2.

SECTION 2

Do you know what parties the members of your family belong to? 3. How much should a son's vote be influenced by his father's?

4.

Can you name any other parties than those in the text?

9.

10.

Has there ever been a non-partisan ticket in your community?

SECTION 3

Examine a national party platform and see what it contains. 11. Why is there often prolonged balloting in a national convention? 12. Can you name the presidential candidates in the last election?

SECTION 4

13. Did you ever attend a big political meeting?

14.

SECTION 5

Do you know where the polls are in your election district? 15. Do you think illiterates should vote?

16.

17.

What is a citizen and who are citizens?

How can a foreigner be naturalized?

18. When do children born in America become citizens?

19. How can children not born in America become citizens?

20. When is your village or town election held?

21.

What sort of ballot has your State? See if you can get a sample

ballot from your local board of elections.

22. Do you think it is better than the Massachusetts ballot?

23. Has your State the direct primary?

24. Does your State use the voting-machine?

SECTION 6

25. What methods of direct government does your State provide?

CHAPTER XVII

ΤΑΧΑΤΙΟΝ

1. THE TAXPAYER

Every One Pays Taxes.-Many people think that they pay no taxes because they own no property and never pay anything directly to a tax-collector. If they vote for some wasteful city improvement they think that they will pay nothing toward the expense of it, that the cost will fall upon others. In this they fool themselves. Every one pays a tax. Every boy and girl has paid a tax without knowing it.

This is because most taxes are shifted; that is, the man who pays the tax collects it afterward from some one else. Take the best-known of all taxes, the tax on real estate, land and houses. The owner of the land and house pays the tax, and you might think that if you rent a house or a flat or a room that you pay no tax at all. To the contrary, many landlords are able to add part of the tax, that on the house, into the rent, and the tenant, without realizing it, in paying rent is paying a real-estate tax. (The tax on the land itself cannot usually be shifted and is therefore called a "direct" tax. Taxes which can be shifted are called

"indirect" taxes.)

More subtle and concealed is the tariff. As we have seen, this is both a protection to American industries and a tax. The importer of the foreign-made goods pays the tax to the national government, and then col

lects it from the retailer, who collects it from you. The tariff, you see, is part of his cost, just as much as is the price paid the foreign manufacturer. If you ever bought a doll or any toy made in Germany you paid such a tax. Every time you buy chocolate candy you pay a tax-a small item, but there it is, for the chocolate came from abroad and paid a tariff on entering the country. So it is of any number of common products imported from other countries, silk, woollen goods, sugar, tin, fur, rubber, and so on.

2. THE NATIONAL TAXES

What Is Taxed.—The national government collects its own taxes and the States collect theirs, as you might guess from what we have learned of our double system of government. The national taxes have normally been of three kinds:

1. Customs duties on imports (that is, the tariff).

2. Excise taxes on whiskey and tobacco. (An excise tax is a tax on a home product-an internal revenue tax it is called in our laws.)

3. Taxes on incomes of corporations and individuals. In war time when the expenses of the national government are very high, taxes are levied on many other things -automobiles, moving pictures, theatre tickets, jewelry, and other luxuries. An inheritance tax has also been used by the national government, that is a tax on all the property of a person who dies. These extraordinary taxes are not usual in peace times.

The national government's power of taxation is granted in the broadest terms (Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 1)

and it can, if it desires, tax real estate throughout the country. It has done so at times, but it now leaves this to the States as their chief source of revenue.

#

The restrictions are few and not now important. The Constitution requires that customs duties and such taxes as the tax on tobacco shall be uniform throughout the country. (Art. I, Sec. 8, Par. 1.) This is obvious justice. The next requirement is that "direct" taxes be apportioned among the States according to population. (Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 4.) This has an historic importance because it delayed the imposition of a national income tax for many years. The Supreme Court decided in 1895, after much argument, that an income tax was a "direct" tax and since Congress had not apportioned the tax according to population, the law was declared unconstitutional. (Income being unequally distributed among the States, such a tax apportioned according to population would not be fair.) The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1913, removed this restriction upon income taxes and an income tax has now become a large source of national revenue. Congress is also prohibited from taxing exports. (Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 5.)

Customs Duties.-These are fixed in a lengthy schedule contained in a bill passed by Congress. The rates vary widely. Many articles enter duty free. The duties are collected at the custom-houses in our ports upon the arrival of the goods. These duties have long been the principal source of the national revenue.

Excise Taxes.-The tax on liquors ceased with the arrival of national prohibition. The tax on tobacco will

doubtless be continued. These taxes are collected by internal revenue collectors. The tax on tobacco is collected by means of stamps required to be affixed to every package. One of the chief duties of the Secret Service has been to run down illicit manufacturers of whiskey in remote districts especially in the Southern States. These secret makers of liquor are called "moonshiners."

Income Taxes.-These are levied upon all incomes of corporations and upon incomes of individuals exceeding a certain minimum exemption which before the Great War was $4,000 for married couples and $3,000 for unmarried persons.

The taxes on personal incomes are arranged on a sliding scale, increasing rapidly in percentage as the income increases. During the Great War very high rates were imposed on large incomes. As an illustration of how rapidly the scale increased, a calculation of the income tax passed in 1917 shows that it imposed the following taxes on these incomes:

The percentage ranges from 2 per cent on the last $1,000 of the $3,000 income to over 60 per cent in the case of the $3,000,000 income. The exemption under this law