APPENDIX  D

>75

No  sooner  does  the  organised  community,  or  state,  arise,  than
it  needs  revenues.  This  need  for  revenues  is  small  at  first
while  population  is  sparse,  industry  rude,  and  the  functions
of  the  state  few  and  simple,  but  with  growth  of  population  and
advance  of  civilisation  the  functions  of  the  state  increase  and
larger  and  larger  revenues  are  needed.  God  is  the  author  of
society  and  has  pre-ordained  civilisation.  The  increasing
need  for  public  revenues  with  social  advance  being  a  natural
God-ordained  need,  there  must  be  a  right  way  of  raising  them
—  some  way  that  we  caij  truly  say  is  the  way  intended  by  God.
It  is  clear  that  this  right  of  raising  public  revenues  must  accord
with  the  moral  law  or  the  law  of  justice.  It  must  not  conflict ­
  with  individual  rights,  it  must  find  its  means  in  common
rights  and  common  duties.  By  a  beautiful  providence,  that
may  be  truly  called  divine,  since  it  is  founded  upon  the  nature
of  things  and  the  nature  of  man,  of  which  God  is  the  creator,
a  fund,  constantly  increasing  with  the  capacities  and  needs
of  society,  is  produced  by  the  very  growth  of  society  itself,
namely,  the  rental  value  of  the  natural  bounties  of  which  society
retains  dominion.  The  justice  and  the  duty  of  appropriating
this  fund  to  public  uses  is  apparent  in  that  it  takes  nothing  from
the  private  property  of  individuals  except  what  they  will  pay
willingly  as  an  equivalent  for  a  value  produced  by  the  community, ­
  which  they  are  permitted  to  enjoy.  The  fund  thus
created  is  clearly  by  the  law  of  justice  a  public  fund,  not  merely
because  the  value  is  a  growth  that  comes  to  the  natural  bounties
which  God  gave  to  the  community  in  the  beginning,  but  also,
and  much  more,  because  it  is  a  value  produced  by  the  community ­
  itself,  so  that  this  rental  value  belongs  to  the  community ­
  by  that  best  of  titles,  namely,  producing,  making,  or
creating.
To  permit  any  portion  of  this  public  property  to  go  into  private ­
  pockets,  without  a  perfect  equivalent  being  paid  into  the
public  treasury,  would  be  an  injustice  to  the  community.
Therefore  the  whole  rental  fund  should  be  appropriated  to
common  or  public  uses.