wish to sell-even though the public benefit is clear. Can the nation, State, or town, or village take this private property for this public purpose? It can; and the right is called the right of eminent domain. The only limitations are that the public need shall be established by an impartial body and that the owner shall be paid the value of his land. The legal proceedings by which these facts are determined are called condemnation proceedings. The owner is protected from the arbitrary taking of his property without proper compensation by the Fifth Amendment to the national Constitution. (See its last clause.)

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SECTION 1

1. How many people pay taxes?

2.

What is the difference between a direct tax and an indirect tax and how is a tax shifted?

3. Can you illustrate in the case of a tax on a house and in the case of the tariff?

SECTION 2

4. What are the three principal taxes of the national government? 5. What other taxes have been used in war time?

6. What constitutional restriction is there on the levying of customs duties and excise taxes?

7. What constitutional restriction is there on the levying of direct taxes?

8. How did this delay the income tax?

9. Can Congress tax exports?

10. What has been the principal source of national revenue?

11. Where are customs duties collected?

12. Upon what articles have excise taxes been laid by the national

government and who collects them?

13. Upon whom does the national government levy an income tax? 14. How large a percentage of income did the national government take as an income tax during the World War?

15. Why does a government issue bonds and when is it justifiable? 16. What is the national debt?

17. How was the Panama Canal paid for?

18. Why was this method justifiable?

SECTION 3

19. What is the chief source of State revenue?

20. What government levies and collects this tax?

21. What divisions share in this tax?

22. How is a tax-roll made, who makes it, and what is it?

23. What property is exempt from taxation?

24. Given the total assessed valuation of a town, how is the tax rate

figured?

25. What is done with the tax when collected?

26. How can a tax-collector enforce payment of a tax?

27. What is the personal-property tax and why is it not as well enforced as the real-property tax?

28. What is an inheritance tax?

29. Do many States use it?

30. In what two respects is the inheritance tax graduated?

31. Describe the general scheme of the California tax. What is the highest percentage reached?

32. Do many States impose taxes on personal incomes?

33. Do many States impose taxes on corporations?

34. Give some illustrations of licenses and fees.

35. What is a franchise tax?

36. What is an assessment and how does it differ from a tax?

37. For what purposes should local governments issue bonds?

38. Why is it unfair to future taxpayers to pay for temporary improvements with bonds?

39. What is the right of eminent domain? 40. What are the two limitations on it? 41. What law enforces these limitations?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

SECTION 1

1. What taxes have you ever paid indirectly?

SECTION 2

2. Have you ever seen a stamp used as a tax?

3. Do you own a Liberty Bond?

4. How many issues of Liberty Bonds were there and what was the total sum sold?

SECTION 3

5. Find the real-estate tax figures from your local tax-collector, total assessment, rate, etc.

6. What tax-exempt property is there in your community?

7. To what extent is the personal-property tax collected in your

community?

8. Has your State an inheritance tax? If so, what are its rates? 9. Has your State an income tax? If so, what are its rates? 10. Has your State a corporation tax? If so, what are its rates? 11. Have you ever paid a license tax or a fee?

12. Does your city collect any franchise taxes?

13. Has there been a special assessment in your neighborhood lately? 14. For what purposes has your community issued bonds?

15. Has any property been taken by condemnation proceedings in

your community lately?

Civil Laws. If a gang of hoodlums, old enough to know better, set fire to a barn for the fun of seeing a blaze, they break two different kinds of laws and commit two different kinds of wrongs. They damage the owner of the barn, for they destroy it and he is that much poorer. He therefore has the right to sue them for damages in what is called a "civil" suit. (To sue is simply to seek justice in a court, and a suit is the process of doing this.) This law-that we must not destroy another's property and that if we do he can go to court and compel us to pay for the damage done is called a "civil" law. You see that this wrong is done to an individual.

Criminal Laws.-But a wrong has also been done to the people of the State in which the barn is located. The whole community is imperilled and injured by having such hoodlums about. Nobody's barn is safe. Therefore the law of the State says that the act of setting fire to a barn is a crime to be punished by imprisonment. The hoodlums have therefore broken a "criminal" law as well as a "civil" law.

Points of Difference. This distinction is important and runs throughout the law. In a civil suit, the plaintiff (who sues) and the defendant (who is sued) are both individuals. In a criminal suit the people, styled “The

People of the State of New York," for instance, are the plaintiff, and the accused person is the defendant. If the crime is against the nation, counterfeiting, for instance, "The People of the United States" are the plaintiff. In a civil suit, each side hires his own lawyer and pays his own expenses. In a criminal suit, the "People of the State" are represented by the District Attorney, a public officer elected by the county. The defendant hires his own counsel. In a civil suit the object is to recover damages or in some cases prevent damage. In a criminal suit the object is to convict the defendant of a crime and have him fined or imprisoned. (A fine is a money payment to the State. It is imposed as a punishment and to prevent a repetition of the act and not to recompense anybody.)

2. A CRIMINAL TRIAL

The Crime. Let us suppose that a murder has been committed in your village. A respected storekeeper going home on Saturday night with his cash from the till has been struck on the head, killed, and robbed. His body is found at midnight by a policeman. The murderer has vanished. Let us now see what legal steps follow, remembering that all these matters are left to the individual States to decide and that the details vary with every State.

The Coroner's Inquest.-The first public inquiry is made by the coroner, an officer of the county whose business it is to inquire into every mysterious death. He summons six or twelve men to act as a coroner's jury and holds what is called a "Coroner's Inquest." Wit