Edwin R. A. Seligman

Encyclopedia of the social sciences

Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. In June, 1928, a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences was held at New York, at which informal reports on the progress of the work were presented and various problems as to the plan and procedure were discussed. On December 7 the annual meeting of the board of directors was held in New York, at which a report of progress was presented by the editor-in-chief, Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman, and the budget for the year was approved. During the year the task of selecting the titles of articles has been actively prosecuted with the cooperation of specialists in the various fields, and suggested outlines of articles have been prepared for the guidance of contributors. Plans as to biographical articles have also received attention. It is proposed to give such articles about one-fifth of the space. Approximately one half of the first volume will be devoted to introductory material, including a series of chapters on the development of the social sciences. Large progress has been made also in the selection of contributors of particular articles, and definite arrangements have been made for a considerable part of the work. Arrangements for publication have been made with the Macmillan Company, and plans have been completed as to the format and makeup of the volumes. The price of the work will be seven dollars and a half for each of the fifteen volumes, with a forty per cent rebate to members of the constituent societies who send in their subscriptions now. The staff, under the immediate direction of Dr. Alvin Johnson, includes twelve experts (six men and six women) who are doctors of philosophy, besides secretaries, typists, and file clerks-a total of twenty-five persons, occupying about a dozen rooms. It is hoped to have the first volume ready in September, 1929, and that other volumes will be issued at intervals of about four months. JOHN A. FAIRLIE.

The Relation of the State to Industrial Action.

An apparatus for expanding tire beads into seating relationship with a vehicle rim characterized by a rim sealing surface on the member and a generally cylindrical tire side wall sealing surface around the rim supporting surface and fixed to the base.

Loans Versus Taxes in War Finance

The fiscal problems of the war may be divided into those of a general and of a specific character. War expenditures can be met in three ways: by taxes, by loans, or by paper money. The specific problems have to deal with the nature and the details of each of these expedients; the general problem is concerned with the principles that underlie the preference among the respective methods. Inasmuch as paper money is by common consent to be regarded as the last resort, the general problem at issue here pertains to the choice between loans and taxes and the relative proportions in which each is to be employed. If we look at the facts we observe a marked change in modern warfare. In former times, whether in classic antiquity or in the Middle Ages, the expenses of war were defrayed in large measure out of accumulated funds or treasures reinforced by taxes, and were reimbursed to the victor by the booty of war and the indemnities imposed upon the vanquished. Since the development of public credit, especially since the middle of the eighteenth century, loans have taken the place of the accumulated treasure and taxes have been utilized chiefly for the purpose of raising the interest on the war loans and of furnishing in addition a more or less considerable amortization quota. The facts of the present war are no different. During the last fiscal year Great Britain raised by taxation slightly over 17 per cent of her war expenses; Italy, although also levying heavy taxes, has raised a still larger proportion than England by loans; in Germany only an insignificant fraction of the war expenses has been met by taxes; in France, as a result partly of the occupation of its territory by the enemy, the taxes hitherto levied during the war have not sufficed even to pay the ordinary peace expenses; while Russia has been in a still worse position. Although there is indeed a notable difference between the zero of France and the 17 per cent of Great Britain, the fact remains that in all the countries, with52

Newer Tendencies in American Taxation

or a tax on the thing apart from the person. It is significant that taxation has generally begun as a specific or real tax and that it, developed into a personal tax. In New England, for instance, the earliest taxes were on particular things, like sheep and cows and houses and stock in trade; and only at a much later period do we find the general property tax, where the tax is imposed upon the individual with respect to his entire property, whether that property consists in things or in simple relations. For one reason or another, however, which it is not necessary to emphasize here, this personal tax everywhere turned out to be a failure; and step by step during the nineteenth century in Europe and more recently in some of our advanced American commonwealths the personal tax is again giving way to the real tax, the tax on things, the specific tax. So in France, it will be remembered, when the personal taxes were abolished in the revolution they were replaced during the whole of the nineteenth century by the specific taxes, a tax on land, a tax

The Income Tax: A Study of the History, Theory, and Practice of Income Taxation at Home and Abroad.

Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., United States, 2011. Paperback. Book Condition: New. Revised, Enlarged. 229 x 150 mm. Language: English . Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****.Originally published: New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914. xi, 743 pp. Reprint of the second edition, which includes a new chapter on the income tax of 1913. Seligman argues persuasively that graduated income taxes distribute the burden of taxation with greater justice than other systems. After he sets out the fundamental problem of the concept of income taxation, Seligman enhances his theoretical argument with a historical examination of income taxes in Europe and the United States. With a useful index and a thorough bibliography. Edwin R.A. Seligman [1861-1939] was an eminent economist and authority on tax issues. He was admitted to the New York State bar in 1884 and in the same year received an appointment as lecturer in the political science department at Columbia University, where he later became a professor of political economy and finance. Seligman was a cofounder of the American Economic Association, serving as Its president from 1902-1904, and was later president of the National Tax Association (1913-1915). He served as an adviser to New York State and New York...