6

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

tax  contributes,  in  a  manner  especially  direct,  to  the
element  of  ground  rent.
Simple  illustrations  may  help  to  open  the  mind
to  a  consideration  of  whatever  may  seem  novel
or  strange  in  the  re-statement  of  a  familiar  truth.
For  instance:  The  cook  turns  the  crank  of  her
coffee  mill;  the  whole  coffee  that  was  in  the
hopper  comes  out  ground  coffee,  but  it  is  coffee
just  the  same.  The  Minneapolis  miller  lets  on  the
water  that  turns  the  crank  of  his  flour  mill;  the
wheat  that  goes  into  the  hopper  comes  out  flour,
wheat  in  a  more  subtle  form.  The  people  turn  the
crank  of  a  great  tax  mill;  the  taxes  that  go  into  the
hopper  come  out  ground  rent,  no  tax  quality  lost,  no
rent  ingredient  added.
Or  again:  The  myriad  springs  and  rivulets  of  the
great  Mississippi  are  continuously  delivering  themselves ­
  in  one  great  river  to  the  sea.  Suppose  that  some
day  you  should  read  in  the  weather  bulletin  that
nature  had  decided  to  suspend  the  regular  return  of
these  waters  in  clouds  and  rain  and  dew  to  their
point  of  departure.  How  long  would  it  be  before
the  Mississippi  Valley  would  be  as  parched  and
dry  as  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  or  the  North  End  of
the  city  of  Boston,  or  the  East  Side  of  the  city  of
New  York  ?
Or,  more  pertinent  still,  because  more  vital;  The
constant  round  of  taxes  and  ground  rent  is  the  blood
circulation  of  the  body  politic.  When  the  heart  throws
out  the  life  blood  through  the  arteries,  if  that  blood
does  not  return  through  the  veins,  the  patient  dies  —
not  of  heart  failure,  but  from  loss  of  blood.  When  the
public  heart  charges  the  arteries  of  the  land  with  ground