revenue and taxation is one of the most
important and difficult questions of government. One of the wisest of
modern statesmen has said that the management of finance _is_
government.

Government, whatever its form, is an intricate and expensive machine,
and therefore sure and ample sources of revenue are as necessary to it
as blood is to the human body. The necessary expenses of a local
community, such as a village, a city, or a county, are heavy; while
those of a State are immense, and those of a nation almost beyond
conception. These expenses must be promptly met, or the government
becomes bankrupt, lacking in respect, without power to enforce its
rights even among its own people, and finally ceases to exist.

TAXATION.--The chief source of revenue in all governments is taxation.
A _tax_ is a portion of private property taken by the government for
public purposes. _Taxation_, the act of laying taxes, is regarded as
the highest function of government. It is also one of the most
delicate, because it touches the people directly, and is therefore
frequently the cause of discontent among the masses.

The government makes no direct return to the citizen for the taxes it
exacts, and in this respect only does taxation differ from the exercise
of the right of eminent domain. How much revenue must be raised? what
articles should be taxed? what should be the rate of taxation? are
questions that concern every government.

As a person may be at the same time a citizen of a village, a township,
a county, a State, and the United States, so he may, during the same
year, pay a separate tax to each of these five governments.

NECESSITY OF TAXATION.--Taxation is one of the necessary burdens of
society. A government as well as an individual must have money to pay
its expenses, and the principal part, if not all, of this money must be
raised by taxation of one kind or another. Men may differ as to the
kind and the rate of taxation, but taxes must be paid in order that
government may exist. The tax payer receives no immediate return for
his taxes, but has a _constant_ return in the way of protection to
life, liberty, and property, the enjoyment of public conveniences, and
the improvement of society.

By means of taxes each person bears his part in the cost of maintaining
the social compact. He gives up a portion of his property in order
that what remains may be the more secure and valuable, and that he may
enjoy many othe