his late work 

 on "Money," and also in his later one on "Money, Trade and 

 Industry," do not give some encouragement to the numberless 



