opposes
the total welfare.

Chapter XXVIII. Economic Machinery Of Government.

_Resources of government._--All expenditures of government are as subject
to economic laws with reference to consumption of wealth as are those of
individuals. Actual result in welfare is the only reason for such
expenditure. Hence the same tests of economy are applied. Government makes
but few expenditures for the immediate purpose of reproducing and
increasing wealth. So far as its investments sustain productive industry,
and the products of that industry enter into the world's market, they are
subject to the same economic laws of supply and demand that govern all
production of wealth. If in any case they are not, it is because of
government monopoly cornering the market, or because of unnatural
conditions of government production undermining the market. In general,
government is simply expending for the common welfare a part of the wealth
produced by individual effort.

Its resources are in small part derived from fees for special services
rendered to individuals of the community. Such are fees for registration
of deeds and mortgages, and of the same nature, though for convenience of
collection paid in a different way, is the revenue from sale of postage
stamps and stamped envelopes. Revenue may come from pay for certain
special privileges or franchises established by license or patent. These
are supposed to be not so much in payment for special service as for
sharing in responsibility and cost of protection. Another source of
revenue is in the shape of money penalty, or fine, for minor trespasses
upon good order. Such revenues are accidental, and diminish as the
government becomes more perfect. Under peculiar circumstances of
opposition by citizens or bodies of citizens to the general order,
government confiscates property used in such opposition. A good
illustration of this is connected with smuggling, where the introducer of
foreign goods opposes government in its revenue laws by fraud or violence,
and suffers the confiscation of goods so introduced.

None of the foregoing sources of revenue, unless it be the license, and
this is sometimes a mere method of taxation, can serve to any great extent
the purposes of government. All government expenditures for general
welfare must finally be met by some system of distributing the burden over
all the people. This method of distribution is called taxation. The
principal revenue is r