the possession of a red nose or red hair, or the result of enterprise, skill, economy, or the fortuitous circumstance of birth or belief, the occasion for inflicting a penalty. Yet this was what substantially was done in the middle ages, when nobles were exempt from taxation because they were nobles, and the common people were taxed because they were villains or bondmen; when Jews were assessed because they were not Christians, and Catholics because they were not Protestants.
It would seem to be clear, therefore, that a tax that is not levied proportionally or, what is the same thing, equally and uniformly upon all subjects in the same field of competition—as, for example, upon all persons engaged in the same business or profession, or upon all property of the same kind and all profit or income (less exemptions in the nature of charities) in the same ratio is a discriminating exaction, without claim to either justice or equality, inasmuch as to the same extent that some are favored by the discrimination others are inevitably plundered or crushed. It is also well to remember that when the term "uniformity" in respect to taxation is used, as it often is, in the place of "proportionality," the meaning is essentially the same; and that uniformity of taxation does not consist in the payment of the same amount by each taxpayer, but that the proportion of the value of each particular class or subject which each person pays in taxation to the state shall be everywhere the same.
In the soundings which have been made at great depths in the ocean for telegraphic or other purposes, the sounding line has not infrequently brought up from the bottom small chambered shells or other minute animals of exquisite organization and structure; and the question naturally arises. How can these minute organisms live and flourish under the enormous pressure that in some instances must be exerted upon them of at least three tons to the square inch? The explanation is to be found in the circumstance that the pressure is everywhere equalized, being as much from within outward as from without inward, and thus an equilibrium is maintained, under which development goes on and existence is made possible; and it is in preserving this equilibrium, this equalization of pressure, that constitutes the very essence of correct taxation.[1]
Another point worthy of attention in connection with this subject is, that forms of taxation which were not authorized with any purpose of making them unequal in their incidence or burden, not infrequently (as is especially the case in the United States) become so by reason of extraneous circumstance; inasmuch as every tax which popular sentiment, year after year, will not allow
- ↑ Speech of Mr. Lowe, Chancellor of the British Exchequer, afterward Lord Sherbrooke.
