Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/49

 THE SWISS AND THEIR POLITICS 35

all, of the original promoters of proportional representation are conservatives in politics. The man who led the conservatives to victory at the time of the riot in 1865 is a banker. He was afterwards made President of the Confederation. As a member of the government of the canton and of the Confederacy he was the author and the promoter of the various reforms in taxa- tion. These reforms all had for their object the taxation of the few rich people for the benefit of the middle classes and the poor. There is the progressive income tax, which exempts small incomes, rests lightly on medium incomes, and is very heavy upon large incomes. And then the progressive feature is worked into all forms of taxation. Property owners are divided into five or six classes, according to the value of their property. Those owning little property are taxed at low rate. This rate is progressively raised, and it becomes quite high for the most wealthy. There is also a death tax, or a tax on estates of the deceased, which has the progressive feature. You will find these systems explained in the consular reports from Switzer- land. But you will fail to get the real point if you are not careful to bear in mind that it takes but little money in Switzer- land to constitute a rich man. The rate of taxation ceases to progress, because there are no rich men higher up. To apply the principle to America we should have to write dollars in place of francs in the lower scale, double the dollars for the higher scale, and then create new classes for the wealthier Americans.

This Swiss system of laying heavy burdens on the few for the benefit of the many is not only law ; it is law thoroughly and rigidly executed. The laws seem to have been made by the rich men themselves with the definite intention of doing the things named in the law. The laws have been made with the idea of permanence. There is no thought of a mere temporary dient to overcome a temporary difficulty. These rich men who have taken the lead in fastening heavy burdens on them- selves and upon their children seem to really believe that the thing which they have done is just and right. When I have