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taxation. Taxation would then serve two purposes : first, secure revenue ; second, direct the energies of the people most profitably.
Glance at some of our taxes in the light of these principles. The income tax is not according to ability ; the same may be said of the tax on wasting securities. The " estate duties " cause much hardship. Rates fall hard on persons with large families. These taxes serve the first purpose, but not the second purpose of taxation. These taxes diminish the demand for labor ; direct and indirect taxes finally cause wages to fall.
We would not want a tax solely on the rich. Taxation, to be productive, must draw on the resources of the middle and working classes ; such taxes would represent energy. It is bad economy to take in taxes, energy which could more profitably be employed by individuals than by the state so long as energy unpro- ductively applied by individuals still remains available to the state.
If we tax unproductive luxuries in every part of the world, and leave untaxed the necessities, including those things needed for their production, this will set free a large amount of land and labor to produce the necessities. Don't let the amount of land and labor released by taxation exceed the amount needed for the demand of necessities ; then the wages paid on producing the necessities will never fall below the amount needed to purchase necessities.
Under existing conditions, the objections to this system are: (i) It does not follow that all available labor would be employed. (2) A country not able to pro- duce enough necessities must give luxuries. (3) The natural demand for neces- sities is always greater than the economic demand, and always exceeds the supply. None of the objections are insuperable.
To establish a just system of taxation providing for the welfare of all the people, the government should be open to employ all free labor ; also acquire land on which to produce the necessities of life for those in need, and tax the luxuries to provide this. As it is, we have free education for children too hungry to learn. The prosperity of the nation does not seem to improve the condition of the unskilled laborer, but does increase the earnings of the skilled. Many earn just enough to keep alive, not enough to keep in full vigor of mind and body. This is a waste of giving-power. Society must make provision for bodily sustenance to attain the highest efficiency. This can be done through the government taxing the surplus energy. Each member must also be fully nourished ; this can be derived from the energy, taxed by scientific government distribution.
This is the elementary principle that should underlie scientific taxation. Walter Howgrave, in Westminster Review, September, 1905.
S. E. W. B.
The Ethics of Marriage and Divorce. Marriage is essentially neither a religious nor a civil institution, but a purely biological one. Marriage is a creature neither of the church nor of the state ; it antedates them both. Marriage created both. The Decalogue and common law simply recognize it. The law has been content to leave it as found, but the church has done what she could to make it unnatural and intolerable. While the church deserves great credit for insisting on the " sanctity," her contempt for reason has led to an insistence on its irrevocability to the extent of disaster to both morals and happiness. The conten- tion of the church to make marriage for life is admirable, but to insist on the irrevocability of the tie, and on divorced persons not marrying, is absurd.
Consider the origin of marriage and its existence among the races. Looking backward, primitive man, although with promiscuous proclivities, is monogamous. The anthropoid ape is monogamous probably for life; also the higher monkeys and lemurs. Monogamy is the condition among almost all pure savages.
The condition of the marriage tie among savages may be roughly stated thus : It is loose monogamy, lasting at least during child-bearing and in a majority of cases for life. As the tribes rise in the scale, they accumulate property and have need of help ; this gives occasion for slavery and polygamy. It is safe to say that a large majority of barbaric tribes permit and indulge in polygamy to a certain extent.
The advantages of polygamy are these: (i) the successful man forms influen- tial relationships through marriages; (2) it increases his influence on the make-up
