e same
taxation as others. Such exemptions may extend even to art collections
made by private funds, and to extensive grounds laid out in parks,
provided they are open to the public and serve as a means of wholesome
recreation and culture.

In general, however, specific exemptions of private property from any
taxes lead to abuse of privileges, jealousies and popular dissatisfaction,
which result in danger to government and harm to the people. Exemptions of
property used for particular purposes, like a farmer's team, may be
thought of as a bounty upon such means of production. But the effect is
almost always to the disadvantage of the weak, and the practice gives a
general encouragement to the disposition to escape taxes. Farmers, of all
classes of people, are most interested in a fair and painstaking
assessment of all forms of property. Their influence is most widely
extended and far-reaching in its effects. The whole community should be
led to realize the absolute necessity of fair taxation and prompt meeting
of individual responsibility. Fraud in the treatment of taxes is a crime
against society, whether it involves false swearing or not. It partakes of
the nature of treason, and may well be subjected to severe penalties.
Usually, however, a penalty in the shape of additional taxes and
forfeiture of property by sale for taxes, with room for redemption at
considerable expense, are sufficient to secure a proper assessment and
collection, if the community are really in earnest in resisting the fraud.

_Indirect taxes._--The methods of indirect taxation by excise and custom
duties have been familiar for ages. They are usually favored by
politicians who dread the opposition of the people to taxation, because
the collection is so incidental to ordinary expenditures as scarcely to be
realized and never clearly measured. Few users of tobacco or strong drink
have any distinct idea what portion of the cost represents the government
revenue. Still less in drinking the cup of coffee, or sweetening it with
sugar, does the person benefited weigh the tax he pays. It is doubtful if
most of those who read this, actually know that sugar pays a tax, while
tea and coffee do not, in our country.

So convenient is this mode of taxation that it forms the favorite mode of
discrimination in favor of productive industries. A tariff of 50 per cent
upon imported cloth may actually increase the price of similar cloths
manufactured at home by ne