true rational purpose of the State and its political results to the individual. Fiscalism does not ask: "What sacrifices are indispensable to carry on the legitimate and necessary functions of the State!" but: "How can we manage things so as to get the largest possible revenue out of the people?" It does not study and enquire: "How can we protect best the interests of the individual without allowing the community to suffer by our indulgence?" but: "In what way can we revenue drivers get at the money of the people with the very least expenditure of mental energy, attention and consideration for others?" The modern conception of a State is an arrangement to increase the well-being of the individual; the feudal conception on the contrary, sees in the individual only a slave to increase the glory and power of the State. Fiscalism is based upon this latter conception. In its eyes the State is the pre-existing and natural ruler, the citizen the later arrival and the natural object to be ruled. The taxes are not an expense which the citizen voluntarily assumes, voluntarily pays and for which he expects to receive certain benefits in return, but a tribute, such as one would pay to a third person, and for which the third person, the hideous Moloch, State, gives nothing in return but a receipt. We feel that we are members of a free combination for the attainment of certain common ends. Fiscalism recognizes in us merely slaves of the State. We call ourselves citizens, Fiscalism calls us subjects. The difference between the two points of view is expressed in full in these words.
Fiscalism is a necessary consequence of the historical development of the system of taxation. There were no assessments in primitive communities. The chief of the tribe paid his necessarily higher expenses out of his larger income, in wars each man capable of bear-
