It is not easy to frame such an one, in clear and succinct language, covering all the essential conditions. It probably never has been done, and therefore the best thing to do is not to spend time and effort in attempting it, but rather to endeavor to illustrate and point out its meaning indirectly. And, with this purpose in view, it is important to recognize at the outset an exact and homely truth, and one which heretofore has been generally overlooked by writers on taxation and political economy, namely:
That a government never has any money—by which alone the expenses of the state can be defrayed—except what the people-citizens or subjects—give, or concede to it by voluntary or involuntary action; and that the people, as a whole and in turn, never have any to give except what comes to them as the result of their work, or from an exchange of the products of their work. And such being the case, it follows, as has been happily pointed out by Mr. Atkinson, that what the Government really wants of its people, when it calls upon them for taxes, is work, and that the methods of taxation are only methods for collecting and using the products of work.[1] Hence the following definition of a tax, deduced from the above statement of fact by Mr. Atkinson—that "it is that certain portion of the product of a country which must be devoted to the support of the Government"—embodies a meaning and a truth not incorporated and set forth in the ordinary or popular definitions. At the same time it is deficient in not recognizing any distinction between a just and uniform taking and an exaction or confiscation.
Taxation in the United States, its Aggregate and Distribution.—During the year 1890 the aggregate revenue receipts of the several governments of the United States, derived mainly from taxation, as reported by the census of that year,[2] were $1,039,482,013, apportioned as follows: Federal taxation, $461,184,080; State taxation, $578,328,333. The last aggregate was again subdivided into $116,157,040 for State purposes, including the Territories and District of Columbia, $133,525,493 for county pur-
- ↑ "Taxation means work, of the head, of the hand, or of the machine, or all combined. And the method of taxation is only a method of distributing the products of work. It is measured, when in the process of distribution, in terms of money, but the money itself stands for work, or is derived from work. And the work of the Government is as much a part of the work of the community as any other. All who work, from the head of the nation down to the lowest municipal official, must be supplied with shelter, food, and clothing; and those who pay the taxes do the work that is necessary to furnish this supply"—The Industrial Progress of the Nation, Edward Atkinson; Putnam, New York, 1890. Taxation and Work, same author.
- ↑ The census of 1890 presented for the first time even an approximation of the annual incomes of the several governments of the United States, and the amount and objects for which they were expended.
