Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/784

766 reason, as he claims, of their eminent justice and equality, have obtained such world-wide celebrity that they are almost always referred to as of unquestionable authority in all discussions of this subject, and have been thus characterized by an eminent French student and writer (M. Menier) on taxation: "When a legislator," he says, "brings forward a new scheme for taxation, he is always careful to say that it is not in contradiction with even one of these rules; and at the same time he never fails to invoke them as authority during a debate, even when he is actually scheming to transgress them."

These rules are four in number, and are as follows: 1. "The subjects of every state ought to contribute to the support of the Government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities—that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state." In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called the "equality or inequality of taxation." 2. "The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor and to every other person. The certainty of what each individual ought to pay is, in taxation, of so great importance that a very considerable degree of inequality (I believe, from the experience of all nations), is not near so great an evil as a very small degree of uncertainty." 3. "Every tax ought to be levied at the time and in the manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it." 4. "Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the state."

But although almost universally accepted as the embodiment of the highest wisdom, the above four maxims or canons of Adam Smith have been and are, nevertheless, open to some criticism. In the first place, they are so general in their nature and so lacking in any precise rule or test for application, that they stand in the light of aphorisms; somewhat as the maxims "Honesty is the best policy," "Never put off till to-morrow what can be done today," etc., to which all respect is always given, except the desirable one of practical use in actual cases. In fact, the originators of the very worst forms of taxation now existing might and probably would plead that their methods or practices were based on the ideas of Adam Smith, or were as near in conformity to them as was possible under the existing circumstances. Again, the first maxim or canon embodies two propositions antagonistic to each other, and one of which can hardly be considered correct; namely, that every citizen should pay taxes for the support of