The independent., 1903-05-28
Money and the Taxing Power
BY w. III. ASHBY.

into a form by which the payment OF
all tax levies has been required to be
made by the delivery of those certlfi-
Gates and in no oth Il g.
The revenue is thus perpetually AN
tieipated' and continuing deficit"
made certain.
AS the quantity of value of such
certificates must ever depend upon the
quantity of the force of demand for
them, any device which gives them
increased power to perform beneficial
service for men must necessarily in
tensify the force of demand and re-
suit in an increase in the quantity of
beneficial service, or things able to
perform such service. which must be
sacrificed to obtain them.
So long as a COW and certificate
are endowed with equal power to per-
form given beneficial service, suf-
ficiently urgent, it is self-evident that
their valuation will be equal; and the
price of both must, therefore, be that
which is inscribed upon the certifi-
cate.
But now jet the law be changed, AMI
while the certificate retains the power
to perform for the taxpayer the Office
of conclusively proving the pre-
paymen 1t of tax levy against him
Expressing quantity of value equa.
to the quantity of value expressed
upon the face of the certificate),. the
cow has been deprived of that power.
No American citizen may now tender
COW or any other thing he can pro-
duce and demand the cancellation of
tax levy against him. When both
could perform the same beneficial SER
vice. they were subjected to an equal
quantity of the force of demand and
were of an equal quantity of value
The certificate stated it's quantity of
value on it's face, and that of the cow,
being the same, was necessarily ex-
pressIble by the same term.
Now that the COW has been deprived
of that power, and can no longer be
rendered as receipt against tax
levy, she is henceforth subject to
force of demand less strenuous and
less in quantity, and her quantity of
value has necessarily diminished. On
the other hand, the certificate not only
retains lts power to perform that ben
efeial service, but being made by
s,atl te the only thing endowed
with that power, the force of demand
formerly playing upon both the cow.
and the certificate is now concentrated
| upon the certificate alone, which must
of value required to be sacrificed to
obtain it. In other words, in decreas-
ing the price of all other commodities.
| Governments thus make a market
for the only wares they manufacture.
No one except the government can
issue such certificates; and no other
thing is endowed by statute with pow
er to perform for men the beneficial
service which those certificates per-
FORM and the performance of that
service is both imperious and uni
versal.
The force of demand for them be-
| ing thus intensified and increased in
quantity by statute, enables govern
ment, by their issuance, to obtain in
exchange for them the services and
commodities required in carrying on
| it's operations.
Up to this point in the evolution of
'scoin," the judgments of the courts.
under the conditions described, would
be satisfied by the delivery of the
quantity of value expressed by the
money" symbol, in each judgment, in
any taxable article. at the price at
which it was taxable and e
to pay taxes.
| The option of selecting which of
many articles endowed by this pow
er should be used, rested with the
| debtor. That option is still his today.
But the government, having found a
means of anticipating" the rev.
enes, as we have seen, by the issu-
ance of certificates of payment of taxes
for an indefinite period in advance, in
exchange for needful services and
commodities, next, in order to intensi
fly the force of demand for those GER
tificates, and thereby to increase the
quantity of value required to be sacri-
feed in order to obtain them, issued
them in convenient and durable form
and in almost every conceivable guam
tity, for convenience in payment oil
tax levies; and what is of vast mo.
7. L. l.