the most part contain rather exhaustive provisions for tax legislation, this indicates that this method of taxation. does not enjoy in the United States the favor it is more and more receiving among European statesmen and landlords. Indeed, it will not be entirely unjustifiable if the question is decided the other way in America. When the economic and all other relations have not yet attained a certain stability a general income tax causes many sorts of difficulties and inconveniences, which exist either not at all or in a very much more limited degree in relation to other taxes. Americans are aware that in many respects incomes are the best measures of taxation. They know, too, how the revenues are increased if taxation falls not only upon property, but also income. Both reasons will probably bring about the introduction of the income tax, sooner or later, in all the states of the Union; but many a state will consent to this only when the public needs cannot be met without a considerable increase of the ordinary taxes. However this may be, in fact, the different kinds of "specific taxes," next to the general direct property tax, play at present the most important part in the financial system of the several states. Among these specific taxes, the business or occupation taxes deserve the first mention. The Louisiana constitution of 1868 directly states that these are intended as income taxes. Even where this is not expressly stated, the constitutions sometimes take care that the taxes shall not be the same for all the different trades, but shall bear a certain proportion to the extent or proceeds of the business

1 After the general authorization to levy such taxes, this clause follows: "All tax on income shall be pro rata on the amount of income or business done." The authority to levy an income tax is not unbounded. It is granted, but only as to "all persons pursuing any occupation, trade or calling." Title VI., art. 118.

carried on. When, for instance, the Alabama constitution of 1868 obliges the legislature to impose a special tax upon all railroads, insurance and banking companies, etc., for the benefit of the school fund, it is difficult to assume that it intends to tax a little local railroad a few miles long as much as railroads which might be regarded as the arteries of trade. And this is true even if laws based upon another interpretation of the paragraph cannot be declared certainly unconstitutional. The Illinois constitution of 1870, however, enumerates, in immediate connection with businesses of the kind just mentioned, hawkers, hucksters, jugglers, grocers, hotel and saloon keepers, etc. This is difficult to harmonize with the views. stated if it be not assumed that the framers of the constitution intended to leave it to the discretion of the legislature in what cases the specific tax shall be a fixed one, and in what cases the tax shall be determined by the extent of the business. The latter is never the case in a license tax. The Virginia constitution of 1870 calls the specific taxes which are to be levied licenses. There is, therefore, no doubt that under it only the particularly enumerated occupations can be burdened with a specific tax.1 In turn the question might be raised whether this is also true in cases where only the expression "to tax" is used. For it may be disputed whether licenses can be regarded as taxes in the strict sense of the word. As, however, in the cases of hawkers, peddlers, jugglers, etc., only licenses can be intended, this argument would be somewhat forced. But, although it is regarded as inadmissible, naturally the importance of specific taxes as a source of revenue is always more or less impaired by such an enu

1 The list, indeed, contains a clause giving to the legislature the widest scope. It says, in conclusion: "And all other business which cannot be reached by the ad valorem system."

meration. In order to avoid this, other constitutions, such, for instance, as that of North Carolina of 1868, have empowered the legislature to tax all trades, professions and franchises. This power, to my knowledge, has hitherto never been carried out in its full extent in any state. I do not believe that any state has ever overstepped or even reached the limits which the Texas constitution of 1879 fixed by adding to the general formula of authorization the clause that, by "occupation," agriculture and "mechanical pursuits" should not be understood. On the other hand, no constitution which mentions specific taxes has drawn such narrow limits to them as the Arkansas constitution of 1868, which commands the legislature "to tax all privileges, pursuits and occupations that are of no real use to society," and forbids the taxation of all others. How the laws of Arkansas have illustrated this remarkable provision in detail I am unable to say. I have treated this whole question in connection with the constitutions, partly because it seemed to possess not a little interest per se, partly because it sufficiently appears from the constitutional provisions cited how different the conditions of the states are in this respect, while the

1 The constitution of Illinois further sets forth: "The specification of the objects and subjects of taxation shall not deprive the general assembly of the power to require other subjects or objects to be taxed, in such manner as may be consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this constitution." Even if the states, in applying the doctrine that constitutions should establish only the principles of tax-legislation, have not kept within the same limits, yet this doctrine, as a matter of fact, forms the foundation of the provisions in question in all the constitutions. So the principle already stated applies here, that the legislatures may do whatever they are not forbidden to do. It cannot be concluded, for example, because many constitutions contain no special provisions relating to specific taxes, that the actual systems under them must be substantially different from those in the states with constitutions which do contain such provisions.

fundamental character of their tax systems is one and the

same.

§ 97. SCHOOL SYSTEM. Advancement thereof by the Federal Government. The democratic federal republic's capacity for existence has not diminished, but has rather greatly increased, although in three generations the narrow settlements along the coast of the thirteen Atlantic states have developed into the giant nation extending from ocean to ocean, and the population has increased more than fourteen-fold. This is in great part due to the fact that close upon the heel of the irrepressible pioneer, penetrating the western wilderness, came the school. The federal government was no slight contributor to the possibility of this. Neither the articles of confederation nor the constitution of 1789 granted the central power any authority whatever in regard to a system of instruction in the states, but early in the day it saw that the care and development of the school system was a national interest of vital importance. And it found ways and means to aid it greatly without becoming guilty of the slightest usurpation. The old congress deserves the renown of having, at a time. when the overwhelming centrifugal tendency had already practically deprived it of all real power, taken the path which the federal government has since steadily trod, to its honor and to the good of the country. Even in the act of 1785, organizing the territory lying northwest of the Ohio, the sixteenth section - a square mile of every township was set aside for the support of common schools. In the famous "ordinance of 1787," the definitive act of organization of the Northwest Territory, this provision was renewed and the grant to each state formed out of the territory of two whole townships, "for a university,"

1 F. Burke: Law of Public Schools, N. Y., 1880

was added. A law of September 4, 1841, granted a number of states five hundred thousand acres apiece (inclusive of the grants made earlier), and provided that every new state should receive a like grant. "Internal improvements" were usually the nominal object of this gift, but as a matter of fact, a large amount of the proceeds went to the schools. With the law of August 14, 1848, for the organization of the territory of Oregon, congress began to give to the school-fund of the new territories the thirty-sixth as well as the sixteenth section of each township. In the midst of the civil war, July 2, 1862, congress passed a law giving to each state land enough to endow at least one "college," in which "such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts" should be especially taught. The size of the gift was made dependent on the population. It was at least thirty thousand acres for each senator and representative of the state, under the census of 1860. Besides this, the school-funds of certain states got a share of the surplus in the federal treasury distributed in 1836 — some $15,000,000 and also part of the proceeds of the sale of more than sixty-two million acres of "swamp and overflowed lands," donated the states by the federal government in 1849, 1850 and 1860.

General Characterization. The original states of the Union have thus shared in the land grants for schools only to a relatively small degree. However great these grants have been, of course they could not, even in the new states, be more than a contribution towards the amount needed for the system of instruction. Even in these new states, most of the money needed must be

1G. W. Knight, History and Management of Federal Land Grants in the Northwest Territory, N. Y., 1885; in the papers of the American Historical Association.