The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-11-06
The TAX SOLUTION.

AA0 1TOAtb anu OppoEtuuAeAcSs
The tax solution undoubtedly takes
the precedence of all others for the set
Element of some Of the enormous abuses
against which the common people are
organizing themselves throughout the
length and breadth of the land. This
is proven by the readiness with which
it has won the Endorsements of those,
including some of the best intellects of
the country, who have taken the time
to give the method careful study.
Inasmuch, however, as this (termed
variously as the cumulative, graduated
and progressive taxing method) is a
comparatively recent development of
the search for economic corrections, it
has considerable share of it's educa-
tional crusade yet to perform ere it
shall have won its way through the
voices and pens of its disciples into the
minds and convictions of the masses in
toto. Possessed in my own mind of the
utmost confidence in the superiority of
this measure for the prevention of
certain economic ills, desire to add
few more ideas to the recent literature
upon the subject in the hope of still
further expediting the progress with
which it is at present finding favor.
To begin with, 1 call attention to
some features of taxation considered
apart from it's use as solution or cor
rection in the field of Industrial affairs.
Long as people shall have need for the
authorities and duties of government,
so long will they be under the necessi-
ty to raise revenue for the payment of
the expenses attendant upon the same
We cannot have public or common
preservation of the records, public or
der, public highways or public bust
ness without paying for them, and we
cannot pay for them as public or COM
mon affairs without doing so from a
public or private or common fund.
AS there is no likelihood of there be-
ing found any measure so superior to
that of taxation as to cause it to be en-
tirely or even largely substituted for
taxation, it Is not probable that gov
ernments will be maintained independ-
ent of taxation. But the payment of a
tax is not, in it's real and proper sense,
essentially a burden. 1t is no more so
than the payment of a sum for days
labor, the blowing of field, the min
ing of a ton of coal or the making of a
suit of clothes. There are some serv-
ices which can be performed far more
economically and satisfactorily as pub
lie affairs than they can be as private
affairs; consequently it is great adj
vantage to have them performed in a
public manner and the expense pro-
vided for from public fund. Looked
at in this, its proper, light, taxation
must be admitted to be a benefit in.
stead of a burden.
But to justify taxation upon the
ground of its being a superior mode of
providing for a superior mode of service
is not to conclude that taxes may be
levied without any particular regard to
method, for that would be to commit
grave error Why is this? Because tax
alton always exercises an influence in
regulating the development or course
of industries, and regulates them right
~ or wrongly according as it is rightly
or wrongly applied. Levied in one
fashion it produces healthy and safe
development of industries; levied in an
other fashion it produces an abnormal
and dangerous development of indus
tries. This being so, two questions in
stead of one always properly come up
for consideration when we set about
devising a system of taxation to be
levied for the public expense:
1. How much revenue do we need?
O. What effect will this tax have up
on the industries of the people?
The first question is mathematical
one to be settled by reference to esti-
mates based upon the annual expendi-
lures; the second is an economic ques-
ton to be settled by reference to needs
demanded in our industrial system.
1t is with the consideration of mat
ters involved in the second question
that wish briefly to deal in the arti-
cles to follow, including an attempt to
explain wherein the tax solution would
fill some most important wants.
The claim made that taxation regu-
lates the course of relative progress of
industries, is borne out both by the
reason of the thing and by practical
experience. The reason for it we find
to be as follows: Industries prosper or
decline in proportion to the profitable
ness or want of it in them, and the cost
of taxation is like that of the cost for
labor, insurance, supplies, shelter or
anything else of similar character; it
goes into the items of expense and be-
comes factor in determining what
shall or shall not be left for profits.
Coming out of the profits, as it does,
then, or out of the principal, in lieu of
there being no profits, it is bound to
exercise powerful influence in deter
mining the manner of their develop
ment as to each other.
What do we find for this claim in the
line of practical experience? I cite a
couple of instances first to show not
only that taxation is supposed to be a
regulator of industries, but that it has
been employed as such and found to
work admirably. The tariff tax is one
case in point. In the early existence
of our government, when we were
without manufactures of any conse-
quence and foreign capitalists were de-
termined to do all possible to have us
remain without them, a tariff tax was
laid by our congress upon foreign