Federal tax should be imposed on silver, varying from month to month according to the changes in its market price as bullion, with a view of establishing and maintaining a parity of value between gold and silver, with, of course, a total disregard of the sole object and justification of taxation—namely, revenue.
But the most curious illustration of the extent to which an entire misconception of the nature and functions of taxation has obtained favor in the United States is to be found in a pamphlet entitled Rational Principles of Taxation,[1] recently published by a Professor of Political Economy in the University of Pennsylvania, and included among the authorized publications of the university. In this the author advocates the levying of taxes by the national Government for the purpose of effecting "stability in prices"; and on the assumption that a large and increasing percentage of the national wealth is consumed in the expenses of the retail distribution of commodities, proposes to remedy the evil by imposing a discriminating tax on retail dealers so heavy as to crush out all such whose business and profits in a given time do not exceed a certain amount to be prescribed by statute. Among the anticipated advantages enumerated by the author of the adoption of such a scheme would be the saving of rent "on one half the stores" of cities and a great reduction of rent on the other half. "There would be little need of advertising; . . . the stocks of goods carried by the whole trade would be greatly reduced, from which there would be great saving of capital." But "perhaps the greatest saving of all would arise from the reduction of the force of salesmen and in the cost of delivering goods." And finally, carried away apparently by a beatific vision of the glories of such a tax millennium, the professor exclaims, "Think of all the elements of economy in conjunction, and an idea can be formed of the amount of taxes that could be levied on retail dealers without putting the public to any inconvenience!"[2] and "would not the unnecessary capital now absorbed in business be fully sufficient to furnish us with pure water, lovely parks, fine-art galleries," etc.?
Prospective Evils of the Perversion of the Taxing Power.—In view of such experiences and propositions, the questions are most pertinent: How much further is such a perversion of the taxing power to be carried? And is not the entire recent experience of the nation in this respect in the direction of
- ↑ Rational Principles of Taxation. By Simon N. Patten, Professor of Political Economy, University of Pennsylvania, 1890.
- ↑ Obviously the author of this scheme supposed that the retail dealers of this country are such simple-minded people that they will cheerfully pay their proposed heavy taxes out of their capital, and not transfer them, through increased prices of their goods, to their consuming purchasers.
